July 26th 2009 I ran in the 37th annual Wharf to Wharf race from Santa Cruz to Capitola. What a blast! The weather was perfect, a nice cool 60 degrees and what a great group of people! The race is only six miles and is full of eye candy. It starts in down town Santa Cruz by the wharf and continues on to cliff drive which follows the coast line and twists and turns through some great residential areas along the way. We also got spoiled with a different live band to rock us on our way at every mile, and lots of people on the side lines to cheer us on! I will definitely be doing this run again next year, and be lining up at a faster starting time! There were 15,000 people in this race and the first 8 minutes you couldn't even run it was so crowded! My race pace for my marathon 3 years ago was a 10 minute mile, but I have actually increased my race pace finally to an 8-9 min mile! Unfortunately because we couldn't run the first 8 minutes or so of this race my first mile took 15 minutes! But I made up time and finished in 1 hour and 1 minute! Not Bad! If you are considering training for a marathon or even half marathon, this is a great race to think about doing along the course of your training. If you are thinking about signing up for the 2010 race go to www.wharftowharf.com