The Holly Jolly Half Marathon

Barbara Rausch (MM14998, DA3430, HF16197), Rachel Ross (HF6506), Jen D’Italia (HF380)

Very warm day at the Holly Jolly Half Marathon in Camarillo. When we woke up at 5:30am, it was 62° and at the 8am race start, it was 65°. When I finished around 11am, the temp had risen to 78°. Normally, 78° isn’t really too warm, but a lot of people felt the heat today. Yesterday’s race in Clovis had a starting temp of 39°, so today was much much warmer.
This race starts at the Pleasant Valley Soccer Fields and is a double loop course run on the Camarillo Bike Path. Today, there were only 52 half marathons. Lots of 5k runners and 10k runners. Much of the race, I was running by myself and only saw other runners in passing. The course is fairly scenic and I don’t dislike it. I ran the same two loops at the Camarillo Half in August. At that event, they have a marathon, so it isn’t as lonely to run the race if you are slower than a 2:30:00 half. There were many more people on the route.
There are many aid stations on course that you see multiple times. Lots of friendly course monitors and other volunteers.
Finished the race today in 03:05:41. Just got it done. This was half 54 for 2023 and 207 total lifetime halfs. No more halfs until January 13th! 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 Whatever will I do?!? I might do a 5k on 12/30 or 12/31, if I have the days off.
This was a fun weekend of crazy with Jen. We drove about 850 miles to run a 5k and half. Trafic waz terrific and had some rain that started about 150 miles from home.