Dec 26, 2007 9:51 PM
Santa Barbara, CA, Pier to Peak half marathon Race Report
This might be kind of long but I?m not apologizing, I like reading other people?s long race reports. Thanks to everyone who writes them.
This was an odd race for me. A standard half marathon with a twist ? a vertical height gain of over 4,000 ft taking you from the ocean to one of the highest local peaks. Sometimes it is promoted as the toughest half marathon but I?m sure there are other contenders. It could well be the toughest road race half marathon though.
After nearly two years of planning we have just moved to Santa Barbara, my wife and I both exchanging jobs at UC Berkeley for jobs at UC Santa Barbara. We?ve been in town for a couple of weeks but on Friday we closed escrow on our new house and so, on Friday, I moved about 6 tons of boxes and furniture out of a storage unit and into a van, and then moved the boxes out of the van and into our garage. We know the weight because it was all weighed when we had it shipped down here. I was exhausted at the end of it, three trips in total with about an hour to load and an hour to unload each time. Then on Saturday we were woken at 6.30 by the cleaning crew who we had arranged to give the house a good clean before we moved everything in from the garage. We then moved some more boxes out of my wife?s lab and into the house before heading downtown to pick up the race packet. A nice arrangement where you could collect the packet and sign the waiver at a local restaurant between 4 and 7pm. No obligation to eat but we did and it was good.
And so to Sunday (just setting the scene there). At one stage it seemed like a good idea to mark our return to Santa Barbara with this race but as the date approached I got fairly nervous. I had time to run some bits of the course, miles 2-6 one time, and miles 7-11 on another run, but doing it all in one run seemed daunting, and I wasn?t exactly feeling rested and well prepared.
I had 4 goals, in descending order of importance:
1) Survive (my wife made me put this one in)
2) Finish.
3) Run the whole way.
4) Finish in under two hours.
Oh and a top 10% finish is always nice but it looked, from previous years, like that might be close to goal 4.
The race starts at 7am to give you a chance to get up the mountain before the heat gets too brutal. Even though we were local I got up at 5 to give my breakfast time to settle. My wife drove me downtown to the start at the wharf at 6.30. California tends to have a higher proportion of people into fitness than many states and Santa Barbara takes this to the limit. But the line up for this race was insane, I think you could have taken all 300 or so entrants and failed to scrape up a spare ounce of body fat. I was getting more intimidated by the moment.
The instructions were helpful and brief and the race started promptly as we set off ?at the next green light?.
The first two miles of the race take you through downtown Santa Barbara gaining perhaps 200? over both of them. I tried to place myself about where I wanted to end up based on last year?s results, somewhere in the top 30. I was happy with my pace ? which seemed pretty easy compared to other races ? a casual 7.25 pace for the first 2 miles, somehow I missed the mile 1 split. The cross streets were all briefly closed to traffic as runners passed and this seemed very well organized, as did the whole race.
Mile 3 takes you past the beautiful Santa Barbara mission and the first of the harder climbing as you gain 300?. In hindsight I think 8.20 for this mile might have been too fast but I was happy holding my position and knew that one of the few flatter areas was ahead.
Mile 4, including a flatter patch and some more climbing had a net gain of 200? and I missed the split on this one as well. At this point you literally head into the hills up Gibraltar road and the climbing becomes relentless.
Mile 5 has an elevation gain of 400? and I got a split of 15.20 for this and the previous mile. I?m pretty sure this mile marker must have been slightly out of position because that seems a bit too fast.
Mile 6 has an elevation gain of 400? and I got a split of 12.15 ? hmmm, I think Mile 5 must have been out of place. I wasn?t doing 12 minute miles at this point (but I would later).
Mile 7 has an elevation gain of 400? (sounding familiar?) and I was still doing okay at this point. Pretty quiet. I got a split of 9.12 which I was happy with. A few cars had started to drive up supporting various runners but I?d told my wife to not bother stopping until later where it was a bit easier to find room to pull over.
Mile 8 takes you up a mere 350? and it was staring to get hot. My split was 10.15. The road is pretty windy (as roads are that go up 5 - 10% grades) and any shade was welcome.
