Big Bear Lake Half Marathon

Uggg. I was mauled by The Bear. This was the hardest Half I've ever suffered through.

Packet Pick-up
Not much to tell here. I drove up to Big Bear with my darling husband on Friday afternoon. We arrived just after 3:00 - perfect timing to check in to our room at the Sherwood Forrest Resort. Thanks to my brilliant planning, we were right across the street from the expo and start/finish. We settled in, walked around the village, then at 5:00 headed to Pine Knot Landing to get my bib, chip, and the sweet red tech-T! My only complaint - I didn't know it would be a tech-T. Since I never wear cotton T-shirts, I had requested an XL so my husband could wear it. Oops.

Race
I had absolutely no clue what to expect out of myself time-wise. My last 2 half marathons (Disneyland, and America's Finest City) completely sucked. I set a new PW at AFC, running on a painful piriformis issue, then set another new PW at Disney just because I sucked. Or maybe the 2 week running hiatus due to the arson-induced wildfire in my backyard had something to do with it.

The Half Marathon start was about 2.1 miles west of the Full Marathon Start and the finish line. With the late race start of 8:30, the sun was already beating down and it was warming up quickly. I was not digging the hills at all and the piriformis issue started acting up. I had passed mile 2 of the Half and mile 4 of the Full, when a cyclist came through moving everyone over to the right because the leader of the Full was coming through! Dang! That dude had a goreous stride and he was really flying! By the time I got to the 3 mile marker, the altitude really hit me and I knew I needed a walk break. I decided to take walk breaks every 3 miles to catch my breath. LOL. If only. I ended up taking walk breaks through every aid station (every 1.5 miles).

The course was stunningly gorgeous and this really wasn't a bad race to really suck in. It was quite nice walking and just taking in the scenery. Around mile 7 or 8, the course turned onto a bike path through a camping area. I tried to run through this area, but I just had nothing left to give. I found myslef run/walking with a few other runners who were also struggling. Back onto the roads, I checked my trusty Garmin. I had hit the 2 hour mark where I'm usually at mile 12, even in a training run. I was not even at mile 10 yet! A little before the Full Marathon turnaround, Pony Express from RWOL caught up to me. It made my day to see a familiar face out there. I must have looked like something the cat dragged in...and then dragged back out. I think I did more walking than running in the last few miles, but I finished! (Only about 3 minutes after the marathon winner finished - LMAO). My 3rd PW in a row means I'm going to have to re-think my training.

The bear-shaped medal is awesome!

Post-Race
My husband got a couple of pics of me nearing the finish line. Thank goodness this was such a small race. I had no problem meeting up with him in front of our hotel. Due to my slowness and the late race start, he had to check out before I finished the race. I stripped down to the sports bra at the car and put on my sweet new tech-T. We knew we had to take the back way home - the 38 to Redlands. It took almost 3 hours! 3 hours in a car with no shower. Yuck. We didn't stop for sodas and munchies until we got to an AM/PM in Azusa! Nastiest place I've ever peed! But we had to get home to our little Vixen ASAP! I celebrated with my traditional peanut butter melting on an english muffin combo and later splurged on a nice fattening pizza. Yum.

I will never run the Full at this race! I would like to come back, maybe next year, and get a little revenge on the Half!