Race 12-02 Castle to Coast 8.2mi.

8.2mi. - 51:31 - 6th/149
Garmin Tracking here.

This past Saturday I made the trip down to San Simeon for the 2nd year in a row for the Castle to Coast 8.2 miler. Although it worked well enough driving the entire way the morning of last year, this year I decided to stay overnight in Paso Robles at the Best Western. This way I could sleep until allowed me to sleep until 6AM instead of getting up at 3:30 and driving 3 and a half hours. Also, I was able to convince a whole other person that the race is worth the drive (Erika Kikuchi) which meant I didn’t have to make the whole trip solo this time. It also meant I knew a grand total of 1 (one!) other person at the race.

It was a little colder than expected leaving the hotel around 6:45. The car thermometer went between 23 and 51 during the course of the drive over the hill on CA-46. We got to the race start at 7:30 and had enough time to register and prepare for the race. It’s a low-key start – they don’t even give racers numbers, they just take your money, give you a shirt if you pre-entered, and let you know where the course goes.

The course starts at San Simeon Park, across the street from the Hearst Castle driveway. The first half mile starts north and then takes a pair of rights to make a big C onto CA-1. From there the course is mostly heading South on CA-1 which is actually facing southeast, directly into the sun. At mile 4 it goes onto a short frontage road where there is a water station. At the 10k mark we bear right off of CA-1 through a small neighborhood toward another park. Most of the course is overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It’s beautiful when it’s sunny but I wouldn’t want to run it in the rain.

I did a small warm-up before and was ready to go at the start line. I was unaware there was a drop bag service until I got to the start and didn’t have time to go back to the car. It was a little windy and warm enough to run comfortably in but not warm enough to be standing around in.

As the gun went off I started at a comfortable pace, around 6:30. I settled into a mid 6 minute pace in 6th place for the first couple miles and then the first woman caught up to me. She ended up hanging on my left shoulder for most of the way although she pulled ahead and fell back a couple of times as the small ups and downs affected us differently. I didn’t run close to anyone else the whole race. The guy in 5th started to fade in the last couple miles, but he had enough of a lead where I would have needed another 5k (at least) to catch him. No one was close enough behind me to catch me. I was moving at 30k race pace so I felt like I could keep up that pace as long as I needed to as well as outkick anyone. It would have been too much effort to go faster, at least with more than a couple miles to go.

I finished solidly and in 6th place which I knew would make me eligible for a whale prize which go to the top 15 overall (yes, top 15 overall regardless of gender which baffles me). I got a whale last year too for coming in 12th in 52:54 but this year the field was less competitive and I finished in 51:31.

After the race we went 4 miles north where there is a location for seal watching. Hundreds, maybe thousands of elephant seals gather on the beach at this time of year. There were newborns with their mothers, and some males too. We also went on a 45 minute tour of the Casa Grande at the Hearst Castle. It was an impressive building and the walk around the grounds was nice.