Holiday Half Marathon Race Report

The event itself: Where? How long? When? Weather?

Pomona Dragstrip hosted the start/finish line, registration, bib pickup, and gear check. This year the weather was really good. It was kind of foggy in the morning and that was good because the humidity held onto some warmth. It wasn't as cold as it could have been. It was not super windy. There was no precipitation. After about an hour the sun came out. The 10k, 5k, and kids race were on Saturday, December 14th. The half marathon was on Sunday, December 15th. We stayed at the Sheraton Fairplex hotel from Dec 13-15. We splurged on early check-in and late check-out.

Course description and evaluation of event logistics

I peed in a corner right before the race because the line for the bathrooms was super long. But that was kind of my fault because I left the hotel at 7:00 a.m. and the race started at 7:30 and it was about a half an hour walk. The walk from the hotel to the starting line was really good to warm up. 

I wore a sweatshirt, fleece pants, scarf, hat, and gloves. But then I took those off at the gear check. It was super easy to check my backpack. They provided plastic grocery bags if you needed it.

They didn't really do waves at the start line. Pace leaders were in the corral. They counted us down 5-4-3-2-1-go and everyone just started running. I barely had time to start my Strava and music. It was the most stress-free start line of the whole year.

There was a good amount of shade on the course, especially going around the reservoir. It was a lot hillier than I remember, but that made it really pretty too. The segment along the airfield between mile marker 5 & 6 was the worst for me because the road wasn't completely closed so they had us on a narrow shoulder with lots of rubble. I almost tripped. No fun but it was only a mile and the rest of the course was great. Between mile markers 12 & 13 was probably my favorite. It was a closed street. Finishers were backtracking to cheer us in. I was singing and trying to soak up the fun of the last mile.

How did you train for the event

I did my best to follow the F4M half marathon training plan, the runDisney Galloway marathon training plan, and the Roadrunners plan for the LA Marathon. I missed a week of training due to the ear infection I got right before Thanksgiving break. I still don't feel 100% from that. Luckily I have an appointment with a specialist on Wednesday. As it turns out, the doctor said my left ear was still infected on December 18th (after the race) and didn't clear up until December 30th when I saw him again for a follow-up appointment. It looks like I skipped 11 training runs out of the 39 I had on my training spreadsheet (28%) so it's no wonder I wasn't at my strongest on race day.

Your gear and nutrition

I brought a hat to wear, like a running hat with a visor. But my head got too hot. I ended up wearing my junk headband and gooder sunglasses.

My hair was up in two French braids and that really helped me stay cool. I'm glad I decided to wear shorts and a tank top with removable sleeves. I kept the sleeves on the whole race because it was chilly in the shade. I saw my "sparkle twin," who was also wearing the sparkle snowflake skirt. I ended up finishing the race with a bunch of really strong moms, strong teachers, and strong students and it was really beautiful. 

Watch on TikTok

The SRLA kids were cheering for Elsa or asking me if I were dressed up as Elsa, which I was. So fun that people recognized it.

My Muzen speaker died around 3 hours. My sister recommended I get a second vest and second speaker for the marathon. Then have Mike meet me somewhere mid-race and swap out. That made sense.

My fueling strategy was pretty simple. They had water stations mile 3, 6, and 9. So I took a Gu at every water stop. I did ate two electrolyte chews pretty much every 30 minutes. I've never done that before but I do think it helped. Like every time it felt like my body was starting to get crampy, I would chomp two of those. They're pretty easy to take without water because they're not sweet. And it seems like they work right away. I also ate two fruit strips around mile 6. And one stroopwaffle around mile 10. There was a water stop at mile 12 but by then I was out of fuel. Actually I had a Clif bar and an Rx bar but they were in the back of my running vest. I also put my dead speaker back there at mile 10. Since I had no water bladder back there, I needed some weight to balance the vest. If all the weight is in the front pockets it digs into the back of my neck.

The only mishap I would say is that I normally run with a hydration bladder. The one that I've been using has like a slider to close it, that is a separate piece not attached to the rest of it. And I forgot that slider at home. But it ended up being okay. I just grabbed one or two cups of water at every water stop. And it seemed like they had plenty of water stops. I didn't see a ton of mile markers in the first 5 miles. Maybe I just missed them. I kind of enjoyed knowing when we were at 3, 6, 9, and 12 miles. It made the time pass faster.

