Marathon Review - Surf City Marathon (Huntington Beach, Feb 5,2012)

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of running the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach California.

I chose this particular race mainly because I couldn't run the LA Marathon as it conflicted with Around the Bay (in Hamilton, Ontario). Also the February date was great because there is a long gap from the Hamilton marathon of last November and the Toronto Goodlife in May of 2012. Basically, it was the one race that fit best on the calendar.

I wanted to do a race in California so that I could share the experience with my family who live in sunny California. My brother, sister in law, niece, nephew and my parents made the drive down to see me race.

I was worried about how they would find a good spot near the finish line with a 3 and 5 year old in tow. As I approached the finish line, I saw the little munchkins about 5 yards from the finish line with their noses right up against the fence.....what a moment!!!!

Personally, that made my race experience great no matter what else happened. However, I'd like to share some other thoughts.

1) Aid stations - Excellent! I couldn't believe how frequent they were. I always carry a water belt during races. For the first time, I wondered why I was carrying the extra weight. I heard some aid stations ran out of cups near the busiest part of the half marathon. That's unfortunate but the organizers have taken note and that should be an easy fix for next year. Nothing is every perfect when you have 20,000 runners barrelling through.

2) Start time was 6:30 AM. At first I was worried that this was too early, however the sight of the sun rising over the horizon as we started was pretty damn cool!!

3) Crowd Support was very good. This isn't a big deal to me since I much prefer the support of familiar faces to well meaning strangers reading the name off my bib yelling "Way to go Chuck!!!" Still this is a plus.

4) The Course was very nice. My only small complaint is the number of turnarounds. I hate turnarounds as I feel that I lose momentum and retrace my steps. I'd prefer a big circle but it did give us lots of time on the PCH with the views of the ocean. One of the runners yelled out that he saw some dolphins jumping....I missed it but that would have been pretty damn cool!!!

5) The weather was picture perfect at the start.....cool and dry. At the half way mark, I found myself running along the PCH without any shade and a fierce sun. Well that sucks but the weather is the weather. I suppose if it had rained people would have complained about that.

6) The expo was superior to any of the 5 prior expos I've been to (all in Canada). Lots of freebies and reasonably priced stuff for sale.

I had a good race with my familiar fade at the end. I was on pace to qualify for Boston with tie to spare after 30km (18.6 miles). As has happened at so many of my recent races, I faded into the finish. Still I recorded a personal best at 3:22. (5 minutes better than the prior race). Since it was a flat course, if there was a handicap system in marathons, this would be a zero handicap....ie a good benchmark. I am newly inspired to work on qualifying at my next attempt in May. I need to shave off 7 minutes...doable but tough.

Overall, I give the Surf City Marathon top marks. Their staff have been very active in seeking the opinions of participants on facebook after the race. I'm sure the race experience will be even better next year!!