So this was the final go around to try to better my BQ time with the upcoming registration for the 2015 Boston Marathon. The weekend started off with a 2 hour travel on Saturday to Du Loache Winery in Santa Rosa, where the race expo and packet pick-u pwas hosted.
The packet pick-up was was a nice change than the normal environment of those found inside a expo or exhibition hall, where most marathons have their expos. This was outdoors with a few booths, plenty of wine and a quick and painless experience. After grabbing the goodies, I headed off to check into our hotel before heading to dinner at a local downtown place, Flip-It.

People often ask me what my pre marathon dinner typically consist of. My answer is, whatever I feel like having for dinner. This pre marathon evening one thing on the menu stuck out at me, the Crispy Portobello Veggie Burger!
After a yummy bite, it time to head back to the hotel and get a good nights rest. This evening sleep would have me experience something I had not experienced in a long time. Around 3:20am I was awaken by a violent shake. One so strong I thought my wife was shaking me to wake up as if there was something going on in the form of an emergency. I was completely wrong, this tremble was an earthquake. The last time I felt an earthquake was back in the late 80s. After jumping on Twitter to find out what was going on, apparently this shocker was felt by plenty and in fact was measured at a 6.1 magnitude causing some serious damage in nearby Napa. With all the commotion, I was still focused on trying to get some shut eye before the morning race.

With being able to catch a little more shut eye it was now time to head to the start area. The pre race time was pretty well timed, I walked to the park where the start and finish line were located, dropped my gear bag, said hello to Erin, headed to the Porto-A-Potty and finally found my way to the start line.
At the start line everything was smooth as could be, the normal hustling of runners to find their pace groups, and last minute well wishes amongst one another even if you didn’t know them. Shortly after 6:00AM we were on our way to conquer 26.2-miles around Santa Rosa.

The first 2.5 miles took us through downtown Santa Rosa before heading onto a river trail for a good portion of the race, with the out and back with a loop course, the back miles were visible as a constant reminder of this is a marathon not a sprint.

While enjoying the river trail that would hopefully lead to bettering my 2015 Boston Marathon qualifying time, I ran along side the 3:10 pace group. Though a 3:05 would be nice and a sub 3:00 would be even better, the reality of hitting those times would be tough not having gone through a full marathon training cycle, not to mention having ran The San Francisco Marathon just 4 weeks prior to Santa Rosa.

By the half marathon point I was around where I wanted to be which was 1:33:xx. At this point I was feeling pretty good, but running alone for the most part with a few exceptions of catching up to and getting passed by others.

From here I was cruising along, but started to feel a little tired. My splits and overall average pace start to drop a bit. As it started to drop, I wasn’t overly concerned with it too much because mile 20 was starting to near, and I knew I could try to give it a hard push for the final 10k.

During that final 10k, I only had the legs to push for the first 5k of them. After slushing my way through the final 5k and to the finish line, I was able to cross my 23rd marathon at a time of 3:16:24.

For those of you counting this is my 8th run that is at least 26.2 miles or longer in my quest for 14 (26.2+ mile runs) in (20)14.

The #14in14 continues on. This past weekend I ran my 6th run of marathon distance or further. With a little change in schedules and plans, the Western Pacific Marathon became my spring target race. The training was done and going into this race, I didn't have any reservations or leave any doubts in my mind, last week I posted about my 3 goals for the race, which I wrote out comfortably based on weeks of training.

This specific race was selected on a number of requirements:

it's date based on my other target race
it was drivable the day of
most importantly it was a Boston Qualifying race per USTAF'

I really like that Brazen Racing events are that they are extremely well organized and they offer a day of the race packet pick-up. With the day of race pick-up, I jumped in my car and headed to Fremont at 4:00AM to tackle the 2 hour drive.