There are fabulous views down over Santa Barbara but I wasn?t in the mood for sightseeing. I grabbed some water from my wife as I passed but I have a lot of difficulty drinking when I run. If I can get any down at all I seem to get pretty bad stomach cramps I knew I?d have to on this run though. From this point on the race itself had water stations about every mile and they were a welcome sight ? if only because another mile was done.
Mile 9, takes you up another 350? to an area called Flores flats. At a height of about 3,000? this place is well named for those few folks that live there (maybe 2 or 3 houses) but not for those on the road. The ?flats? are in a flatish basin but the road goes up to the lip of the basin then flattens out for maybe 200? of painful running as muscles adjust to the flat and then heads straight up the wall of the basin. The split here was 10.48
Mile 10 was, in my opinion the toughest of the bunch. I was glad I?d run past this once in training so I knew it didn?t go on for ever. Climbing out of the flats takes you up 500? in a mile in the steepest part of the race. At this point it was a struggle to even continue. Putting one leg in front of the other and continuing to run was probably the hardest physical thing I have ever done. This mile took me 11.39 and with it went any hope of a sub-2 hour finish. I can honestly say this wasn?t a priority though as surviving, finishing and keeping running were my only goals. At the 10 mile mark it was a relief to know that there was ?only? a 5k to go.
Mile 11 was simply survival shuffle mode for me after the brutal mile 10. There was a 400? elevation gain here so things hadn?t exactly eased up and my split was 12.19. At the end of mile 11 though you come onto a new road, Camino Cielo that runs along the crest of the range so, psychologically that felt good even if there was still more climbing to go. I hadn?t gone beyond this point in training and it had been over 15 years since I had driven this road.
Mile 12, cruelly, takes you down some of the height you have gained, and all the time you can see the road ahead as it takes a sharp left turn and heads up at what looks like an insane angle. I was pretty confident that I could finish without walking if I could make it to the 12 mile mark. Despite the downhill, mile 12 has a net elevation gain of 200? and my split was 10.57. I did manage to pick it up a little on the downhill and at least I wasn?t getting passed by many people. There were a few people I?d been trading places with for several miles but I think my position had stayed relatively constant since mile 1.
Mile 13 and the finish was back to steeply uphill, with the finish on a particularly steep set of switchbacks that take you up to the high point, Lookout Point, on La Cumbre peak. An indication of how tough this race is was that in mile 13, two people who had been ahead of me for many miles, had begun to walk. Folks heading for a top 20 place and into the final mile were cracking. I can usually manage to pick it up for the final mile but with another 300? of climbing this was limited. I did manage to dip under 10 though with 9.56 for the final 1.1 and a finish time of 2.05.47.
Wow. I warned you that might be long. Just like the race. At the finish I wanted to both cry, from the relief, and barf, from the stomach cramps. I?d had stomach cramp for the last 4 miles or so but once I got some water in me and wasn?t running anymore I felt better. In fact after 5 minutes I was reasonably human and could stagger around and eat bananas. Oh wait, that?s simian.
One of the cool things about this race is that from the finish you can look back and see just where you came from. The starting point is by the wharf you can just see sticking out into the ocean. Oh yes, and beer at the finish is always a good idea.
So, I?d hit 3 out of 4 goals but was happy with that. I was pleased with 23 rd place out of a field of 300 of the fittest people I have ever seen gathered together. No age group place yet but I think I might not even have been top 10 in the insanely competitive M40-49 category!
After hitting 40 a few years back I have started wondering about life?s events. I wonder if that was the best meal I?ll ever eat? Is that the best sunset I?ll ever see? Is this the happiest/saddest I?ll ever be? Not in a depressed way but in a curious way. After all as you turn the half way point it seems only reasonable that some of these superlatives might be behind you. Anyway, today I can say that keeping running for the last 4 miles in this race, and keeping running up a 7.5% gradient, is probably the hardest physical thing I have ever done. I?d also be quite happy if it stays that way. Of course next year you know I?ll be back and trying to beat 2 hours?..
I take pretty awful pictures usually but I rather like this one that my wife snapped when I wasn?t looking. It kind of sums up that feeling when you start to feel normal again. The t-shirt was a leaving present from the grad students at Berkeley. They assure me it isn?t an insult??..
Thanks for reading.
