Location: Camarillo to Zuma Beach (Malibu)
Start: 7:00am (Freedom Park - Willis Ave & Convair St.)
Finish time: 04:46:00 (Must come back next year and try again!)
Elevation:
Pre-race commentary: The running of the Malibu Marathon marks my 10th marathon. Never thought I would run this many. When I first thought of running a marathon, I thought it would be a one time, bucket list thing. But look at me now, 9 marathons later, getting ready to run my 10th, just a month after the 9th one. It's like I've gone nuts. I'm actually looking forward to running this race because as much as I love running for time, it stresses me out and I'm not able to enjoy the racing experience as much as I would like to. I actually decided to run a couple of races for fun next year without goal expectations. Maybe LA and Big Sur...maybe. So in about 3 weeks, I will give you the run-down on how this went.
Post-race commentary: The Malibu Marathon that I just ran yesterday was my 10th marathon. Somehow I had thought that perhaps my 10th one would be large and full of fanfare but I'll settle for small and scenic any day. Running the Malibu Marathon made me realize a couple of things about myself that I had not known before. For instance, I realized that I would rather run a small marathon with very little crowd support with amazing scenery than a very large race through city streets. As difficult a course as Malibu is, I really enjoyed the race a lot. It gave me a little taste of what Big Sur will be like. With that said, I better get training on those hills! I didn't run a very spectacular time at this race, in fact, my time was reminiscent of what I use to get when I first started running marathons. But I enjoyed every single moment of it. Here are the things that made this race so great for me. In no particular order:
1) Arriving at Freedom Park about 30 minutes prior to the start and still having time to use the bathroom and stretch.
2) Being ridiculously close to the start line and having my sisters standing around chatting to me until the start really helped calm my running nerves.
3) Not being stepped on by hoards of people trying to push their way to the front of the start.
4) Not having to dodge people, lots of space to run.
5) Running along the flat farmland that smelled like a salad at one point and cow poo at another, ok maybe the cow poo smell wasn't a high point.
6) Running along the PCH with the ocean to my right. Even the terrible windy conditions could not damper my spirit. At many points, the wind was so strong it keep threatening to blow my hat off. At one point, the wind almost blew me over.
7) I even enjoyed running up and down those hills the last 6 miles of the race. I LOVE small races! Just like a training run with a couple hundred people. If you enjoy small races, this race is for you. I would not recommend this course for beginners but the views are gorgeous.
8) Getting a towel along with a medal when you cross the finish line. The towel was in lieu of getting a shirt. The towel is not the best quality but a novel idea.
9) Finally, the volunteers...especially the energetic UCLA sororities manning the water stations towards the last few miles of the course. Their high energy was a good little pick-me-up. All the volunteers in general who manned these water stations out in the sun and windy conditions, almost all of them without any shade because this entire course offered little to no shade.THANK YOU Volunteers!!
And here are a few things that I think can be improved upon:
1) More water stations. There was a section of the course around miles 15-18 where they had ran out of water so it was like 4 miles between water stations. This was not a problem for me since I was carrying my own but something to think about if you are planning to run this thing in the future. Also, they only offered coconut water at a couple of water stops.
2) Those hills at the last 6 miles were killer! Not sure why they designed the course this way. Seems sadistic.
3) Would be nice to have more food at the end. Bananas and Pop Chips just don't cut it for me. I really wanted a bagel or some sort of carb when I came in but there was none.
Arriving at Zuma Beach on Saturday morning for packet pick-up.
Small size expo, but I've seen smaller.
More expo shots
Ford - race sponsor.
Zico! I LOVE coconut water and loved that they were offering this on the course in place of Gatorade.
Yum!
Finishers medals and beach towel on display.
Close-ups of the medals. Round!
My sisters! Thank you for your support this weekend! You are all awesome!
Packet pick-up area.
True to life elevation map! Gulp!
Very bright out!
LOL, of course I went to the Mecca that is the Nike Outlet at Camarillo!
They gave us these tote bags when we picked up our bibs and timing chip. Speaking of timing chips, this race is still using old school timing chips that you have to return. I didn't know they were still around.
There goes the last person pass the starting line. Probably took all of 5 minutes to get everyone started. I LOVE small races!
Sister K took this shot of them dissembling the starting area. Don't get to see that all the time.
Ran pass a lot of this...
...and this.
Finish line activities.
Medal table.
Stacks of towels.
Here I come...so happy to be finished and seeing my sisters cheering me on!
Happy! Coming back next year? YES!!
Heading home along the PCH. Best post race drive home ever! Thank you Sister S for driving me!
Medal! It's round!!
2 comments:
I just noticed your start is where Camarillo Marathon/Half started and ended.
great job! it was a tough course and a hot day.
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