The drive was pretty easy especially in the early morning with very few cars on the road. Once I got to Quarry Lakes Regional Recreational Area in Fremont, I found the prime parking spot. You know the one closest to the port-o-potties and packet pick-up and everything else. To be fair, every spot was close to everything you needed as a runner since it is a small race the area wasn't overly impacted with tons of traffic and all the hoopla of bigger races.

With bib and other swag in my possession I still had about an hour before I started the marathon, so I decided to jump back into my car listen to some jams and get my gear ready for the 26.2-mile journey I was ready to take on. I also made sure I was consuming some fluids at this point throwing down some Nuun Hydration.

With my bib pinned onto my new Bib Rave singlet, I was ready to make my way to the start line area. With small races, the beauty of the start line area is that you can make your way to the line just minutes before the horn. At the start area I saw Erin and was formally introduced to Anil, who I have been chatting with through Strava. It is always nice to put a real person with the digital / social media person we get to know through training and running.

At the start, I knew it would be important to try to find some other runners that would be running the same pace or at least around the same pace as I. With the fastest pace group being a 3:15, I knew I would have to either find a pack to run with or run alone for most of the course. I quickly found 4 guys who were shooting for a sub 3 hour group, however we quickly dismissed one of the runners after we started talking about pace and race strategies. Most runners in the group were shooting for 6:45-6:50 / mi pace, which is right under the 3 hour mark. However, the one runner who was quickly dismissed stated he was going to try to run 6:30's, as a group the other 3 runners said that is well under 3 hours, his response ... "Oh".

With a 10 second count down and the blow of a horn, we were off and running to see what the next 26.2-mile journey had in store for us today. The first couple of miles were ran inside of the Regional Recreational Area, before making our way long a canal pathway. The course was pretty simple to follow, as it consisted of an out to a turnaround, a back to the regional area, then past the entry way of the regional area heading to a second turnaround before making our way for the final 2 miles within the recreational area. All of the course was either gravel or pavement, with most of the course being gravel.

Heading out along the canal I was feeling pretty sharp, running around sub 7s, exact times for each miles I don't keep rather I know where I needed to be for certain miles for the race. With the sub 3:05 goal, the buffer is always being at mile 20 at or before 2:20 into the race.

As for the race description, there really wasn't much to break down since the race had some miles of long straight stretches that became somewhat lonely very quickly until about mile 12.5 where the first turnaround took place, there I would see the other lead group as well as at the turnaround coming back and seeing many of the other marathon runners making their way out to the turn.

This long stretch would again be a bit lonely until about the 6.5 mile out marker where the half marathon turn around took place, but even then it was the tail end of the half marathoners that would remain on the course.

Honestly, this recap is about the glitz and the glamor of what I saw on the race, but rather it is more of what happened and where the race broke down for me. Yes, the moments where goals A, B, and C were lost.

All three of my goals seemed to have dropped off all around the same time. Somewhere between miles 16.5 and 18 is where everything shutdown. I literally felt like my race just wasn't on for that day and at that point it became a run. After the mile 16 mark, I was still running 6:50ish per mile, which would have gotten me to the finish line under the 3 hour mark. Then suddenly my legs just got tired, I wish I had more than that, but it was just one of those days that happens.

After seeing and feeling my body more cruising from mile mark to mile mark, I felt that overall I started to labor a little more than normal through the next few miles. During these next 2 - 3 miles I still wanted to see where could I be by mile 20, if I could still hit the magic number of 2 hours 20 minutes, then I would still have a realistic shot at getting one of my 3 goals.

I got to the mile 20 marker just after my Garmin read 2:20, which meant I had a shot, however my body was not ready to kick back into race mode and tackle the final 10k with anything more than just a run. At this point I had to do a systems and mentality check. My legs were tired and mentally, what really was there on the line except my goals?

The next 10k would be something that I didn't expect, going into the race, I was hoping that the final 10k would involve a surge of energy, though as every marathoner knows the final 10k is always the toughest, no matter how well trained you are for the race. The last 10k would involve myself running at an easy ... more like very very easy pace ... while reminding myself it is just running. I have gone out before and made the mistake of being so invested in my goals and not meeting them, I didn't enjoy the day running. Since that moment in 2013 at the LA Marathon, I promised myself that every race would end with a smile. I have done just that up to this point and wouldn't make today any different.

