I was so crazy busy last week I didn't have a chance to get this recap up until now. This is my third time running Rock n'Roll San Diego. See last years recap here. Since Sean & I met the day before this race last year, we will most likely be running this race more frequently since it is an important race in our relationship :).
This year we started the weekend by heading to a shake-out run with some of the awesome Pro Compression ambassadors and other runners on Saturday morning at Mission Bay. It was a great way to get our shake-out run in and meet some awesome new runner friends.
After the shake-out run, we headed downtown to the Convention Center to pick up our packets. I ran the 1/2 marathon & Sean ran the marathon. It didn't take long to pick them up and then we took a tour of the expo.
We grabbed tons of Suja samples, unfortunately this year they weren't handing out bottles like they were last year, but it was still nice to have some samples. We hit up the Maui Jim booth to get our sunglasses cleaned. We snacked on a bunch of snacks and most importantly, hit up the Altra booth. I have about 10 pairs of running shoes, but the ones I wanted to wear didn't make it back to San Diego with me after my trip to St. Louis. They had The One2 on sale so I grabbed a new pair and Sean got a pair of the new One 2.5's to try out too.
We decided to pay for parking down by the finish so we didn't have to walk back to our car after the race. We weren't sure how Sean's ankle would hold up during the race so he didn't want to walk too much extra. They sold the parking pass & shuttle for $15 + an additional $5 for extra shuttle tickets.
After the expo, we went to Richard Walker's Pancake House for brunch, OMG, the Apple Pancake…soooo yummy.
We were going to have to get up pretty early on Sunday morning to get down to catch the shuttle so we got some pizza for dinner, I got my flat Jenny photo and then relaxed. This was our first race at home together.
3:30am came early…but we eventually made it out the door by around 4:45am I think…I know it was later than I wanted, I like being early, I hate waiting around in traffic, but Sean isn't a morning person so we have a little give and take :).
We finally got downtown and there was a ton of traffic. We eventually got a spot at the Hilton garage, which was nice. However we went to catch the shuttle, and the line was crazy long. Like probably over a thousand people. We just kept walking and walking and walking and finally we go to the end of the line. At this point, it was a little after 5am and I was worried that we wouldn't make it to the start in time for Sean's race to start at 6:15am so we made the executive decision to walk the 2 miles up to the start.
I think the shuttle situation was a huge fail on Rock n' Roll's part. They even extended the start of the marathon most likely because the shuttles were so late.
I headed up to the start with Sean, wished him luck and then went to the front to watch the start. I saw Harriette Thompson, the 92 year old who was running and would become the oldest women to run a marathon, in 7 hr 24 min! As well as others, including Sean.
Afterwards I would drop off my gear bag at the UPS trucks, hit up the port-a-potties one more time and then headed off to my corral. Because I was planning on running a much faster race when I signed up, I was in corral 4.
I wasn't sure what I was going to do, running wise, I really had no goals for this race especially since the race the last week didn't go well as all.
I just decided to go my own pace and not worry about time or anyone else although that is pretty much my MO all the time LOL. It was a pretty overcast day although pretty humid. Being overcast is never pretty, but it is nice to run in because you don't have the heat of the sun beating down on you.
The race takes you around the city and this year, I recognized some of the areas from places Sean & I have gone :). That was kind of cool. The race starts in Balboa Park, goes thru Hillcrest, Normal Heights, around North & South Park and then back thru the opposite side of the park before heading to near Petco Park.
It's funny how I recognized places, near the DMV where I got my license & farmers market, we ran down the hill where Sean & I parked when we went to Great Maple for Maple Bacon Donuts, near South Park where Eclipse Cafe is. Notice a theme here? Most of my memories revolve around food ;).
Back to my race, I started out running pretty easy, I had some issues at the OC half so I wanted to be conservative with this race. I only walked one time outside of water stations and managed to run pretty even splits even with walking through most of the water stations.
My slowest miles were 3, 4 & 5 and I ran the last 3 miles much faster than the first 3.
Overall this race went really well and I really enjoyed it. I didn't have any major issues and my hamstring had just a mild ache but wasn't super painful.
I have to say I was really proud of myself for running almost the whole race, I was actually quite surprised because I was expecting to walk most of it and even though I was about 11 minutes slower than last year, I really enjoyed running this race.
I got my medal, lots of yummy treats and then changed into dry clothes, almost starting crying when I saw my brand new Lululemon shirt got stained from the safety pins on my bib. Oh, no :(. Thank goodness I was able to get the rust stains out by using half of a lemon.
We signed up for 2016 at the expo and got a cool shirt as well as an awesome pre-sale race price :). I'd say we'll be making this a yearly race.