Last weekend I traveled down to San Luis Obispo for the City to the Sea Half Marathon. I drove down the day before and picked up my race packet at Running Warehouse. The expo was fun and there were good discounts on running items at Running Warehouse. I only stayed for a few minutes because I didn't need new gear and wanted to go check out the beach! But I appreciated how nice and quick packet pick-up was.

I went to bed early and woke up Sunday morning ready to race. My dad dropped me off at the start, about 30 minutes before the race began. It was easy to get to the start and there were plenty of places to hydrate and Honey Bucket toilets for people to use. This race thought ahead and there weren't huge lines like there often are.

The race itself was great. The weather was perfect, 50-60’s at the start. And the course consisted of a lot of flat ground and fairly gradual rolling hills. I am a big fan of rolling hills because my legs don’t suffer as much from the repetitive pounding in the same motion.

We ran through the city of San Luis Obispo, down side roads, along the freeway for a bit, then turned onto a local trail and finally finishing the last few miles with views of the coast and the beach. I really liked finishing right near the ocean and having views of the coast during those final miles.

The race finished at Dinosaur Park, Pismo Beach. I was able to finish in 1:55:39. I haven’t been able to run my sub-2 hour races in a while, so I was so happy to see this finish time! Part of this I contribute to my training and coach, the other part I contribute to the weather and the great course. Everything about this race felt right.

City to the Sea provided great swag. The race shirt was super soft and actually cute (though you want to size up ladies!), they provided a huge finisher’s medal, Running Warehouse cup and breakfast burritos for all finishers. There were also venders, massage areas and foam rolling stations. I felt super pampered and appreciated.

I will most likely run this race sometime in the future (and beat my time!)