Beach To Chowder Half Marathon 2009 Race Report

June 13th was the Beach To Chowder Challenge in Long Beach, WA. This was my second year participating. Last year I ran the 10K.

We all slept in Friday and got on the road to my Mom's later than planned, at around 10:15. Kaitlyn cooperated, so we managed to get to my Moms by 2:45ish. We unloaded the car and then made a quick visit to the beach for Kaitlyn and Toby.

The wind! Talk about adding some stress to the pre race nerves. I had completely forgotten how windy it was last year, and the wind when we got out on the beach was intense.

Went out to dinner and stopped to pick up packets, and so Mom could register Kaitlyn for the walk. Met Mom's friend and her granddaughter (about Kaitlyn's age) who Mom and Kaitlyn would be walking with. Also met another coworker of my Mom's, Mary, who was running the half, and the full at RnR. This is a whole family event. :) I'm running the half, Val's running the 5K, and 'Nammy' is sherpaing for Kaitlyn as she run/walk/rides the 5K. :)
Packets were full of information and goodies form the local merchants and visitors bureau, and we all got race branded water bottles too.

Went to dinner at the Lightship, right on the beach. Good fish and chips, and Kaitlyn was entertained by a seagull hovering just in front of our window for a few minutes.

Once Mom finally got Kaitlyn down we hung out and talked for bit while I got things set up for the morning. Was going to try pinning my number to my shorts, but that didn't seem like it was going to work, so I tried it up on my hat. Seems to work pretty well, but I would find later that the race officials at the finish had trouble seeing the number. Finally decided not to vary from my routine, and wore my fuel belt as I usually do.

Got up at 7, had a couple of CLIF Nectar bars and water for breakfast, and then got changed and tried to make sure all systems were go. Val drove me down to the start and dropped me off at around 8:40, just enough time to run the 1/10 of a mile down to the beach and back and make one last pitstop, and chat with Mary and Erica from Mom's work before the start. Didn't realize until after the race that Mom's place was so close. I could have run/walked to start from mom's place for warmup.

Red Dot on the map is start and stop.


Just before 9:00 they blipped the air horn for everyone's attention and we all kind of meandered towards the start line. I was right up on the line and worried that would be a problem since I had planned on starting pretty slow, but after I looked around and saw all 40 of the other racers I realized it probably wasn't going to be a problem. After some very brief perfunctory pre race comments and a moment with a recaltricant loudspeaker, we were off.

Garmy lost his mind thanks to all the switchbacks and came in at 13.26 miles total, but here are the splits anyway to demonstrate a point or two. Like a nice negative split, and increasing speed over time, and a higher than expected sustainable heart rate.

Mile 1 - 8:29 @ 154
I really tried to start out slow, but even before I reached the turn onto the trails (maybe .1 mile in) I was already at 156, which was above my original goal for the first bit of the race. But I felt good, and wasn't breathing a whole lot harder than I would be normally, so I decided to go with it, and slow down just a little. At that point I decided to run it with a combination of feel and HR, not just HR and I'm glad I did.

Had forgotten about the rollers on the trail, but not the weaving, and chatted very briefly about it with a Marathon Maniac as she and her partner they ran by. Chatted with another gentleman as we worked our way into our rhythm. He recommended the Great Columbia Crossing bridge run. Talked about it with my mom a few months ago, but the bridge thing kind of tweaks me out to be honest.

Mile 2 - 8:43 @ 158
Bailed out on my first conversation and started concentrating on getting into a rhythm, and getting a feel for effort and heart rate. Still feeling good, so I let it inch up a little.

Mile 3 - 8:23 @ 160
Hit the waterstop/turnaround, and then started running with and chatting with the Marathon Maniac, Tina, and her partner, Brian. I figured that if I could keep up with them and talk, that I was doing just fine

Mile 4 - 8:25 @ 161
Having such fun chatting and running, that I almost forgot about nutrition, finally slapped down a GU here.

Mile 5 - 8:34 @ 162
Finally realized that the green numbers the talked about on the online map were the numbers painted onto the course, not on placards like I expected. And that Garmy was a bit off.

Mile 6 - 8:33 @ 161
MM started asking about water, but we realized it was pretty close to the next water stop. Offered her some of mine, but she declined since we were so close.

Mile 7 - 8:19 @ 164
Water station was about .1 into this mile, and I started pushing once I left Tina and Brian, behind. Somewhere in here I took my second GU. I think this was the mile I was really reminded of a video Bruce sent me of the Avalon Benefit 50 Miler on Catalina Island. I could look out ahead, and the beach grass was tall enough to hide the trail, so all you could see were a couple of other solitary figures bobbing through the grass as they ran. Very cool.