With a couple of miles left in the race, I was back into the Regional Recreational Area where I could see the finish line area and hear the MC calling out runners names. With about a mile to go, I saw some familiar faces with Erin and Albert (another fellow TSFM 2014 Ambassador) snapping some photos and providing me some words of encouragement to finish strong.

To be honest, I did make a final push for the finish for 2 reasons, the end of the race was nearing and most importantly there was another marathoner just a few yards behind me. Yup, the next to cross the finish line would be 9th place overall. So with a last minute surge, I broke for the finish and crossed the line with an official time of 3:15:30. This finishing time was good enough for 9th overall and 2nd in my age group, putting me about 13 minutes behind the winner.

Even after the race, I started to reflect on my goals and what I had done on the course. Less than 2 years ago I would have been ecstatic with a 3:15:xx finish. Now fast forward to today where a 3:15 is a bad day on the course, is pretty F'ing amazing. Obviously, I was disappointed with not hitting my goals, but taking a look at where I was and where I am now is pretty fun. In December of 2012 I hadn't even broken the 3:30 mark in a marathon, since then I have ran seven marathons under 3:23:00.

A few months ago, I signed up for the Mokelumne River 26.2 managed and organized by Elemental Running. Then on Wednesday or Thursday this past week I decided to email the race director and find out if it was possible to upgrade to the 50k, with a quick response back from him, I was now officially moved from 26.2-miles to the 50k. The motivation you may ask? Well I found out that the 50k finishers get a jacket ... Yes, I am a sucker for swag.

So here I was, on my way to run my first ever 50k race. However, this wouldn't be my longest distance in a single run. In 2013, I ran the Dirty Half-Dozen 6 Hour Endurance Run and earlier this year I opted to say hello to turning 34 by running 34-miles. After upgrading to the 50k an email went out that was titled "Mokelumne River Runner Instructions", this email had the typical packet pick-up instructions along with some interesting additional instructions regarding cows, bulls, ticks and poison oak. At this point I started to think ... WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST UPGRADE TO? However, I knew that the jacket would be awesome and would be worth it. Wait, I didn't even know what the jacket was like, it could have been a cotton zip jacket, fingers crossed and let's hope it is a legit running jacket.

Saturday morning came around with a 3:30AM wake-up alarm. This early start to my day would allow me to have my typical smoothie breakfast, cup of coffee, and handful of ENERGYbits®. After making sure I had all of my goodies in my crate and bags I was off to pick-up my buddy Kevin who was running the 26.2-mile run. This would be his 2nd marathon overall. He ran his first marathon last month.

The drive would seem to be a bit long while on the roads, but time wise only took a little over 60 minutes. The highways leading to Lake Camanche in Valley Springs would be pretty dark and lonely at times and border line spooky with very little light along the road. Once we pulled up to the South Shore of Lake Camanche, we were welcomed with a back log of cars getting into the staging area as each car would have to purchase a parking pass to get in.

Once inside of the staging area, we walked to the packet pick-up got our swag (a bib number, shirt, pins, and some other stuff in a bag). With about 1 hour until start time for the 6:30AM 50-mile and 50k start, I proceeded back to my truck to get ready, here is where I saw my cousin Edd who was also running the 50k. Not too much after I saw a couple of my Buffalo Chips Running Club teammates (Laura and Kynan Matz), another one of my twitter running homies Clint, and a few others. I partly wanted this 50k to be a somewhat secret race since it was going to be my first 50k and I didn't train specifically for this race. However, with all of the familiar faces it was going to be far from a secret.

