This race was amazing.

Honestly, it was the BEST race I have done in my life, EVER.

And that’s a pretty tall order.

The race started at 6:45 AM in downtown Los Olivos

(Which isn’t in Santa Barbara… but whatever)

and took us through the Santa Ynez Valley.

It is ridiculously gorgeous.

The weather, (because it is in Santa Barbara County), was perfect for running.

It was about 50-55 degrees.

The first half of the race had rolling hills.

For those of us who train on hills normally…

(pointing to myself)

the “rolling hills” should be a piece of cake.

At Mile 7, however, we hit a HUGE corkscrew hill.

It sucked hardcore.

race-info-02

After conquering this ridiculous hill, though…

it is alllllllllllllllllllllllll downhill.

Seriously.

Miles 7.5 through about 12 are pretty much straight downhill.

(Check out the elevation chart at the top of the page if you don’t believe me!)

It was so much fun.

I couldn’t believe how great my legs felt at mile 10.

So, I picked up the pace about 30 seconds per mile

and held it there to the finish line, in Solvang.

(which also isn’t Santa Barbara… but whatever)

Finish time: 2:14.09

More than 5 minutes faster that I ran 2 weeks prior.

Anyway,

after receiving my medal,

stretching,

devouring some post-race pizza from the night before,

and hydrating myself…

I proceeded to un-hydrate myself with WINE!

Yes, wine!

There was a post-race wine tasting celebration and it was AMAZING.

It consisted of roughly 15 wineries pouring a number of different varietals.

SO AWESOME.

The music and atmosphere were awesome

and everyone was in a great mood because of the run.

Of course, the wine doesn’t hurt though.

It was by far the funnest (is that a word?) race I have ever done

and I have made a resolution to do it every year until the end of time.

Yes.. until the end of time!

I mean running and wine are by far my two of my most favorite things…

and when you combine them into an event,

it’s a WIN-WIN situation.

Can’t pass that up.

No, no I can not.