The weather was cool and overcast, the course varied and fast. Couple that with Val’s preparation and taper, her 1/2 marathon PR was bound to drop and it did, by better than a minute, finishing at 1:40:13.

The 2009 Avia OC Marathon and Half-Marathon started at Fashion Island and Newport Beach and finished at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa; just down the street from where we live. Runners weaved through Newport Beach, Irvine and Costa Mesa bot both events and through parts of Santa Ana for the marathon.

Val’s strategy for a PR was simple: follow this guy.

He did his job well and Val stayed at his pace to the end. And I did my job well by getting her to the start on time and hollering out the customary “Go Val!” as she came up the hill from Back Bay.

This race was close to getting me fired up to begin running again, but not quite! I’ll enjoy Val’s PR’s instead.

Waking up to coastal fog in Newport Beach, Val and I headed over to nearby Fashion Island for the annual Race For the Cure event for breast cancer awareness. This is a huge event, attracting 30,000 runners for all races.

This is the first race for Val for the second half of her 2008 fall road racing season and she looked as strong as ever.

The race tracked around Fashion Island Mall in Newport Beach with a smooth, rolling surface. Val finished in 22:51 in a strong finish.

Here is what her start looked like:

Race For the Cure, 5K, road racing, Newport Beach