Big Bear Half Marathon
Chip time: 1:36:42, Garmin distance: 13.11 (can't get much closer)
This was supposed to be the full marathon, but at 2:30 am they sent out a text canceling the full and offering free entry to the half and race credit for a future race.
Start was in the mid 20's, I was afraid I'd get too cold in the almost 1 hour of pre-race standing around but it wasn't so bad with the various layers. I wasn't full in half marathon mode but did ok at switching gears. This course is extremely downhill but felt more runnable than Big Cottonwood (I might've had a different story if I did the full version of this race).
Good but not too fast first mile at 7:32, then next 6 miles a steady pickup to 7:09 for mile 7.
My hands were kind of freezing and I had trouble adjusting volume on my headphones so kind of ignored that issue. Was mindful of the possibility of ice at the water stops but fortunately did not hit any.
During mile 8, grabbed a drink and washed down a gel at an aid station, slowed down a little too much and almost felt like I was going to lock up, but fortunately back on track after mile 8 (7:46), mile 9 was 7:16.
Held it together pretty well through mile 12 (7:26), but then did not intently focus on giving it my all for mile 13, not looking at mile pace, ended up with 7:42 - probably could've done better since that last mile was back at an elevation I'm more used to.
So, overall this was a fun race. With a little more focus I think I could've reasonably been sub 1:36:00 (which in times past would've been a good for time entry to NYC marathon but now that is no longer the case).
After the race checked out of hotel and headed back to my brother's house in Carlsbad for dinner out and a full next day of exploring Borrego Springs area of the dessert.
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