Thursday, February 17, 2011

Palm Springs Half Marathon


Ahoy landlubbers! Kristen and I ran the Palm Springs Half this past Sunday and had a helluva time. It wasn't the best course we've ever run, but it was a bit challenging. The course was promoted as one with slight hills, but it was "mostly flat". What a laugh. As it turned out, the course wound (and I do mean WOUND) through the foothill neighborhood of PS and sadly didn't go by the homes and landmarks that make you think of the city. Most of the homes on the course were behind walls and gates so that kept the sightseeing to a minimum (which was sort of a good thing since Kristen is an architect, loves PS, and would have mostly likely tripped and fell if she had more eye candy). Instead of "mostly flat" it was a series of long, gradual hills, woop dee doos, and two big hills interwoven with turn after turn up and down the same streets. It wasn't frustrating or horrible, but it was a bit of a let down. Most people that ran the race had the same opinion. The upside to all the hills is that you went up and then back down the same hill which was nice.

I didn't train for this race. In fact, my running as of late has been mostly 3 to 5 milers with one or two 8 milers in the last two months. The reason why this is funny is that I ran a better time (by almost 2 minutes) than I did at Long Beach which I actually trained for. Go figure.

Kristen, of course, ran a PR and came in 1st place in her age group and 10th over all! Amazing!

We ran with a bunch of people from our running group (AREC Long Beach) and two of our best friends, Paul and Wendy. Wendy kicks ass and Paul, madman that he is, road the Century bike race the day before and ran a great time.

All in all, a good day.