Specific experiences

It was really fun that the course for the half marathon went right by the hotel. So I got to wave to my son and my husband who came down to the gate and my son was screaming Mommy I love you. The 3-hour pace leader was really cool. He had on a Santa hat and a Santa beard.

Finish and associated emotions

I wanted to cry a little at the finish because I feel like I have been training for a long time to get to this point. Maybe I am already looking forward to having an off season. I know I still have a long ways to go to be ready for the full marathon. But it was rewarding to hear that my husband is proud of my training. He said some people only train up to an 18 mile long run prior to the actual marathon. Since I did 15 miles today, that impressed him.

Overall evaluation of the event 

I would definitely do this event again. If I feel up to it, it would be fun to do either the Golden Snowflake Challenge (5k on Saturday, Half Marathon on Sunday) or the Triple Snowflake Challenge (Half, 10K, & 5K for $140).

Race Spending

$80.50 for registration for the half marathon on June 5th

$16.90 for the kid's race (day of event)

$486.33 for the hotel (Sheraton Fairplex Suites & Conference Center by Marriott)

$20 for parking at the hotel

$688 for registration and lodging

We spent about $608 on food and entertainment. Dining at the Fairplex is really expensive and we bought hot cocoa, hot coffee, ice cream, churros, burritos, french fries. Imagine what you would buy at any fair and that's the type of food we bought. We also treated our friends to a nice dinner in the hotel (room service). There were many times we got food from the in-hotel restaurant. The good thing was that we didn't leave the hotel once we arrived. We had only a tiny fridge and a microwave in the room, we brought about 3x as much food as the size of the fridge. So we did keep the food we brought in a cooler and replaced the ice about every 8 hours, but it would have been better to stay at a hotel with a full-sized fridge. Although it was VERY nice to be able to walk to the race from the hotel. We also walked to the Imaginarium, which was a holiday light display and carnival. It costs about $20 per person to get in. It was definitely festive and Albert had a great time with all the photo ops. I would highly recommend that experience for people of all ages and abilities.

Finally, I spent about $200 on race costumes and gear for training. I got a Tinkerbell sparkle skirt and a matching visor. I got the snowflakes sparkle skirt you can see in the photo above. I found the "Let It Go" tank top on Poshmark. And I got a couple of shrugs, legwarmers, and knit shorts from a company called Move Dance. They've been super helpful in getting out in the cold for the morning training runs.

So altogether that means we spent about $1500 on the entire race weekend. How does that compare to other race weekends we did in 2024?

$1466 Disneyland 5k (with two park days)
$284 LA Big 5k (no hotel)
$522 OC Marathon (without running the race)
$640 CdM Scenic 5k
$1063 SMC Classic 10k/5k (with no hotel)
$1075 Mission Inn Run 

$1499 Holiday Half Marathon

So it looks like the Holiday Half was our most expensive race weekend of the year. I think that's partly because it was also my husband's birthday weekend and we splurged more than we would have otherwise. Also, we didn't entertain friends at other race weekends besides the Mission Inn Run so that was an added cost, but also a totally fun way to spend the evening. And we went to the Fairplex for the Imaginarium, which was a pretty epic addition to the weekend. Even without those extra fun things, the hotel itself was I guess pretty pricy. And I forgot my husband's swimsuit so we never went to the pool.

I would say this race was a great way to end the 2024 race season. Because this was my build-back year, it felt major to have reached a half-marathon distance. Maybe I did it too quickly, maybe I could have waited longer to make my way back to running. But one thing I will say is that I'm grateful that I registered for TWO 10ks and TWO half marathons. Because the excessive heat interfered with the Santa Monica Classic and now the wildfires have postponed the Rose Bowl Half. It was a big boost to my confidence to have two chances to succeed at each race distance as I build up to a full marathon. I had considered registering for the Citrus Heritage Run and the Palm Desert Half, but I let them pass by. I decided that there would be other years for those events. A new date hasn't been set for the Rose Bowl Half, but I'll write more about that in another post.