Sunday morning came very early. I couldn’t find a place to stay in Santa Cruz (the Bayview Hotel in Aptos accepted my credit card and then called me back an hour later to say they had a two-night minimum stay that weekend, grrrr….), so Kevin and I woke up at 5:00 Sunday morning to drive to Santa Cruz.

True to form, there was a brief traffic jam on Highway 101 at 6:10 a.m. We still managed to make it to Santa Cruz by 6:50 a.m. Once I attached my race number to my tank top and gathered my world, Kevin and I boarded the shuttle to the race area.

We got to the starting line at 7:15 and wandered around, killing time until 8:00 when we were scheduled to meet my father and his friends (Dad and Kevin were going to walk the race route, while his friends and I would run the race). The Port-a-Lets were clean and didn’t smell (I personally tested at least four of them).

We hooked up with Dad and they began walking, while I warmed up with his friends. I was actually in a Port-a-Let when the starting gun (actually, it was a starting trumpet) sounded, but still managed to get across the starting line before thousands of others. 14,000 runners competed in the race this year.

The race was a lot of fun. I didn’t break my goal time of one hour (finished in 1:02:30), but I ran every step of the way and had a terrific time. Around mile two I saw Mike watching the race by the Crow’s Nest, so I gave him a big sweaty hug and chastised him for not participating in the race.

The race course was *much* more hilly than I’d expected, and I’m fairly certain that’s the reason why I didn’t break my goal time of one hour. I swear I didn’t think that mile 4 was ever going to end. I stopped at both water stops so that probably cost me about a minute, too.

The really incredible part of the race was the spectators. There were *30* live bands along the route, including the marching band from my alma mater, San Jose State University (go Spartans)! A number of spectators watched the race from their front lawns and cooled us off with their garden hoses. A lot of kids had those big super-soaker water guns. Getting sprayed felt great — I was very warm, despite the fact that the morning was cool.

I’d tied my windbreaker around my waist, inadvertently covering my race number, so I’m afraid I won’t get a picture from the event. Kevin took before and after shots of me with his new, tiny and absolutely adorable Canon Elph camera. We all met up after the race, picked up our goodie bags (the T-shirt design was pretty lame, and featured an androgynous runner. Think “Pat” with blonde hair), and drank beers while waiting for a deck table at Zelda’s.

Kevin and I returned to Redwood City around 2:00 (I slept the entire way home), and napped until 5:00. That night he said the “L” word for the first time.

All in all, it was a terrific day.