Avocado Half Marathon 2014

Holy crap another hill Batman! This was by far one of the toughest half marathons I've ever ran. That's not easy to say as I've ran the hills in San Francisco, San Dieguito, & the La Jolla. 

Mac Cheesing before the race!

I picked up my bib on the Friday before the race, at the Temecula Running Center or could have waited for race day packet pick up. The bib had the timing chip. They passed out tiny safety pins. I used safety pins I had from a past race at home, had to created a different hole because the bib holes were wonky.

Coffee would be better!

  The race began on a Saturday. It was perfect weather, about 54 degrees, a slight breeze, & over cast for most of the race at Live Oak Park in Fallbrook. There is a park bathroom to use and no porta potties. There were 315 Half Marathoners and 264 5k runners. We all started at the same time at 0715. The race was on the same day at the Avocado Festival and boast "Run through Avocado Country". 

There were a few Ragnar runners here today!

Pfffftttt I didn't see any Avocado trees and we ran through Fallbrook. The Highway Patrol controlled traffic and there were no problems that I noticed. The course first takes runners onto Grid Rd towards Fallbrook Golf Club for 1.5 miles, turn around and head back towards Live Oak Park. Runners doing the 5k finish here and the rest head up a huge hill for 2.0 miles. This sequence continued on throughout the entire course. 

We match! Haha chatted with him & his friend prior to start!

We ran past Fallbrook High School were a guy had a large speaker playing music and shouted accolades to the passing runners. He was the shizzle! Thanks speaker dude! At mile 8, runners turned around again to head back the way we came to the finish line at Live Oak Park. 

Smaller hill!

Wow! That was crazy! At the finish line, I found myself looking for the crazy ass who thought this course was a good idea as I thanked the nice volunteer for putting the medal around my neck. I feel sorry for anyone who was running a half marathon for the first time because they are all not like this one!

Post race mac cheese!

 Afterwards, I went to board a school bus shuttle heading back to the high school where I parked my car. This took 45 minutes of waiting on the bus before the Highway Patrol gave permission for the bus to leave. I met a nice runner on the bus who swapped race stories to pass the time. 

The original date is still on medals!

Race Time 2:37:05 

Race time based on gun time; not chip time.

It's okay, it was a small race.