Borrego Springs Half Marathon

 We're still catching up on the blog, but no one will want to have missed an update on my running, so here's a report on the Borrego Springs Half Marathon that I ran back in December.
This was the first race I had run since the disappointing Coronado Independence Day 15km in July. Borrego Springs is a small town over an hour into the mountains between San Diego and Imperial County. It was the closest half marathon I could find that month, so I decided to give it a try.
It turned out to be a nice little race. It started and finished at the local high school and consisted of two laps on relatively flat roads. It wasn't a very big race; maybe 50 people total. The race organizers hadn't bothered to close any roads, since there were so few runners and such little traffic that it probably wasn't worth the bother.
My race got a rough start; I tried to stay with the lead group, since there weren't a lot of people to run with, but that turned out to be way too fast for me. I ended up right on my target pace at the halfway mark, but I could tell I was starting to struggle a little. I was concerned about the second lap. It did end up being slower than the first lap, predictably, but I was actually fairly pleased with it: given the rookie mistake I made at the beginning of the race, I was happy that I was able to hold it together as well as I did and still end up with a respectable time. It was a little lonely on the second lap, though; I had a six-minute gap on either side of me, so I didn't see anyone except Chelsey cheering for me. Even that was interrupted when she was distracted by the sea serpent crossing the road.
I mostly ran this race because it was the only half marathon near me, but it ended up being quite enjoyable. After the race, the organizers served us homemade peanut butter sandwiches. Very nice.
-Jason