I had a feeling going into this race that it would be a scorcher and I should have listened to my gut. This race started at 8 am... in JULY. Are the race organizers morons? It's JULY, people. How about a 6 am start time? Duh.

Anyway, the race was very well managed and I loved the race day packet pick up because I was coming from out of town. By the time I arrived, at about 7 am, there was a short line to pick up my bib and I quickly walked back to my car to drop my stuff off.

By the time my heat was dismissed it was already 8:20. Which means that I, estimated by finish time alone, should have finished by about 10:35. Again.. IT'S JULY! How ridiculous.

The first half of the race was nice, some parts are on the shoreline (hence the name) on a bike trail through Ventura. There were aid stations at every mile, which was nice but again it was already hot as hell.

As I previously mentioned, the race is on a bike trail so for the last half of the race you are weaving in and out of traffic trying to avoid jerks who are taking a leisurely stroll down the coastline, oblivious kids on bikes, and people going to and from the beach.

I felt like I was playing frogger.

By mile 11, I was on the verge of overheating, pissed at all of the jerks who were in my way and was OVER the race.

Aside from all of the above negativity, the race was well organized, the swag was better than some (although the shirt was crap and shrunk in the wash) and I did get a beer when I finished.

For $50 (thanks to my RaceShed discount), I guess it wasn't all bad.

If the race organizers changed the start time to 6 am, I would run the race again (especially for the price), but with the current start time and all of the other obstacles associated- I don't plan to run this again. I don't recommend it to anyone- unless you currently live and train in the Sahara or Bakersfield, or you enjoy almost dying of heat exhaustion (you masochistic beast).

I don't.