Santa Barbara Pier to Peak 2006 Race Report

Intro:
This was my first half marathon. I've just been running for a few years, mostly three-four miles of trail runs and with a six miler every now and then. My wife got me started after we moved to Santa Barbara. I thought I'd be bored running on the street, but then I discovered trail running and listening to MP3s of 'This American Life' ( http://thislife.org) on the run (and of course later it was podcasts) and I was hooked. On the weekends I'd push my son in his 'SUV' jogging stroller and cruise along on fire roads around Santa Barbara and over the hill in Santa Ynez (where 'Sideways' was filmed.) I did some 5K races just for fun (Nightmoves being a lot of a fun - http://www.runsantabarbara.com/nite_moves.html). However, I never really though too hard about doing a half or full marathon.

Until... I starting listening to Steve on fdip. Of course the true inspiration was listening to the 'technicolor' sounds of Steve's Boston Marathon while I ran my longest run of 12 miles to see what running close to a half felt like. The way that Steve 'gutted out' the Boston made me want stretch myself in my running in a way that was a real challenge. Thanks to Steve and all fellow listeners for the inspiration! I was thinking about doing a full marathon, but then after reading "Marathoning for Mortals" which was recommended by a couple of kind listeners on the board I decided to switch to a half since the long runs would be shorter and take up less of my precious weekends (I don't want to be away from my wife and kids!) (link to message board thread - http://tinyurl.com/ghss2).

Of course I thought that I had already run close to a half with my 12 mile run, so I wanted to try something a little harder...

Race Description:
"Santa Barbara's Challenging Half-Marathon takes you from the famous Santa Barbara Friendship Dolphins Fountain at the edge of Stearns Wharf, past the "Queen of the Missions" and on up an elevation of 3996 feet to the Majestic views at La Cumbre Peak. Capture the panoramic layout of the city, SB Channels and the Channel Islands. You can see where you started from 13.1 miles (sealevel) earlier." (from - http://www.runsantabarbara.com/pier_to_peak.html ).

So, the usual 13.1 miles with a climb from 0' to 4000' along the way.

I like another version that I saw on the web somewhere: "Santa Barbara Half-Marathon. Some hills"

Training:
I followed the 14 week Marathoning for Mortals guide for a half. I added some good hill work with trails in the foothills and added 25% to the distance on the long run. Some of the organizer comments said to expect your time to be your half Marathon time +25% or so. Training went well, I never did get into cross training too much, I just love to run the trails in the hills or down on the bluffs by the beach, so it's hard to imagine being in gym or pool just plugging away. (Of course now I'm actually trying biking, but more on that at the end.) I ran some of the top portion of the course, but it seems pretty different because I would run four miles up, but then four miles back down. The race would be pretty much up for the full 13.1.

Pre-Race:
So on the day of the race, I was just getting over a cold which was making me nervous. What if my cold made me really weak or my nose was so stuffed up that it would be really hard to breathe - ugh? My wife and kids dropped me off at the start and waiting for me to go (then they were going to meet our neighbor cheer me on at the Mission and then wait for me at the top. - ding!) In terms of goals, the first goal was just to finish, however following Blaine Moore's advice from the message board, I also set some time goals. My stretch goal was sub 3: 00.00, my secondary goal was 3:30.00 and final goal was sub 4:00.00 (which is also really 'just finishing' anyway.)

I jumped into the bathroom line for the 'stalls', but it was going _very_ slow - ugh. One of the stalls was just not, uh hmmm 'usable' - ugh. I think some folks were still in line or in the stalls when the race started!

The weather was very nice, not cold at all - ding! Of course this meant that later in the day it might get hot... ugh.

Equipment: 4 e gels ( http://cranksports.com), garmin 301 w/ HRM ( http://www.garmin.com), ipod nano, lululemon shorts (fancy schmancy - they 'fit/hem' your running clothes, so they are expensive - ugh!, but I got shorts on clearance for $25 and they rawk - ding!), Native Eyes sunglasses, Pearl Izumi long sleeve shirt - d0h I was the only runner I saw w/ long sleeves on this hot race, but I usually wear it for sun protection during all my other runs, so I decided not to 'change anything on race day'.

Race:
To Mission (3 miles)
Nice start at 6:56AM (a couple people missed the slightly early start, which I heard about as they cruised right by me later in the course anyway). The slow runners / walkers started at 6:15AM, so I hoped there were some people I could pass later in the race. I wanted to start slow, but got caught up in the race / crowd and ran about 10-20% faster then I wanted too. It also helped that the first part of the course is relatively flat (when compared to the hill climbs later). We had a police escort up State street and the cool Echelon bike team holding off traffic (I think the bike team also went to the top / finish - what a great crew). ( http://www.echelonsantabarbara.org/). Approaching the Mission I saw my Family and friends cheering me on, which was great! Just in time for the first real bit of uphill. I later heard that some onlookers were asking what the race was about and after they were told it was 13.1 mile race and they were at mile 3, they starting shouting 'Good job! Only 10 more miles to go!'. This got a few angry scowls and one 'What do you know!' from some of the runners hitting the first real uphill. I felt good running to here, even though I was running a little fast for my planned pace.

