My first half marathon was more than I hoped it could be. I came into it with a huge smile on my face and left with a huge smile on my face. I accomplished something that was only a dream for so long…something I never would have imagined myself accomplishing two years ago.
The Santa to the Sea Half Marathon is a fundraiser to give toys to needy children. Every runner brought a toy to give. After taking a photo with Santa, I placed my gift (two kid’s books) on the gigantic pile!
The gigantic Santa actually has a cool story behind it: http://www.santatothesea.com/Santatotheseaweb2/sttsvid.html
It’s been around for a looonnng time, and used to be up in Carpinteria on Santa Claus Lane before it got moved down to Oxnard. Anyone who lives near here can tell you where it is, because you can see it from the highway.
Before I lined up, I stood in line for about 15 minutes to use the port-a-pottie! Glad I did that though. 
Then I stretched out, slapped on a lil sunscreen, queued up my Ipod, kissed my sweet husband goodbye, and lined up! Soon enough, we were off! Kev stood in a good spot to snap some photos at the beginning.
Many people were dressed up for the race, and it was so much fun seeing the different creative costumes. This one, caught by Kev (I never saw him), was BY FAR the best! I hope he won first place for best costume.
I first saw Kevin at about mile 3.5. I was feeling great due to my kick butt playlist (more on that later), but it perked me up even more when I saw him.
The race was full of smiling, cheering volunteers, and that made me so happy! From the moment my feet hit the pavement, I knew it was going to be a good run, and I can’t tell you how thrilling that was. How lucky! I love racing because I feel fueled by the runners around me. There’s something in the air that just empowers me and pushes me forward. I wasn’t too worried about my pace throughout the race…I just ran comfortably fast. Almost each time I looked down, my pace was around 5.5 miles/hour.
Kev caught me again at the halfway point…he was so sweet to keep getting photos of me! I loved the energy of the halfway point. There was a couple live bands, lots and lots of food (including cinnamon rolls and brownies, but I didn’t take any), tons of people (this was the relay stopping point), and decorations in the park.
Here’s me at around mile 8. It was pretty hot out, but I still felt great. My playlist was pushing me!
When mile 10 hit, I got chills, because I knew that this was the farthest I’d ever ran in my entire life! My hip had been a little sore since mile 6, but it was not really hurting me. The last three miles of the race, though, were super super hot. Luckily, they did have water/Gatorade stations. Even though I had my Camelbak (thank goodness!!), I walked through some water stations for Gatorade and to dump water on my head. It felt amazing.
It was really hard to push myself through that last mile. I’m not gonna lie – it hurt. I through the idea of sprinting the last half mile out the window…I just wanted to make it! And I did. I saw the finish line, and I pushed. I took out my earbuds to hear the shouts of encouragement from others, and heard them call my name (how cool!) as I ran through the finish. I spotted Kevin and could not take the smile off my face!!
I love this photo (above), because it displays the feeling of sheer victory I had. It was like nothing I’d ever felt before.
I hobbled over to Kevin and hugged him, and shed a few short tears. My body felt good, even though it was difficult to walk! We found a spot in the shade, and I chugged a coconut water and some pretzels they gave out at the finish. I gently stretched it out and spilled all the details of the race to Kevin.
Check out that salt that soaked through my pants! Yeah, I definitely sweated a lot!
I was so thankful to Kev for being so supportive during the race. He was perfect!
