Lexus LaceUp Running Series: OC Half Recap

Hi friends, happy Friday! It’s officially the weekend! Wooo!!

This year I am so delighted to be partnering with the Lexus LaceUp Series. This is a series of 4 races in Southern California between September and December that all take place in Southern California. I’ve been eyeing some of these races for years so when they reached out I was immediately excited to participate in the races… even as I get more and more pregnant haha. 

The series kicked off this past weekend in Irvine, CA for the Orange County Half Marathon, Marathon Relay, 5K and Kids’ Run. Even at nearly 22 weeks pregnant I decided that I wanted to see if I could tackle the half marathon so since the beginning of August I’ve shot to hit ~30 miles of running per week including a 10 mile long run so that the 13.1 mile distance would be attainable. I was able to hit or come close to this goal almost every week so I officially committed to the half.

On Saturday morning our alarm clock went off bright and early at 5am and Henri and I scrambled around to get ourselves and Liv dressed, in the car and on our way to the race before 5:20. The half started at 6:30am which if I was racing it seriously would have been realllly tough to get up for since I usually warm-up for 45 minutes but since this time around was a “walk to the line 5 minutes before the start” situation we were able to cut it a little closer than usual. 

We got to the race around 6am, parked with no problem and walked to packet pick-up which was very well organized and fast. They also had a TON of porta-potties which is always a major plus for a race. The atmosphere was pretty low-key but that can be refreshing, especially if you are trying to run fast and want to be able to do your warm-up up until the race starts and not have to hang out in a corral for 15-20 minutes before the race even goes off. 

Right on schedule the race was off! I had positioned myself right around the 1:50 pacer because I was planning to just take things easy but that ended up putting me in the second wave… which started a minute and a half after wave one. It totally makes sense that they want to portion out the runners since the trail is pretty narrow to start off but I wish I had known there were going to be waves so I could have positioned myself better. 

I ran the first mile with the group surrounding the 1:50 pacer but around the 1 mile marker when we hit 7:55 pace I felt like I was holding back a bit and decided to go around the group. Around this point I also decided to put in my headphones and turn on some music – I’ve never listened to music during a race so this was a new experience for me. The course was flat and pretty easy and very well marked (except for one U-turn that I almost missed because there was no one in sight ahead of me) and it was really fun to run around my old stomping grounds… back in the day we used to live in Irvine.

For the rest of the race I tried to stay relaxed and just have fun, not pushing the pace too much. I had promised Henri that I wouldn’t get caught up in the race atmosphere but it’s really hard not to get competitive with the people around you in a race. I texted him 2 or 3 times throughout the race to update him on where I was and how I was doing. Afterwards he was laughing at me for this but I really didn’t want him to worry!

At mile 10 I had been holding between 7:30-7:45 pace since mile 2 and I realized that if I kept it up I would run under 1:40 this got me a little excited and miles 11 and 13 were my fastest of the day – both 7:09 (and 6:33 pace for the last .1!!). 

The best part of the day was seeing Lavinia, Henri and some of my friends as I made the turn into the last stretch of the race. Liv got all excited to see me and shouted “mama!” which just made my heart melt! It’s the first time I’ve really sensed her understanding I was racing, and getting excited to see me run by so that was really, really special. 

We grouped up after the race, I changed into some dry clothes (boy was it humid that day), played some of the lawn games they had out and hung around for the awards ceremony to see two of my friends (and fellow coaches) collect their 1st and 3rd place prizes and then we were off to Mimi’s Cafe for brunch with my friend, Bethany, and her parents. The after-party that they had going on was hopping – they had a bunch of fun vendors and food trucks that you got a free meal from with your race entry! That’s the first I’ve ever seen that before and it definitely set the post-race celebrations apart!

This race was such a good start to our weekend and the Lexus LaceUp Series. I’m already looking forward to running at Ventura in October! Who else is going to be there??

If you’d like to join me at any of the remaining Lexus LaceUp events this fall you can get 10% off of your registration when you use code “LAUREN10”.

I was gifted 2 entries to this event but all opinions expressed in this post are my own. 🙂