June 5, 2012

5K / Mile / Santa Barbara (Race Reports and Photos from California)

Start of the Fontana Days 5K
I spent the past weekend out in California, racing on back to back days and hanging out with my aunt and uncle. I flew out to Ontario on Friday afternoon and someone from the city of Fontana picked me up at the airport and drive me to the hotel they had arranged for me - seriously awesome hospitalitity and I can't thank them enough for treating me so well.

Race #1 (Saturday) was the Fontana Days 5K. Jordan Horn from the McMillan Elite team took it out really fast right from the gun (he won easily in 13:42). I ran splits of 4:31, 4:37, 4:35, :28 to finish in 14:10, good for second place overall. It was a really cool race and fun to get my legs moving that quickly! You can read my full recap of the race on fast running blog: Fontana Days 5K Recap

After the race and some refueling at Dennys, I drove out along the coast to Santa Barbara with my aunt and uncle (Aline and John). We spent the rest of the day milling about in SB (such a cool town!), eating lots of pizza and ice cream - you know, the usual stuff.

Race #2 (Sunday) was the Platinum Performance Main Street Mile. A true middle distance event, not exactly my forte these days, and I was in a bit over my head. Marathon training makes you strong and efficient, but you lose a bit of the explosiveness necessary to run really, really fast for 4 minutes. I'm slowly getting it back, but I'm not quite there yet. Anyways, I got my butt kicked in this one - four guys ran under 4:00 (winner was 3:55!). I finished 9th out of 11 runners in the elite men's heat... I had 4:09.4 on my watch but the time posted ended up being 4:12. Oh well, whatever. It was fun to mix it up and shock the system a bit. Again, my full report from the race is on FRB: State Street Mile Recap

After the men's elite heat - they had a DOG MILE. You gotta check out these pictures.

Road miles are a lot of fun - something I want to organize in Salt Lake City... maybe next year?

Post-race refueling was at IHOP this time, and then I had a full day of sightseeing before flying back to SLC. John, Aline, and I checked out the Santa Barbara Mission, the town of Solvang, and several beaches along the coast.

Both of these races are top notch events and are worth checking out. I'm hoping to go back next year and I already have 13:39 / 3:59 in my head :-)

Fontana Days 5K
Beautiful Santa Barbara

Racing the mile on State Street
Finish Chute

Santa Barbara Mission




This would be an awesome climbing tree!


Solvang, CA

Some of the best cookie dough ice cream I've ever had can be found here
(no offense to Kroger)
The Pacific coast!
Aline and John



No dogs?!?! Not fair!!!
The Santa Barbara airport is TINY
I flew out on this little prop plane at sunset. Very cool flying along the coast at that hour.

6 comments:

  1. I live out at Refugio beach in SB! Run that bike path every day! Looks like you visited there! I was busy running the O2O marathon in Ventura (which you should put on your list for next year)but it would have been great to meet you. So glad you had such a great time. You and your wife are very inspiring! I love reading about your races and triumphs. Congrats on a great racing weekend!

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  2. I ran the half marathon in Fontana and I agree this was a great event really well organized also!
    I am pretty sure I saw you at the packey pick up..if you went Friday between 4 and 5...
    congrats on your 2nd place!

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  3. BEAUTIFUL! I think that's great racing for a long distance guy like yourself - I really need to work on moving my 5k a bit faster. It's pathetic. And forget my mile!

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  4. Momma - Yep, that was Refugio Beach. We went there on Sunday afternoon.

    Caroline - that probably was me... I was there sometime in that range, wearing a bright orange shirt? :-)

    Gracie - Its fun to drop down to shorter races once in a while. Marathon training, although very challenging in about a hundred different ways, gets "comfortable" after a while. Getting faster in short distances will only make you a better long distance runner, in my opinion.

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  5. Awesome pictures Jake! I love that you squeezed so much into a 48 hour trip. Pretty impressive all around if you ask me. :)

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  6. yep it was you! I should have said something!!! next time I will!!!

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