Mile 8 - 8:12 @ 164
I think I started seeing the front runners here. With no crowd support at all, just a handful of walkers/bikers out on the course, it was really nice that everyone was very supportive. Almost everyone, including me, exchanged Good Jobs or Keep it ups.

Mile 9 - 8:19 @ 165
I really didn't go far enough when I tried to map this route myself. And here's the "Very Big Rock", and all the sudden we're into the forest, and then the turnaround and back.

Mile 10 - 8:04 @ 167
Had my last GU once I got back out of the woods and back into the return stretch paralleling the ocean.

Mile 11 - 7:52 @ 169
One of the trailing runners apparently had been counting and told me "number 12" as we passed. I looked and saw two other runners close enough that I might catch them and started working towards that to keep me distracted.

Mile 12 - 7:53 @ 171
Towards the end of the mile I managed to pass one of the people in front of me; the woman who turned out to be 2nd place woman. Couldn't get to the next runner to pass unfortunately. Started feeling a mild side stitch somewhere in here. A little bit of pressure, and just running through it.

Mile 13 - 7:41 @ 173
I really had to focus to sustain the pace this mile. Wanted to drop back into the 168 range, and be more comfortable. Side split seemed to have mostly gone away.

Mile .26 - 6:20 @ 182
Pushed hard the last stretch up Bolstad back to the finish at the Arch. Val had finished a little bit ago and was there to cheer me on. I didn't even have the energy to acknowledge her. Pushing hard and trying not to exceed the puke threshold. Took a while to coast down to a walk and then had to remember to go back for my finishers medal. :) That was pretty informal. One of the officials, the RD maybe, pointed out to me that they almost didn't see my number. May have to try something different next year.

I had a great race:
1:49:12 was my watch time, and that ended up being my official time as well. Works out to a 8:21/mile pace if the course was accurate, and I suspect it was.

Val had a pretty good run herself. Given that she has run once since St. Patrick's Day Dash, she finished in . I wouldn't have guessed she ran at all, she looked fresh and clean. She fully admits that means she could have pushed harder, but she just was out to have some fun.

We both walked down to the beach and picked up my Mom and Kaitlyn, and then Val and I ran her in to the finish, leaving her new friend Sydney behind with the grandmas. She was going to win her age group by heck! :) Eagerly waiting on official photos since they got a good shot of all 3 of us.

Settled down and talked with Mary and Erica a little, and then wandered over to the Gazebo for chowder and to wait for the 'door prizes' and awards. Door prizes didn't start till 12 and awards till 1230, so there was some time to kill. I think the wait was a little long, but the course wasn't officially closed till 1200, so I think they just wanted to make sure everyone had an opportunity to participate. Got to drop by the amazing bakery right there on "Main" street and start refueling. :)

I'm normally the guy who never wins anything, but today I won a free Chowder Bread Bowl in the raffle. Mom and Kaitlyn started walking back to here place as Kaitlyn was melting down.

Finally the awards! I got 3rd in my age group (had figured that out about 10 minutes before, when I finally saw the times posted on the gazebo). And since I stuck around (unlike last year where we passed out and didn't make it back) (I wish I had followed up and tried to get the hardware. Now that it's a tradition, that missing 10K Age group 3rd from last year is annoying.) First in my age group was around 1:40. Guy who won it was 1:28 and change. Same guy Kemboy Chesnit won the 10K as won it last year.

Caught up with Mom and Kaitlyn, drove back to the house and vegged out for a few hours. Finally my mom slipped me some money and kicked Val and I out of the house for a date so she could get some Kaitlyn time. :) We went to eat at a nice Italian place, where I managed to injure myself. After the race. I spent most of the meal with my legs tucked under my chair, and seem to have strained my left thigh. Grrrr... Drove around exploring, etc. and then went home and went to bed.

I really enjoyed the half. I enjoyed it more than the 10K last year, which was physically on the beach. The terrain turned out to be surprisingly interesting, and the beach and wind and everything was perfect.

If I had to offer some constructive criticism, and I will, since I plan on running this next year if they offer it again, I would say:
prerace comments could be a bit more verbose. I didn't realize that the mileage numbers would be painted ON the trail. An water stop near Bolstad would be nice and provide water roughly every 3 miles. Garbage cans at the water stops could be placed a little further away so you don't have to slow down as much to drink and dump. The wait for the awards was too long. I'll probably just bring a change of clothes next year, since if you do it sooner, then people miss out. Finally, a race clock(s) would be nice

I've got some more words in me analyzing the race, and adjusting my goals for RnR Seattle, but I'll do these in a separate post. :)