After I through on my race attire, pinned my bib and loaded up my handheld bottle with some Nuun Hydration, I walked about 1/4-mile to the start line area. At this point I saw trail badass Paulo and a handful of other top notch trail runners who would be out to try to win this thing with some smashing times. One thing I do really enjoy about trail running is the low pressure start line areas, there isn't as much anxiety at these races. For me I knew just getting out and enjoying the trails would be a good day, and obviously finishing my first 50k. While waiting for the start to come around we saw the minutes tick by, first it was 6:35, then 6:40, not until 6:46AM did we start the race. During this time a few of us joked about the bulls on the trails and how awesome (not really) it would be if we got chased by one or two.

With the race now underway, I opted to start around middle of the pack, since this was my first 50k I was going to run somewhat smart and start slow and push where I felt like I could. The course was an out and back, so the out would allow me to figure out the trail and the back would allow me to run a little more consistent, or at least that was the plan. My strategy using my "lap" button would provide me some info on distance from aid station to aid station as well as moving time between each one.

Start to Lancha Plana (aid station 1)
With a conservative start I started with runners around me moving through the trails once the trails opened up around the first mile or I took at the opportunity to pass some runners and run in my own space on the trails. Around 2 miles in, I was now running around 2-3 runners. This would be the case for most of the race.

The first portion of the race would cover just under 4 miles based on my Garmin, at this point there weren't any major climbs nor was there any sight of cows and bulls, the only thing to report at this point were the sounds of cows somewhere in the grazing areas. The gates at this point were open so there wasn't any time wasted on opening and closing of gates.

I ran the first section of the trail in a time of 35:29. Once I got to the aid station, I made sure to refill my water bottle since the next stretch to Campo Seco would be around 8 miles without any aid between.

Lancha Plana to Campo Seco (aid station 2)
Right after leaving this aid station, I passed a couple other runners and came across my first cattle grazing gate that I actually had to open and shut behind me. Once I separated myself from a couple of those runners I had just passed, I really started to enjoy the trails, but this is where it seemed like the cows mooing started to get a little louder, to be honest I got freaked out a little bit because of the fact that what if a cow and bull were just hanging out nearby, I would be kind of screwed since I was by myself on the trails.

With the trails all to myself and about 2.5 miles out from the Lancha Plana aid station, this is where I fell and literally almost ate shit! Some people use the term, "I ate shit" as a way of saying they fell pretty hard. However, in my case, I tripped on a rock and landed inches from eating a cow pie. I collected myself brushed off the dirt and washed my cut from my fall and continued on my way.

Some of these areas along the trail during this stretch were pretty exposed and the sun started peaking out and really started to take a toll on me, I knew having a handheld would save me during this run. During this stretch I would also have a decent little climb to make. With the combination of sun and climbing I made sure to keep the fluids coming as well as consume my fruit bars and gels that I had in my pack.

After getting past the climb, the downhill along with some open meadows allowed me to switch up my focus and just cruise down rather than struggle up. Just before the Campo Seco I started to see a couple of runners in front of me, this was a good thing because as fun as the trails had become, they had started to become a little lonely at times, so seeing other runners provided me a little bit of joy.

This stretch took me 1:15:09 to cover the approximately 8 miles.

Campo Seco to 50k turnaround
I was quickly out of the Campo Seco aid station after refilling my water and dropping my Nuun into the bottle. I also grabbed a handful of pretzels to help with some salt and something other than just fruit bars and gels.

After getting out fairly quickly of this aid station which would take me to the 50k turnaround some 2.5 miles out or so, I was passed up one runner who got into the area before I did and was the runner who I had seen as I ran through the meadow.

This section of the race had a fairly steady climb up and was mostly on gravel. This area was completely exposed and where the sun would start to take it's toll on most runners. With the turn around coming up, I saw a number of lead runners already making the turn and heading back towards me. Getting out to the turn around, I passed 2 other runners who were in the 50k distance. Just before hitting the turnaround I saw Clint working his way back down, seeing a familiar face on the trail was a good thing at this point.

