This was easily the smallest race I have even run. It was even smaller than the Outlaw run at Beaver, Utah last summer. It was a fairly flat out and back course and runners could chose from a 1/2 marathon, ten mile, 10K, & 5K distances. So fewer than a dozen runners lined up together to start. Bummer I was really hoping for a bigger crowd, or any crowd, to push me along. So as soon as we started this tall guy goes right to the front and seems to be running a good pace for me so I hung back about 10 yards and followed. So I'm thinking this race won't be such a bust after all. All I need is one runner to pace off of and behold there he was. Right after my Garmin beeped at mile 1 I saw some orange cones just ahead indicating a turn around point for one of the distances. I thought, "that can't be the 5K turn around it's way too early." No big deal, I wasn't here for a 5K anyway. I just kept focusing on staying 10 yards behind tall guy. When tall guy got to the cones-HE TURNED AROUND! WHAT!! Are you kidding me?! Great, I'm going to be running all by myself for the next 12 miles. I'm not good at doing this solo. I wanted to test myself today to see where I was at. OK time to enjoy a quiet and lonely half. Just around the corner there was another set of cones staffed with a volunteer. This was the actual 5K turn around. Tall guy had turned around at the kids race marker. I had to laugh when I thought about tall guy finishing in around 15 minutes thinking he was superman with a huge PR. The rest of the race I just enjoyed the great weather with temps in the mid 60s. Tried not to bonk the last 5K. Did OK. I really think I could have run some of the middle miles quicker. After the "race" I drove another half an hour to see the ocean since I was so close. | 