Surfside (half) Marathon

After doing the Surfside half back in 2009 (race report), I knew I wanted to come back and do it with better weather - HA! Mother Nature tried to make sure that didn't happen, but I did have a GREAT fun despite the misery of the rain.....

As race day approached, the rain prediction steadily increased from 20%...to 60%...to 80%...back to 50% and then to, ultimately, 100%.


PRE-RACE:
Doreen & I went down the night before and it was a difficult drive in the DARK and some rain. Was really glad to be down there since I'm not sure if I would have made the trek on Saturday.

Saturday was POURING. From the weather reports, it was worse in Houston. And it wasn't bad as we went to the car, but right as we got in the sky opened up. Big, angry rain drops.
When we got to the beach (and I had to drive the Cutest Car In The World onto the sand) it was really hard. So hard we stayed int he car for 10 minutes or so.

There was a bit of an ease up, so we got out to hike the 1/2 mile or so to the pavilion. Stahlman Park has a great building that held pre/post race. On the way up, I saw the race clock ticking so knew the marathoner started on time (they start at 7, we were supposed to be 8).

Kimmi, Doreen & I picked up our reusable timing chips and luckily found a place to sit at a table. And waited, looking at the rain & glad to be indoor!

About 7:45 or so, the race director announced there would be a 30 minute weather delay, and possibly a 2nd 30 minute weather delay. He would let us know later..... And then 30 minutes later he introduced a meteorologist that was running the half who explained there was an electrically charged weather cell headed our way in about 20 minutes. There would be a lot of lightning (she used a bunch of words I didn't understand). The race director got back on and voiced his concern for the ~200 people out on the course and asked anyone not running the race to drive down the beach to see if any runners needed a place to hunker down (he didn't actually say hunker down). I later found out that several had and some runners did take up the offer to sit in a stranger's car.

At one point, I did go outside to use the porta potties since the line was long inside. It wasn't raining hard, but we had seen lightning. Later I heard from the marathoners just how much lightning and how close!

Finally at 9:10 he announced that we would be starting in 10 minutes.


RACE TIME:
The beginning of the race was fine. The sand was a bit dug up at the beginning since I was near the back, but once over the start mat you could head closer to the waterline where the sand was hard-packed. (They actually had start mats this time - in the past it was literally a line in the sand - no timing mat).

For me, the sand was better than running on those horrible little rocks at Memorial Park that other people seem to love so much. It's like running on a dirt road for the most part. The start, the turnaround, and one other point had some soft sand. But everywhere else it was like a trail. Later in the race, I turned around to check my footprints int he sand to see if I was running on my forefoot or heels & there weren't any foot prints. I then looked for others and for the most part no one was leaving footprints in the sand.

Around mile 1.5 I passed a lady in a Galveston Mardi Gras shirt and commented we had better weather today. She heartily agreed. And then it started raining. Oops...

About mile 2 I was passed by an older man wearing a bike helmet. Not sure if that was for a head injury or in lieu of a hat. In either case, it was a bit humbling to be passed by him. It also started to rain at this point, but not really hard rain. The temperature was good and the wind not bad.

Just before the turn around, a man running with a large German Shepherd passed me. Then the dog took a giant, steaming dump. The man did stop to pick it up. This race allows dogs & baby strollers! I only saw one person with a stroller and it look like he bailed about mile 7.

After the turn, the rain kept getting harder. We would still try to not get our feet wet, but that was becoming impossible.

Just before I got back to the pavilion, which we pass about mile 3.5, it was getting pretty miserably rainy. I think there was hail too, although others say there wasn't. I did have 8-10 seconds where I considered bailing. Glancing over at the pavilion, I did expect to see a line of runners heading in that bagged it. But nope - not a one. Press on!

The course then continued on down the beach to mile 9. So I knew there were a lot of wet miles of beach in front of me. Dug deep! There was standing water most everywhere and rain running down legs into shoes. So no worries about stepping in puddles anymore. Let's have fun!

There were runners always nearby. We didn't talk much, but everyone was really grinning and bearing it and pretty dang cheerful. I know I was enjoying it!

The temperature was good - slightly warm, which mixed with the cool rain perfectly. The wind was a steady breeze that never become gusty. To me, it seemed to be off the ocean as a cross-breeze and not something we were headed into directly. After dealing with the 30+ head-on gusts at Galveston 2 weeks prior, I barely felt this!

We had to do several river crossings on the beach! River-lets of water were rushing from the dunes down to the ocean. Some of them would be about 6 feet across and rapidly flowing. Plus, you had to step down 8-12 inches into them. I did see a lady begin to fall, luckily her husband was with her and caught her. I went down closer to the waterline and it wasn't bad there.

Was SO glad to see the U-Haul truck that was at the turnaround. Like before, I wondered HOW those full marathoners kept going out another 6.55 miles and back. I DO like the marathon distance better than the half, but not sure about on this course. LOVE running this race, but 13.1 is plenty.

RIGHT as I made the turn, the rain stopped!! It wasn't sunny, but there was a little more brightness out. Many of us just stopped in our tracks at this point.

Now for the long run back to the pavilion. It was pretty good - the little rivers of water didn't have much water flowing anymore, so it wasn't difficult to cross them on the way back.
I was able to easily do a negative split.

Once again I passed someone in a Galveston shirt and asked if she thought todays weather was better or worse. She said today was better and then a lady in front turned around and said "Galveston was worse!"

My time was 10 minutes slower than my last half (Galveston, which was slower than the one before that...blame it all on the weather!). I was 20 minutes faster than I did this course last time. I'll take it.

COURSE & WATER STOPS:
The beach was pretty clean. I noticed one beer can and what appeared to be a tarp, but no other trash I can recall

The volunteers were wonderful to be out at the water stops!! Most of them were manned by only a few kids. Since the race is so small, it was more than adequate. They were all well stocked with water and Gatorade. Of course, they could have just set out empty cups and let nature fill them!

As before, hardly any crowd support. There was one very enthusiastic group of about 6 people to the west of the start, so we passed them about mile 1 & 3.5 or so. Aside from that....nothing.

When I did it before, it was so foggy you really couldn't see the other runners. Made for a very lonely race. This time you often kept your head down to block rain, but I was always able to see people around me. That was nice.


I also liked that we got to see the marathoners coming back to finish. Including 3 people in BEEF TEAM shirts - yay! I was happy to note that even though they finished well before me, their race time put them after me. Granted I only was ahead by a small margin, it was still nice to know someone didn't finish the full in the time it to me to do the half.

POST-RACE:
The finish was sadly uneventful. There were a few people out there, but very few. As I began clapping, so did they so that was nice.

The medal was very nice - a sand dollar shaped metal medallion on a plan ribbon - green for half, blue for full. It was handed to us in a plastic bag and the lady asked if I wanted her to take it out of the bag. I said I wanted it on! She was very happy to oblige.

All of the post-race was in the pavilion. Mowi Wowi smoothies did not set up their tiki hut, which is understandable with the weather. They were inside making them to order, though! I had a strawberry and then later a pina colada. (No alcohol)

Post-race real food is awesome & they served up BBQ brisket, turkey and beans. There was vegetarian chili for the non-meat eaters. Cookies from Whataburger. Several sodas. And there was LOTS of food - even for the last finishers.

SWAG:
Long-sleeved technical unisex shirt (nice design with colored panels on the side and 2 small pockets) and a stone drink coaster.