While at the turnaround one runner who was a few yards ahead of me continued past the sign, meaning he was one of those extremely BADASSES that was running the 50-miler.

I hit the turnaround 26 minutes 24 seconds after leaving Campo Seco. At the turnaround there was no water or aid, so I knew I was about the same time and distance away from being able to load up on food and water. The bright side of climbing up to the turnaround was that the distance back to Campo Seco would be mostly downhill.

50k turnaround to Campo Seco (aid station 3)
After turning around, I knew that this part of the course would allow me to see more runners that would be working their way up to the turnaround. This is always the positive part of an out and back course.

As I worked my way down, there were a lot of exchanges of "way to go", "nice job", "looking strong". Around half way back down to Campo Seco aid station, I saw Laura and Kynan. A little bit further down I saw my cousin Edd, who was snapping photos, however the photo he took of me didn't come out.

With the downhill continuing, I was covered the return portion to Campo Seco in a time of 22:11.

Campo Seco to Lancha Plana (aid station 4)
Knowing that there was about 8 miles from Campo Seco to Lancha Plana, I decided that it would be a smart idea to refill the bottle with some water and throw down some food along with my gels and fruit bars. I think at this point I ate some crackers and pretzels for some salt.

Heading back to the final aid station before hitting the finish line, I saw a number of runners making their way to the marathon turn around and came across one runner heading back to the next aid station as he too was running the 50k. We chatted for a few minutes while running along side one another tackling some of the hills. He asked me which distance I was running, I informed him the 50k, at that point he said "Damn, there goes another place in the race I just dropped." I didn't catch his name but I was a bit worried about him because he just seemed pissed, but it is always hard figure out during any endurance event, if the guy was really struggling or if he was mad. I offered him some of my gels and even some Nuun to pop into his water, which he refused.

After making covering more distance on this leg, I came up to the half marathon turn around point, where there were more runners heading back as they were the marathon and half marathon group which started about 60 minutes after the 50-mile and 50k.

This part of the race became pretty memorable because at this point I saw my buddy Clint on the switch back, he was probably about 5 minutes of moving time a head of me (about .4-.5 miles ahead if I had to guess). With a quick wave to him, he saw me and I could tell from his body language that he was going to pick it up a bit to hold me off.

Moving towards the end of this stretch I knew all I had to do was get to Lancha Plana and I would be able to count down the miles to the completion of my first 50k. After opening and closing the final cattle grazing gate of the stretch I finally covered the distance of about 8 miles in a time of 1 hour 17 minutes exact.

Lancha Plana to Finish
After another refill of the hand held bottle and a couple small cups of cola, I was ready to push the final 4 miles to the finish line. During my time at the aid station one of the volunteers told me I was the 5th overall 50k at this point. I knew if I could keep myself moving, I could probably hold off any other 50k runners behind me, though I wasn't sure if someone was closing ground anyways.

For most of the course, I was running alongside the 3rd place overall marathoner, who was holding pretty strong at this point. We passed a number of half marathoners still on the course making their way to the finish. I remember passing one guy who asked me which distance I was running and responded after I told him the 50k, "Dude you'e badass, enjoy that jacket!" See I wasn't the only one aware of the jacket.

With a couple of small climbs to finish off this stretch, I was able to see some horse trailers and some boats, I knew I was getting close to the finish line. I decided to pick up my pace a bit to see if I could finish strong. I finished this section in 39:47, giving me a total time for the 50k of 4:36:06.

After crossing the finish line, I was given my bling and jacket and checked the official finishers screen where I finished 5th overall and 3rd in my AG. With a quick high-five to my buddy Kevin, I saw Clint at the finish line, where he told me, "Hey thanks for the extra push, when I saw you on the trail, I said no way am I getting beat by Chris". Clint ran this race very strong considering he was dealing with being sick and coughing during the race at times. Clint finished a couple of minutes ahead of me and 4th place overall.

It was an awesome Saturday morning of running and I think another 50k is probably in the future at some point.

