I was excited to run the Little Wharf 3 Mile Race. Over the past few months, I haven’t raced much. I have been busy with work, and during my last formal race (OC Fair Run), I felt something was off. Turns out, the next day I had bronchitis. I don’t feel fully recovered from that (maybe 80%), and after really hard efforts, I can feel some of the phlegm. This year, I missed one of my more favorite races, Wharf to Wharf, so I thought, why not go up for Little Wharf. Santa Cruz is about a 5-hour drive from us and an 80-minute flight.
The flight up was uneventful, and we got there a bit later than anticipated. They were out of rentals, and we ended up renting a U-Haul. LOL. Race morning came early. Little Wharf Race course is a point-to-point course, and they recommend you park in the mall parking lot and take a shuttle there. That worked out for the better with us because parking a U-Haul in the small downtown area would have been a pain. I jogged the two miles to the Little Wharf race start line. I had hoped to use the bathroom, but the lines were way too long, and I never would have made it. I told myself: “It’s just 3 miles, you’ll be fine.”
Little Wharf 3 Mile Race:
The Little Wharf was off at 8:05. When you leave the mini shopping center, you make a hard left onto the course. I ended up nearly falling on a curb, and I wondered how many other people did that. I figured the Little Wharf race course was similar to Wharf to Wharf, and it is. As the name suggests, it’s smaller (and shorter, Wharf to Wharf is 6 miles).
I was feeling pretty good during the first mile of Little Wharf. I wondered, how much of this is downhill, and how much am I actually back? I was running with a pack of people and ran a 6:17. The next mile is the hilliest of the three, and I felt every small hill. You have scenic and beautiful views of the ocean. I ran a 6:36, and I was like…oh…dang. I won’t lie, I was pretty disappointed with that.
The next mile has a bit of uphill and then a steep downhill finish. I do like the Little Wharf finish because it’s downhill, although the finish line is about 200 meters after the Wharf to Wharf. So you think: almost there, but you need to go around a turn. I pushed the downhill and ran a 6:26, finishing in 19:12 and, to my surprise, 10th female. (When I run Wharf to Wharf, I’m something like 70th+ female, so this was a nice surprise.)
Little Wharf Thoughts:
I’m happy with my race, and I know that Little Wharf is not a flat course. I was hoping I would not feel the remnants of bronchitis at all, but that does not seem to be the case. I’m happy to be racing again and hoping I can build on this for some faster 5Ks. I’d like to be running 5Ks again around 19:15 (or faster, of course).
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Questions for you:
Have you run a 3 mile race before?
What is your favorite race?