This was another one of those last minute decisions to run a race. I signed up for it on Thursday, just a few days before the race. Originally, I had thought about getting a hotel room. However, the prices were a bit high, so I decided to just drive out to Simi Valley on race morning. Thank goodness for race day packet pickup! I left the house just shortly after 4 am. The drive took just a little over an hour. I arrived at the Rancho Simi Community Park parking lot near the corner of Thompson Ln and Royal Ave at about a quarter after 5. As I found a suitable parking spot to my liking, I saw that they were just starting to set up the start/finish area. For some reason, I thought that packet pickup started at 5:30 am. The lady that appeared to be in charge told me to come back at 7 am. After I told her that the half marathon started at 7 am, she told me that packet pickup is always an hour before the start of the race and to come back at 6 am.
Even though the weather would be much warmer later, there was a bit of a chill in the air. After I picked up my race packet, I went back to my car to relax a bit. Per my normal race routine, at about 45 minutes before the start of the race, I went back out to use the restroom by the baseball fields. It was a small race, so there wasn't any rush or a line for the urinal. On the way back to my car, I bumped into one of my friends. After I got my stuff in order, I grabbed my handheld bottle and walked over to my friend's car. We hit the restroom one last time before queuing up in the starting corral.
Tote bag
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Pic from Dan at the start line
Per the usual, I started off the race with a quicker first mile. I stuck to my plan of taking a walk break after reaching each mile. At around mile 3.4, I came up to the street crossing at Tapo Canyon Rd. I noticed that there were chalk markings on the sidewalk indicating a left turn heading north, but the cops there were directing the runners to cross directly ahead. There wasn't a course marshal stationed there, so I just followed the runners ahead of me. About a mile later, I came up to a tall flag that marked the turnaround point. When I returned to that same street crossing, I noticed that there were chalk markings on that side as well indicating a right turn heading north. Oh well, I guess the course will undoubtedly be short. Shortly after reaching mile 8 and Erringer Rd, we were directed to run straight ahead for an out and back out to Madera Rd for a total of about 5 miles. It got a bit toasty during this section which seemed to have brought out the gnats. I inhaled a few of them. On the way back to the finish line, I was passed by a 16 and a 21 year old. My pace had slowed a bit due to the slight incline, so there was no way for me to stay ahead of those 2 youngsters!
From Dan finish line
Finish: 2:08:25
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, I received my medal. However, it would appear that they had run out of bottles of water. They did have water dispensers. As it was only a half marathon, I opted to just drink what's left in my handheld bottle. Not sure that I'd ever run a race where they had run out of water at the finish line. For a small race with less than 100 finishers, this really shouldn't be an issue. As I had suspected earlier in the race, the course that we ran was about .1 mile short. My Garmin showed 13.02 miles.
Finisher medal
My friends and I then made our way over the taco truck to get our post race food. I went with 2 chicken al pastor tacos. My friend went with 1 chicken and 1 carne asada. When then found an open table under the popup tent to eat our tacos. The same lady that gave me my race packet went around taking photos of runners for their Instagram page.
Taco truck
Post race tacos
Dan
A major reason as to why I ended up running this race was to visit the nearby Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. I purchased my ticket shortly after registering for this race. They currently have a special exhibit called, Auschwitz Not long ago. Not far away. It was $29.95 for general admission to the Library plus $3 for the audio unit used for the self guided tour of that special exhibit. I had selected 11:15 am - 11:30 am as my window to start that exhibit. I wanted to give myself enough time to get cleaned up and recovered a bit from my race before I started my tour. I had brought a towel with me and used it to clean the salt and gnats off of my face in the park restroom before saying goodbye to my friends and started heading out.
The drive out to the Library took about 15 minutes. When I arrived at about 10:15 am, the parking lot was already starting to get full. There was a train car near the entrance that was used to transport people to the Auschwitz concentration camp. After checking that out and getting my picture taken, I headed inside. I still had about an hour before my window, so shortly after checking in at the counter and getting my sticker, I started my tour of the Library. There was a lot to see! One interesting fact about the Oval Office replica was that Reagan wanted the dome ceiling to be to scale. They ran out of roof space so they had to lower the floor instead. As soon as I went through Air Force One and Marine One, I went to the counter to check out my photos. In addition to my pictures in front of Air Force One and Marine One, they superimposed the picture that I had taken at the entrance onto several backgrounds. They came out well enough that I bought them all for a total of $76.
Train car
Entrance photo with Reagan
Reagan statue
Star of Library tour
Air Force One
Entering Air Force One
Air Force One flight deck
The Football
Exiting Air Force One
Marine One
Entering Marine One
Marine One cockpit
Then I had to hurry on back to the entrance to start my tour of the Auschwitz exhibit. One of the volunteer guides told me to go through the 2nd half of the Library and exit through the gift shop to get back to the entrance. Even though I was late for my window, it was fine as they were kind of backed up. After getting my audio device I entered the special exhibit to start my tour. There was quite the bottleneck at the beginning. They were controlling the flow of people. Even so, it was pretty crowded in there. Just let me tell you that some of it was very hard to get through unless you're a robot without a heart. They have tissues if you need them. One thing I learned was that Oświęcim was the Polish name of the town. I had only known it by Auschwitz, the German name.
Auschwitz Exhibit
At the conclusion of the exhibit, I dropped off the audio device and then resumed my tour of the second half of the Library. It would seem that history repeats itself. When Reagan took office, he inherited a country in a recession with high interest rates and out of control inflation. Sound familiar? He helped the country recover by cutting taxes and implementing spending cuts.
Rebuilding America
14 feet structural beam recovered from the North Tower
Eagle statue
View from the Library
Berlin wall
The drive home took about 20 minutes longer versus this morning and it was hot! I had forgotten to precool my car before getting inside of it. I'm still not used to having that feature and will forget to do so about 90% of the time. Instead of taking the 5 freeway as I had done this morning, the navigation had me take the 210 freeway instead. I haven't driven much on the 210 freeway since leaving my old church in Arcadia, but I came across the same usual congestion that I would come across on Sundays. Back in those days, I would always take it all the way to the 57, but today I opted for the 605 to the 60.
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