The Surf City Marathon weekend started for me on Friday as we (my wife, son and I) took an afternoon flight to Orange County.

After landing and checking into the hotel, we met up with some of my family for dinner that lives in the Orange County area. The dinner also served as an early birthday celebration with family. It is always nice to have a marathon in an area where family is near by, it provides for not just "race stuff", but allows for some solid family time and fun.

After a good nights sleep, I woke up and got ready for my morning run which I coordinated with fellow #TSFM2014 Ambassador Keith. Since it was easy to meet up because we were both in the same hotel, we coordinated for a 7:00AM start and would plan to go for 6 miles at conversation pace. Our route was pretty simple as we went out 3 miles along MacArthur Blvd, which was the nearest main road. Then after 3 miles we turned around to complete our out and back. The run allowed Keith and I to chat and talk about other things outside of just running. These types of runs are very enjoyable because it allows us to know one another more than just through the social media world and running personalities.

#SurfCityTweetUp & Expo
With morning breakfast completed, my wife, son and I loaded the car and we were off to the Surf City Marathon Expo and Tweet-Up. I was pretty excited to get to Huntington Beach to grab my swag, bib, and meet up with some new faces as well as other familiar ones.

The race offered a nice BRIGHTLY colored technical top! I am a fan of brighter colors especially when it comes to running swag.

Working my way around the expo, I found the Nuun Hydration booth, where the 12:00PM tweet-up was scheduled. Shortly before the scheduled time, I ran into Keith as well as another fellow #TSFM2014 Ambassador, Jody. Soon after spotting these folks, the masses started to come by and get some free swag we were handing out to people just for showing up!

One of those familiar faces that came by to hangout and co-host the tweet-up was superstar @SeeSharpRun himself! He was there to run the half marathon.

With the crowds starting to slowly move past the scheduled tweet-up time, we gave our well wishes to one another and made our separate ways out of the expo.

Saturday night before the 6:30AM marathon start would be fairly low key as we made our way to my cousin's house for some dinner, as well as allowing my son and her son to get some quality family time together playing. We chowed down on some delicious Thia food while watching Toy Story 3. With our belly's full and the clock starting to tick away into the evening hours, we made our way back to the hotel to get a good night's rest.

The following morning would be an early one as Keith and I planned to leave the hotel around 4:45AM to make our way to the start line area. This would give us plenty of time at the start as well as avoid some unnecessary traffic getting into the parking area.

Surf City Marathon
The 4:00AM alarm came pretty quickly and I was up and at it ready to get the day started. I had my typical morning smoothie and cup of coffee, like I normally would do on any training morning. For me routine, is whatever I would do during training. Personally, I think too many people make drastic changes to their routine on race day which can cause for some extra anxiety, taking away from the performance of the run. Yes, it is a marathon, but it is also just running.

As we made our way into Huntington Beach, the parking lots were filling up pretty quickly. The traffic was also getting pretty thick. Luckily, Keith had ran this marathon before and he know which route to take to minimize the amount of back up heading into the various parking lots along the beach.

The expo tent from the day before was already open to runners, this allowed us to stay warm up and meet up with others before the race. Surprisingly, the lines to the port-o-potties were nearly non-existent. I think this was due to the large number of them available as well as the bathrooms normally used for beach goers were also open at this time.

With start time approaching, we made our way to the bag drop tent and took a final photo before heading to the start line. I was venturing to the 3:20 pace group, since my goal for this race was not to "race" but rather to run easy and consistent. Keith on the other hand made his way towards the 3:05 pace group to start.

After the completion of the National Anthem, the countdown to the start was now going. Wave 1 runners (which I was part of), crossed the starting mat and we would all now make out journey 26.2 miles through Huntington Beach spending most of our time running on and along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Going into the race, I had to remind myself that there were bigger picture goals when it came to toeing this start-line. It wasn't about hammering this race, rather it was keeping my goals in tact for this specific race and running at long run pace for 26.2-miles. I didn't want to do anything in this race, that would leave me unable to continue any sort of speed work or other workout the following week.