To Flores Flats (9 miles)
So, I was worried about my cold, I didn't realize that I should have been worried about my fellow racers - one runner in front of me blew his nose, by holding one nostril and blowing hard. A huge mist of nose juice formed in front of me and before I could dodge it, I ran right through it! Ugh. At least I was read for the next blast and dodged the next cloud - ding!

The start of this part of the run was a little uphill and then a little downhill. I felt good running this, passed a few people on the way up and tried to find people to pace with. After the little downhill the major uphill started. I ran pretty well up to Flores, but towards the end I was slowing down. Along the way I had a gel and refilled my water bottle, the weather was starting to get pretty warm (later in the day toward the end of the race I heard it hit 88F and one of the racers had to be taken off the course in an ambulance due to heat exhaustion). There were cool chalk message on the road encouraging folks which helped me too (knowing that people cared about folks on the race). Cars with supporters passed us on the road cheering which was nice.

To Camino Cielo (11 miles)
After Flores Flats it got really steep and my pace really slowed down. I still felt pretty good, but it was getting hot. My stomach was starting to get tight, but kept drinking water and eating gels. Eventually my running pace got so slow, runners who were smarter then I passed me at a fast walking pace up the steep course. Toward the top of this section I felt some cramping in my upper right leg which stopped my running and started a course of walking out the cramp then running again. I resolved not to stop though, so even when I felt a cramp coming on, I'd just stop running at walk instead. Along the way I was setting mini goals for myself and somehow got locked into a mini goal of mile 11 as the end of the race! At mile 8 I checked my watch and thought I could make my stretch goal since there were only 3 miles to go. At mile 9 I said, great almost done only 2 miles to go... wait - what am I thinking??? That's my mini goal not the end of the race! I gulped and realized I had double that to go 4 miles and I stopped worrying about my stretch goal time.

This part of the course was pretty much all steep uphill, I was starting to get tired and when I started cramping - wondering if I could really make it... and at mile 7 one well meaning person said 'You're almost there!' - I didn't quite scowl, but I did roll my eyes.

To The Top (13.1 miles)
I was doing some walking at this point, but then we hit one final piece of flat / downhill and it felt good to run that pretty hard (well at least it felt like I was running hard at the time.) I could also see the top of the peak and the last uphill so now I knew I could finish, even if I had to walk the rest of the way. I started pacing w/ a few folks but my 'race walking' was a pretty slow casual pace, so then folks started passing me again. I checked my watch and saw that 3: 00.00 was actually still possible. I felt good enough without anymore cramping and I started running again trying to hit the 3:00.00, passing a few walkers after passing the last walker, the cramps came back so I went back to walking, whoops back to forgetting about 3: 00.00 since my walk pace was slow. A fast walker passed me again and I decide to pace with her. This helped a lot, it got me moving at a nice race walk pace (I thanked her after the race, it turns out she had flown from Denver just for this race, very cool person - she also thanked me for pacing at the very end). We cranked up the last hill, saw a guy who was cramping bad and gave him some shouts of encouragement (he did finish and looked really happy at the end). I checked my watch and saw that I was still under 3: 00.00 - maybe I could still make it. I saw the last turn off from the road to the trail which goes to the top of the peak and said to myself 'ok let's go!' I started running again up the steep slope, passing my ad hoc pacing partner trying to make the sub 3: 00.00 stretch goal. People walking down the trail cheered me on and then I saw my family at the finish cheering me on which just made my heart swell.

I hit the finish at 2:57.15 and got my first medal! Yay! Kisses to the wife and hugging the kids as we looked down from the Peak back down to the Pier 4000' feet below and 13.1 miles away. I'm really happy I finished and was glad I made my stretch goal, even if I did have to walk a few steep parts at the end (and I saw many others doing the same, I think for some of us, this is just part of a steep race like this, perhaps next year it will be different.)

Post-Race:
I talked to the woman I paced with and she mentioned that when I started running at the end, she was encouraged too and also pushed up hard to the very end, so I was glad I could help her a little also. I also met Mark and Kelly who write a running blog in Santa Barbara ( http://www.9trailer.com) which also inspired my running very nice folks and they finished a few minutes ahead of me. They are going for a big goal of doing the Santa Barbara 9 Trails race, an ultra! ( http://www.allwedoisrun.com/sb9t.htm)

Here's my Motionbased track on the course:
http://tinyurl.com/j9nnh (At the top I was so excited and tired I forgot to stop the Garmin for a full two minutes after I passed the finish :)

My body felt pretty good afterward, but during my first short run after the race I felt a little twinge on my Achilles, so I'm letting it rest another week and finally doing some cross training (biking) to keep me busy in the meantime. I talked to some of more experienced runner pals and they think the cramping was dehydration / not enough salt, so I'll think about that for next time.

Great race, thanks to the organizers, supporters and runners! Thanks to Steve and the fdip community for the inspiration! Looking forward to the PWHMC!

A race pix (#345)
http://photos.imageevent.com/sbaa/p2p2006/P2P_2006_228.jpg
View from top (you can see pier in the distance in the middle left):
http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=455564