Kate Reed's Staging Area

First off, I’ve only done one race before, which was the Gorge Half Marathon, and I am a very slow runner. After running Surf City, I realize that they spoiled me at the Gorge, and ruined other races for me forever.

The good news about Surf City is that the track is fairly flat and the last section (around mile 16-26ish) is on the beach. They also seem to have a good relationship with the city; it was clean and seemed organized. Other highlights included a pretty medal. If you are average or fast, and you don’t care about snacks, you will probably enjoy this race and get a great PR.

That said, I would not run it a second time as a slow runner or a first timer:
– the plodding up the PCH is excruciating. The scenery in that stretch is about as interesting as a fingernail.
– Whoever decided it would be a great idea to stick the hordes of half marathoners with fresh legs with the slower half of the marathoners has a sick, twisted sense of humor. I felt like simba in a stampede of wildebeests and was really thrown off and surprised. I went from having a nice quiet experience with people at a similar pace to me to being run down by a bunch of people with fresh legs, all while going down the most boring stretch.
– where were the snacks?!? Is it normal to have no water or snacks available for runners the morning of, or at the aid stations? Did the Gorge spoil me or is this the deal at most marathons? Not even a water bottle until you finish running 26.2 miles? The only tents that had it were clubs, which felt very exclusive. I asked a staff member and he pointed me to a third party food truck. I flew out here to do this race, it was my first race, and it felt weird that it was less supportive than the Columbia Gorge, a much smaller race.

If you are an average runner, none of this would probably bother you, but for a slow newbie it detracted a bit from the experience.