Santa Cruz Half Marathon
Santa Cruz, CA
Official Website : http://www.firstwave-events.com/
Date : April 19, 2009
Race Type : Running
Race Distance : 13.1 miles
Race Description: The Santa Cruz Half Marathon consists of a 13.1-mile run/walk along scenic West Cliff Drive past breathtaking vistas of the Pacific coastline. Runners then pass through the surrounding neighborhoods and make their way west along a paved path through strawberry fields, past historic farm buildings to Wilder Ranch Sate Park. From there, it's a loop on the Old Cove Landing Trail (unpaved) with incredible views of the rugged ocean bluffs. Runners then retrace their steps back to the finish line festivities on Cowell's Beach just a stone's throw from the start line.
4 Reviews for Santa Cruz Half Marathon
I have done this race three or four time now and I keep coming back to it because I love the course. I have done several other half marathons in the area and this race definitely has the best course setup. Overall there course is relatively flat excluding four or five short ascents which are all shorter than a minute. The course also turns to a dirt trail halfway through the race as you run along the shoreline cliffs.
This race has the feel of a small town race even though there are a lot of runners. If live in the San Jose area and are only doing one half marathon this year skip the SJ rock and roll and go to the Santa Cruz Half Marathon.
Come to Santa Cruz and run in one of the most beautiful spots in California. You start the race right next to the historical Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The trek heads along West Cliff Drive past the lighthouse and the infamous Steamer Lane, where you can catch some of the local surfers shredding down the face of the waves. It is a pretty awesome sight! Reach Natural Bridges State Park and wind your way through the streets until you join the bike path that parallels Highway One. It is flat and fast and takes you into Wilder Ranch, A dairy farm, it appears to be frozen in time, with buildings that reflect back to an earlier period of our history on the coast of California. But the best is yet to come. You join up with a dirt path that literally runs along the cliffs with the Pacific Ocean churning below. It is so awe inspiring. My mind's eyes visualizes this group of thrill seekers out on a run on the very edge of the North America Continent. Three thousand miles of terra firma stand between us and the Atlantic Ocean!! And here we are traversing along a path that can take us no farther west. It is a great feeling!! You say goodbye to this part of the run and head back to Santa Cruz covering the same turf you did on the way out. A beach finish and you can kick back and know that only a select few have ever had the privilege of running on the edge of the North American Continent, and you were one of them!!!
Did this race a few years back with my brother as my first half marathon so I don't have a lot to compare it to. The course is pretty flat, half on pavement along west cliff the other half is thru Wilder Ranch on dirt. The course is pretty well laid out as to not bee too boring. It's not a real hard course for the most part just a few rollers along hwy 1.
The food on the course is pretty limited, I think they three aid station with water and one with gu at mile 8 or 9. I definitely recommend bringing your own nutrition for the race as it was pretty limited. Out at Wilder there are bathrooms if you stay up drinking the night before like my brother.
The bummer to this race, though I heard the post race party was decent this year, was that the post race consisted of solo cups and a trash can filled with water. It was shameful.
I'm sure I'll end up doing this race again because it's a good course and close to home. It's a good early season race to get you ready for the season.
This race has so much potential to be a fantastic event, unfortunately, the race management is a mess and it ruins the race. I've done this race five times and I am not doing it anymore. The last time I did it was in 2007 and the race started almost 25 minutes late because they were so slow at processing people and misplaced and ran out of people's race bibs. During the race there were only three aid stations that only had hose water served in 2 ounce Dixie cups. The water tasted like mildew and you needed like 4 cups to quench your thirst. At the turn around they were understaffed and you had to fill up your own cup with the hose. What? The final straw was at the end of the race, when they ran out of food and water before I got there. And it wasn't like I took forever, I did it in the 1 hour 50 minute range. For water they had a trash can lined with a garbage bag and you dipped your cup in, along with all the other sweaty racers. Soooo gross!
The race's one redeeming grace was the beautiful views. But then again that thanks goes to Mother Nature, not Firstwave Events. Seeing that I live in Santa Cruz I'd rather save my $$ and run this course on my own, rather than pay for it. Then again, if they made it worth my $$ I'd reconsider.