Race Report: 2015 Bands on the Run Half Marathon

It was a cool and gloomy morning for the start of the 2015 Bands on the Run Half Marathon. I had signed up for this race earlier in the week and really took no effort to prepare myself well for it. In fact, I hadn't run at all in a week, due to a busy schedule at work and the night before the race, I still wasn't sure of the starting time. Boy was I happy to find out that the half marathon didn't start until 9am! With the starting line only 15 minutes from the house and the races capped at 500 people (for the 5k, 10k, and half combined), I knew I was in for a treat. I was able to sleep in and didn't even need an alarm clock to wake myself up before the race. I don't think that has happened in the history of me running races.

We arrived around 8, just to ensure we were able to get my packet and hit the bathroom line before the start. There was one person in front of me at packet pick up and only 3 in line for the restrooms. I knew this was going to be a laid back race. After all, we were running 13 miles on the beach, how could it be high strung or high pressure. 

Packet pick up and the race start/finish, Morro Bay High School

There was BBQ at the finish, but you were going to have to change your pants.

The Morro Bay High School choir sang the national anthem and it was the most beautiful rendition I've heard before a race. And then we were off. The race took a bit of a detour around the school before heading down to the beach, where we would spend the vast majority of the race. At about 3/4 of a mile, we hit soft sand, which made it feel like I was running in place. My pace slowed down significantly, but I refused to walk. By the time I made it to the hard packed sand on the beach, I was huffing and puffing and had already changed my pre-race goal. I have never run a half marathon on anything besides pavement and was looking to finish this race with an average pace of 12:00 per mile. I had no expectations of a PR or breaking any land speed records. Instead of adjusting my time to be more favorable to the conditions, I changed my goal to be EVERY mile under 12:00 per mile. Considering I had slowed down to almost 14 minutes per mile with the soft, I had to get my butt in gear!

It was a long and quiet path

My husband and Eddie came out to cheer me on. They were the ONLY spectators on the entire course.

There were individual artists playing their instruments every 3 miles or so. My favorite was a banjo player around mile 5. I, of course, forgot to take a picture of him. Despite the cloud cover, the course was beautiful. What else would you expect from 13 miles on the West Coast? Thank goodness for the cloud cover, otherwise it would have been too warm and there would not have been enough water stations. There were 4 stops for 13.1 miles, and the last one was around mile 8. I would have liked to have seen better placement on the water stations and more of them. The half marathoners felt like an afterthought to the race. Most of the focus was on the 5k, including a water stop that was there at the beginning of the race, but gone by the time we halfers came back through.

I was definitely not the winner, but I had several long solitary miles.

The Avenue of the Trees (note the soft sand)

I finished all by myself!

I had so much sand in my shoes, I couldn't believe it.
My main disappointment was that there was no medal for finishing the half marathon. This was the first race of this distance that I've run where I was not rewarded with a medal, but I'm trying to get over it.

Instead, I rewarded myself with this MASSIVE burrito!

Miles logged 13.1