John, aka norrin_radd
------------------
My Profile[/URL" target="_blank">
http://This message has been edited by norrin radd (edited Sep-03-2007).
http://This message has been edited by norrin radd (edited Sep-03-2007).
This was an odd race for me. A standard half marathon with a twist ? a vertical height gain of over 4,000 ft taking you from the ocean to one of the highest local peaks. Sometimes it is promoted as the toughest half marathon but I?m sure there are other contenders. It could well be the toughest road race half marathon though.
After nearly two years of planning we have just moved to Santa Barbara, my wife and I both exchanging jobs at UC Berkeley for jobs at UC Santa Barbara. We?ve been in town for a couple of weeks but on Friday we closed escrow on our new house and so, on Friday, I moved about 6 tons of boxes and furniture out of a storage unit and into a van, and then moved the boxes out of the van and into our garage. We know the weight because it was all weighed when we had it shipped down here. I was exhausted at the end of it, three trips in total with about an hour to load and an hour to unload each time. Then on Saturday we were woken at 6.30 by the cleaning crew who we had arranged to give the house a good clean before we moved everything in from the garage. We then moved some more boxes out of my wife?s lab and into the house before heading downtown to pick up the race packet. A nice arrangement where you could collect the packet and sign the waiver at a local restaurant between 4 and 7pm. No obligation to eat but we did and it was good.
And so to Sunday (just setting the scene there). At one stage it seemed like a good idea to mark our return to Santa Barbara with this race but as the date approached I got fairly nervous. I had time to run some bits of the course, miles 2-6 one time, and miles 7-11 on another run, but doing it all in one run seemed daunting, and I wasn?t exactly feeling rested and well prepared.
I had 4 goals, in descending order of importance:
1) Survive (my wife made me put this one in)
2) Finish.
3) Run the whole way.
4) Finish in under two hours.
Oh and a top 10% finish is always nice but it looked, from previous years, like that might be close to goal 4.
The race starts at 7am to give you a chance to get up the mountain before the heat gets too brutal. Even though we were local I got up at 5 to give my breakfast time to settle. My wife drove me downtown to the start at the wharf at 6.30. California tends to have a higher proportion of people into fitness than many states and Santa Barbara takes this to the limit. But the line up for this race was insane, I think you could have taken all 300 or so entrants and failed to scrape up a spare ounce of body fat. I was getting more intimidated by the moment.
The instructions were helpful and brief and the race started promptly as we set off ?at the next green light?.
The first two miles of the race take you through downtown Santa Barbara gaining perhaps 200? over both of them. I tried to place myself about where I wanted to end up based on last year?s results, somewhere in the top 30. I was happy with my pace ? which seemed pretty easy compared to other races ? a casual 7.25 pace for the first 2 miles, somehow I missed the mile 1 split. The cross streets were all briefly closed to traffic as runners passed and this seemed very well organized, as did the whole race.
Mile 3 takes you past the beautiful Santa Barbara mission and the first of the harder climbing as you gain 300?. In hindsight I think 8.20 for this mile might have been too fast but I was happy holding my position and knew that one of the few flatter areas was ahead.
Mile 4, including a flatter patch and some more climbing had a net gain of 200? and I missed the split on this one as well. At this point you literally head into the hills up Gibraltar road and the climbing becomes relentless.
Mile 5 has an elevation gain of 400? and I got a split of 15.20 for this and the previous mile. I?m pretty sure this mile marker must have been slightly out of position because that seems a bit too fast.
Mile 6 has an elevation gain of 400? and I got a split of 12.15 ? hmmm, I think Mile 5 must have been out of place. I wasn?t doing 12 minute miles at this point (but I would later).
Mile 7 has an elevation gain of 400? (sounding familiar?) and I was still doing okay at this point. Pretty quiet. I got a split of 9.12 which I was happy with. A few cars had started to drive up supporting various runners but I?d told my wife to not bother stopping until later where it was a bit easier to find room to pull over.
Mile 8 takes you up a mere 350? and it was staring to get hot. My split was 10.15. The road is pretty windy (as roads are that go up 5 - 10% grades) and any shade was welcome.
There are fabulous views down over Santa Barbara but I wasn?t in the mood for sightseeing. I grabbed some water from my wife as I passed but I have a lot of difficulty drinking when I run. If I can get any down at all I seem to get pretty bad stomach cramps I knew I?d have to on this run though. From this point on the race itself had water stations about every mile and they were a welcome sight ? if only because another mile was done.
