Surf City 10 – California’s Perfect 10 | Race Recap

I haven’t written a race report in a long time. And maybe you’ll think writing about a 10k is boring. But there is no boring. This is the race that made me love running again.

The race that made me love running again

A couple of months ago, my friend said, hey let’s run the Huntington Beach Surf City 10. My answer was: “10k or 10 miles?” After a moment’s pause, we both blurted out “10k”, ’cause why not… Now you need to know we are both avid half marathon runners (and my friend throws in a few marathons here and there), so getting excited about a 10k wasn’t really a thing. A 10k usually is a warm up run, a training race perhaps.

But since my slow departure from half marathon running (the last one was the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon in 2016), I have started to look at 10ks as fun runs. My friend and I did the relay at the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon in 2017, which is just a little over a 10k each and hey, I liked it!

So here we were at 7.45am on a Sunday morning, which felt like a lazy late start for a race. The weather was perfect: 71F, sunny and a slight breeze.

And best of all: the Surf City 10 race is flat

We lined up at the start line and without much ado headed out. I didn’t set any interval timing and decided to just run and walk as I felt. The beach to our left, waves gently moving along, the sun out but not too hot yet. What else does one need?

Mile marker 1 came fast, so did mile marker 2. Surprisingly fast and easy! Shortly after mile marker 3 was the turn-around. It felt like a fairly short race (compared to my usual half marathon). Also, I guess after my last 3 hikes that had between 700 and 1600 feet elevation gain, this 44 feet elevation gain race was just an easy run along the beach – literally.

We weren’t running any records, but just enjoying a run like this made me love racing again. And guess what? I just signed up for the 2018 Surf City 10 race!

The medal was pretty awesome and also serves as a bottle opener. I call this a Win-Win! This race will go down as one of my favorite races, just for two reasons: flat & bringing me running joy again! And I will rate this race an aptly named “California’s Perfect 10”.