Ojai Valley Half Marathon

A little background
I had this race on my radar for a while, but had pretty much decided to skip it because I have been racing way too much lately. Also, the event website had very little information, so I was afraid this race would turn out to be a big disaster. Then, last weekend's long run was a mental disaster and I felt like I needed to sign up for a race to get a decent long run done, so I went ahead and registered.

Pre-Race
I set my alarm for 3:30 am (?@*!) and was out the door for the long drive to Ojai just after 4:00. When I made the turn onto the Ojai Highway, there were no other cars on the road! It was still very dark and totally creepy. I arrived at Soule Park (the finish area and where the race director had recommended parking) a little after 5:30 and there was absolutely no one there! We were supposed to pay a $4.00 parking fee, but it took me quite a while to figure out that you had to get an envelope off of this weird little metal structure and place the money in the envelope and then drop it into a little slot. Weird set-up and the pathetic event website never mentioned any of these little details. Oh well.

A few other people finally showed up - some runners and a couple of ladies there to set up the finish line. The shuttle to the sart (a van!) arrived at 6:00 and off we were to the start! I picked up my bib, chip, and my seriously ugly tech-T. Just before the race was to start at 7:00, I asked a voluteer if there was a gear check. There really wasn't, but they did agree to take my ugly new tech-T and my warm-up sweatshirt to the finish for me.

The Race
My humble goal here was just to run the entire race with no walk breaks. I realized that I haven't actually run a Half Marathon since Santa Barabara Wine Country back in May! That is totally pathetic!

The race started late and I never really figured out where the actual Start was. I did get to meet Roccco from RWOL before the start, which was a cool little bonus! The course started on the highway and ran through the center of town before turning up into a hilly residential area. The scenery overall reminded me a lot of Santa Barbara Wine Country, with a suburban feel in the first few miles, followed by a more rural feel through the majority of the race. While there was only one major hill involved, there were plenty of lesser inclines that went on forever. I didn't care much about my pace, I just wanted to keep myself going. There were two other women I tried to keep in my sights. We passed each other several times along the way.

The aid stations were a little sparse - I think the last one was just before mile 10 - but the volunteers were all very friendly and went out of their way to be as helpful as possible. Many of the volunteers were from the local high school, which could have been a scary disaster (ala the aforementioned Santa Barabara Wine Country Half), but this group of kids was really into the race. A huge thumbs up to those kids for taking the job seriously.

I managed to run all the way and finished in 2:20:46, my 4th slowest Half Marathon ever, but I will take it. Mission accomplished!

Post-Race

After I finished, I spotted Roccco and went over to see how he had done. I also got a chance to meet one of the women I had been running with. The medal is really cheap and totally lame, but I'm not as into the bling as I was back when I only ran a few Half Marathons a year (this was my 10th Half this year). I asked a volunteer where the gear pick-up was and she had no idea. I sort of stumbled upon my stuff by accident, just when I was about to give up and leave it there. I liked this race because it was so small (only 188 finishers). If there had been many more runners, I think the little glitches would have stood out a lot more. Anyway, I was home by 11:30 and ready to settle in for a nice relaxing weekend with my husband and our little Vixen!

Next up, the Long Beach Half Marathon on October 11!