Santa Cruz Half Marathon

This weekend I drove down to Santa Cruz, CA with Amanda on Saturday morning. We were going for the Santa Cruz Half Marathon presented by Firstwave Events. Our first stop was for lunch; originally planned for an old Sushi haunt of Amanda's from her college years at UCSC. However, they weren't opened for lunch so we went to one of my favorites- Canton restaurant. I've been trying new foods and with Amanda's suggestion I tried the Kung Pao Tofu (instead of the chicken like I'd normally have). It was delicious! She had the eggplant so I tried that and it too was delicious!

Then we met up with Jeff and Trisha at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and picked up our race packets and did some shopping. After that, I went with Amanda to see the new movie The Hunger Games. Having just finished the book the night before, this was perfect timing. It met all my expectations. Of course, we spent most of the evening comparing it to the book but we both enjoyed it very much.

Then we had dinner at another favorite restaurant of mine, the Hula Bar & Grill. Normally I'd have one of their fabulous chicken burgers, but this time I tried the Tofu tacos. Mmm! they were done perfectly. I've never had Tofu tacos, but now I know they can be done, and done well! Just as we finished dinner it began pouring outside (again) and we had to run back to the car, with Amanda laughing at me as I tried pulling my jeans up so as not to get them too wet.

On the way back to the hotel we picked up some ice cream at Marianne's Ice Cream. I had the Cascade Huckleberry and it was perfect. We kicked back and watched Pretty in Pink with Jeff and Trisha before having to turn in for the night.

Race morning came quick and we had to be down to starting line about 7am for the 8am race to ensure we got parking. The crowd was pumped and the starting line hosts did a great job of making it feel very lively. I started off with Jeff for the first four miles, but he was running less than 8 minute miles so I paused for some goo and let him continue on. The view along the cliffs was beautiful, but my favorite views were at the turning back point loop. The ocean had some breathtaking swells that caused the white spray to shoot up along the coastline.
I ended up running the race at a pace of about 8:20 second miles, one hour forty nine minutes and thirty three seconds; one of my fastest half-marathon times ever! I posted the run and map on my Runkeeper including pictures. Afterwards, we were pretty exhausted! Amanda and I stopped off at a downtown taqueria for a burrito then headed back home. Such a great weekend with good friends!