Huntington Beach Half Marathon

Eating is an essential preparation and recovery element of racing, especially for half-marathons. This past Sunday, before the Super Bowl, I raced in the Surf City Huntington Beach Half Marathon with my sister and her two high school teammates.  It was my first half marathon back in 2007 and I have completed 4 more since, including the one this past Sunday.  Fittingly, it was Meghan's first half marathon, but a much more picturesque setting than the first time I ran it.  In 2007, it was practically a monsoon along the coast, but this year, beautiful sun and surf all morning.  It made me so happy to live in California.

On my flight home, I picked up a Jamba Juice parfait as a supplemental dinner.

Meghan, Anna, Sonja, and I drove down on Saturday to pick up our race bibs and packets, enjoyed some free Cliff Bar samples in the participants tent, and then stopped by our grandparent's house in Laguna Beach before carbo-loading at Gina's Pizza and Pasteria.  Ok, carbo-loading is somewhat of a myth, it is best to get a little bit from all the food groups and that is what we did.  Meghan and I split the penne pasta with chicken and marinara along with a field greens salad.  Anna and Sonja split a regular dinner salad and the classic spaghetti and meatballs.

Aren't these race bags adorable??

Stretching led by Lucy

Really, that excited to see porta-potties

This is where we will be running Sunday, bright and early. GORGEOUS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!! Jealous it is sunny and 70 in February? 

The next morning, we had a bright and early wake up call around 5:30 (yeah, I am still grimacing from that time, but if you can manage it - it can be a lovely time of day when the sun rises and no one else is out on the streets), picked around the kitchen (eggs for Anna, an energy bar for Meghan, oatmeal and a little yogurt/banana for me, and toast for Sonja), and we got dropped off at the starting line around 6:30.  We had a successful and gorgeous start around 7:47, ran our personal bests, and decided to make it an annual tradition! Fun, right?

Four happy finishers along the pacific ocean :)

Driving home, I had the urge to stop at Whole Foods and drag my little running ducklings in with me.  It was like walking through Disneyland.  I personally have an interest in wandering through grocery stores and with so many different products, gourmet, organic, etc. (all a little overpriced probably, but pure goodness).  A better analogy would be that I was like a kid in a candy store - an overly healthy and organic candy store :)

How many choices can there possibly be?? 

M & I were hoping to get the macaroni & cheese, but they were apparently "out of sauce." How can you be out of cheese sauce? So we opted for Meghan's next choice - rigatoni with basil pesto sauce, chicken, and parmesan. 

Sonja explored this gourmet option and loved every bite!

My little indulgence from Whole Foods. Guiltily I am obsessed with Kombucha...I have hopped on the Kombucha craze ... Today's flavor - Cosmic Cranberry

Cute face Anna :) She was waiting in line for her sandwich on pretzel bread.  Yummo!

A range of hot and cold options - salad bars, grilled veggies, etc. Mmmmmmmm.

Coconut water. Yep, there are that many different types of coconut water.  I sampled some at the race, but am not sure how I feel about it yet.  

Drinks, drinks, drinks.

From Huntington Beach and racing, we headed home for the SUPER BOWL! More snacking and goodies to come.  Afterall, when you run 13.1 miles, I think you can afford a little more indulgence :)