Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon

The more often I do races of the 13.1 mile distance, the more I love them. Of the 36 half-marathon or "Pikermi" distance races that I have done in my life, 21 of them have been in the past 13 months. Do not get me wrong - I still love a marathon or an ultra, but a half-marathon presents something different. Unlike the 5k or a 10k, where, even if I am running at my hardest, I feel like I still need to go for a run afterward simply to get a workout, running 13.1 miles is an event.

Everything about it fits perfectly into an early Sunday morning.  Sometimes, like in the Oakland Half marathon I ran two weeks ago, you actually get to sleep in for a race time of 9 AM.  You can still run very hard, be sore afte rthe race but quickly bounce back for a workout the next day.  The training, if you are strapped for time, is much more manageable.  The recovery; a snap.

So when the opportunity to add not just another half but one in the race series I have already run two of already arose, I jumped at the chance.  As such, I will be doing the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon this May 7th which was just named Runner's Worlds Race of the Month!. Part of the Destination Races series, the race will mark the third of five races I have run of this series including the Napa to Sonoma Half and the Oregon Wine Country Half.

While this race will come after my first Olympic Tri and I will not be "racing" it per se, I fully intend to enjoy every single mile.  I may have to take my FlipCam with me and record some of the glorious scenery along the way.  while this race is sold out (as are the next two in the series) registration is still open for the aforementioned Oregon race as well as one in Healdsburg on Halloween Weekend.  If you value my opinion, you will trust me when I say you should sign up quickly for both!

Hope to see you out on the roads!