Run DMZ

About a year ago I set up a Pinterest board for all of the road races I wanted to try this year, if only for the novelty. The first one I pinned was the Surfing Madonna Low Tide Run in Encinitas. Billed as the Guinness World Record Holder for Largest Low Tide Beach Run, I knew it would be a crowd pleaser and I was right. What I didn't anticipate (and neither did other newcomers) was that low tide yesterday fell at 1:30 p.m., so the 10k/12k began at 1:30 and our race, the 5k, at 1:45. Most people run mornings, mid-day or evenings, so the unusual time fit the unusual course. But it made for some odd meal planning and also for hot conditions. Getting There: The race begins and ends at Moonlight Beach, which is one of the bigger public beaches in the area. If you're going to drive to the race, get there early. Parking in nearby lots and streets is typically packed on Saturdays anyway, and yesterday was perfect beach weather (low 80s) so plenty of non-runners were there too.

In 2010, social scientists asked some 340,000 people in 72 countries to rate their happiness using a 0 to 10 scale over a series of questions. The charted results of that seminal study resembled a U-curve, indicating people generally were happy in their 20s and 30s and then start to hit rough times in their late 30s/early 40s, reaching a low point in their early 50s before bouncing back up around 55 and beyond. One theory for the mid-life dip is that we realize, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, we’ve gone from being a man or woman with a future to a man or woman with a past. Certain achievements are cut off—like running a Fortune 500 company after toiling away as a mid-level manager or running a sub-3-hour marathon after decades as a mid-packer. We also start to suffer the unintended consequences of earlier lifestyle choices: having too much house; addictions; divorce or desertion; diabetes from a poor diet; arthritis from too many miles run on roads; etc. By the study