The first 2 miles had us enjoy the Pacific Coast Highway before starting our way through some neighborhoods in the city. Not until around mile 5 did we start to enjoy more scenery as the route took us through Huntington Beach Central Park. The park was well supported with onlookers and folks cheering us on.

During these miles going through the park is where I started to find my pace, for the most part keeping the 3:20 pacers within conversation distance of myself. I was also able to start chatting with a few other runners at this point, we chatted about goal times, previous races and even family. The 3:20 group would hold pretty strong as we exited the park and made our "climb" from miles 7 through 8. When I say we climbed it was not very long nor very steep. In fact, I personally would equate the climb to a steep overpass.

As we hit mile 10, we made our way back onto the Pacific Coast Highway. This is were the route would allow us to really enjoy the view as well as see runners the entire way to the finish. The last 16.2 miles had runners either running on the Pacific Coast Highway or on the bike pathways parallel to it. The course at this point was essentially a double out and back for the marathons.

This portion of the course was pretty flat with a tailwind giving us some extra kicks on the out, but a slight headwind with our backs. After mile 12, we hit our turnaround on the PCH. Shortly after the turnaround we could cross the half marathon point. According to my watch I was just under the 1:40:00 mark. This is exactly where I wanted to be for this race. I knew the back half would be enjoyable with the scenic views as well as easy to manage as long as I continued to run smart and comfortable.

Just before the 16 mile marker, we would be directed onto the bike pathways parallel to the PCH. As I started on the final 10 miles, I was able to see more of the half marathoners running towards the finish as well as see many of the front runners of the marathon. It was fun seeing Keith making his way towards the finish, as I saw him running in front of the 3:05 pacer. He was actually well ahead of the pacer at this point in the race.

With a tailwind in my favor for the next 5 miles, I knew this is where I could run a little easier and use the wind to my advantage. At this point, I was starting to pull ahead of the 3:20 group and running with a few runners who started with the group, but were also feeling strong and running smart. This portion of the course provided a lot of support as beach goers, supporters, and campers were out in full force providing some encouragement to each runner as they came by.

After my final turnaround, I knew the last 5 miles would be a little more work to the finish for a couple of reasons. First the final miles of a marathon are always work and second, the headwind would be a bit of a challenge. Having run "easier" with effort in the previous 5 miles, I knew I could spare a little more effort to the finish and still run comfortable. Around the 25.5-mile mark, we joined the half marathoners where they would stay to the left of the PCH and marathoners to the right of the highway. I would be lying if I didn't admit that I did give a little extra kick after seeing the Mile 26 sign.

There it went marathon number 19 (#2 in 2014) in the books, I crossed it with an official time of 3:18:54 (7:36/mi pace). I completed this marathon with all of my goals in tact and was very pleased with my finish.

After crossing the finish line, I reconnected with Keith where we made our way into the expo tent to collect our California Dreamin' medals, for completing both the Surf City Marathon and The San Francisco Marathon.

Keith had plenty to smile about at this marathon as well as he hammered it with his second fastest marathon time finishing in a time of 3:02:xx. He walked away with some extra hardware as well with his 2nd place finish in his Age Group.

Post Race Fun
After crossing the finish, my wife, son and I had a few hours to spare before our flight back to Sacramento. I got back to the hotel got a quick shower and we then headed off to Downtown Disney for lunch and some free time to allow Donovan to run around and enjoy the Disney experience without entering the park.

This was my first trip to Downtown Disney, which is located between the Disneyland hotel and the two theme parks (Disneyland and California Adventures). The best part of being in this area is if you don't have enough time to enter the park and get your monies worth with the cost of tickets etc, this area is FREE! (including the parking). So the only cost to us was the cost to eat and a couple of toys that Donovan wanted while we visited one of the Disney stores.