Mile 9, takes you up another 350? to an area called Flores flats. At a height of about 3,000? this place is well named for those few folks that live there (maybe 2 or 3 houses) but not for those on the road. The ?flats? are in a flatish basin but the road goes up to the lip of the basin then flattens out for maybe 200? of painful running as muscles adjust to the flat and then heads straight up the wall of the basin. The split here was 10.48
Mile 10 was, in my opinion the toughest of the bunch. I was glad I?d run past this once in training so I knew it didn?t go on for ever. Climbing out of the flats takes you up 500? in a mile in the steepest part of the race. At this point it was a struggle to even continue. Putting one leg in front of the other and continuing to run was probably the hardest physical thing I have ever done. This mile took me 11.39 and with it went any hope of a sub-2 hour finish. I can honestly say this wasn?t a priority though as surviving, finishing and keeping running were my only goals. At the 10 mile mark it was a relief to know that there was ?only? a 5k to go.
Mile 11 was simply survival shuffle mode for me after the brutal mile 10. There was a 400? elevation gain here so things hadn?t exactly eased up and my split was 12.19. At the end of mile 11 though you come onto a new road, Camino Cielo that runs along the crest of the range so, psychologically that felt good even if there was still more climbing to go. I hadn?t gone beyond this point in training and it had been over 15 years since I had driven this road.
Mile 12, cruelly, takes you down some of the height you have gained, and all the time you can see the road ahead as it takes a sharp left turn and heads up at what looks like an insane angle. I was pretty confident that I could finish without walking if I could make it to the 12 mile mark. Despite the downhill, mile 12 has a net elevation gain of 200? and my split was 10.57. I did manage to pick it up a little on the downhill and at least I wasn?t getting passed by many people. There were a few people I?d been trading places with for several miles but I think my position had stayed relatively constant since mile 1.
Mile 13 and the finish was back to steeply uphill, with the finish on a particularly steep set of switchbacks that take you up to the high point, Lookout Point, on La Cumbre peak. An indication of how tough this race is was that in mile 13, two people who had been ahead of me for many miles, had begun to walk. Folks heading for a top 20 place and into the final mile were cracking. I can usually manage to pick it up for the final mile but with another 300? of climbing this was limited. I did manage to dip under 10 though with 9.56 for the final 1.1 and a finish time of 2.05.47.
Wow. I warned you that might be long. Just like the race. At the finish I wanted to both cry, from the relief, and barf, from the stomach cramps. I?d had stomach cramp for the last 4 miles or so but once I got some water in me and wasn?t running anymore I felt better. In fact after 5 minutes I was reasonably human and could stagger around and eat bananas. Oh wait, that?s simian.
One of the cool things about this race is that from the finish you can look back and see just where you came from. The starting point is by the wharf you can just see sticking out into the ocean. Oh yes, and beer at the finish is always a good idea.
So, I?d hit 3 out of 4 goals but was happy with that. I was pleased with 23 rd place out of a field of 300 of the fittest people I have ever seen gathered together. No age group place yet but I think I might not even have been top 10 in the insanely competitive M40-49 category!
After hitting 40 a few years back I have started wondering about life?s events. I wonder if that was the best meal I?ll ever eat? Is that the best sunset I?ll ever see? Is this the happiest/saddest I?ll ever be? Not in a depressed way but in a curious way. After all as you turn the half way point it seems only reasonable that some of these superlatives might be behind you. Anyway, today I can say that keeping running for the last 4 miles in this race, and keeping running up a 7.5% gradient, is probably the hardest physical thing I have ever done. I?d also be quite happy if it stays that way. Of course next year you know I?ll be back and trying to beat 2 hours?..
I take pretty awful pictures usually but I rather like this one that my wife snapped when I wasn?t looking. It kind of sums up that feeling when you start to feel normal again. The t-shirt was a leaving present from the grad students at Berkeley. They assure me it isn?t an insult??..
Thanks for reading.
John, aka norrin_radd
------------------
My Profile[/URL" target="_blank">
http://This message has been edited by norrin radd (edited Sep-03-2007).
http://This message has been edited by norrin radd (edited Sep-03-2007).
