I apologize right off the bat... there are no food pictures in this race report. :) Since I've almost fully recovered from my injury, I've been on my best behavior in getting my weight down. I hope to be in the 140's by next month.
I'm not sure what happened, but after my little run on Saturday, the right leg in particular my knee and ankle started feeling sore. I woke up pretty early Sunday morning and made the drive out to the Westfield Mall North County in Escondido. I love races that have race-day packet pickup. These days, I hate the hassle of going to a race expo. All I do is end up buying crap I don't need and signing up for another race... by accident of course. :)
I arrived and parked at the mall by about 4:30am and God bless the volunteers, they were already setup ready to go even though the instructions said that they wouldn't be ready until 5am. One of the volunteers did sass me when I asked her what's today's date. She said something like, "yesterday is Cinco de Mayo and that means today is..." It's early and do I look Mexican to you? :)
Race packet pickup at dark thirty
I got my stuff ready and took a nap in my car. The starting line was just steps from my car, so it was very convenient. Reminds me a lot of the Carlsbad Marathon. The car next to me had a nice license plate frame, which read, "Live well. Love much. Laugh often". Words to live by.
Live well. Love much. Laugh often.
About 30 minutes before the start, I headed over to the portapotties. Then I headed over to the starting area. There were no corrals but there were pace markers for you to self seed yourself. I hung out at the 8 min/mile marker. I spotted a fellow Marathon Maniac while waiting for the race to begin. I had thought that all of my friends would be at the OC Marathon. I'm sorry walkers, but please do not line yourself up in the 6 min/mile area.
Goal A: sub 2:00
Goal B: sub 2:05
Goal C: just finish if the soreness gets worse
Before the start of the race, I was very doubtful I could make an attempt at goals A or B. The main source of my doubt was the soreness in my right knee and ankle. I had looked at the elevation profile and had a pretty good plan to get goal A. Due to the parking disaster last year, they had drastically altered the course. On paper it looked like a better course. It was relatively flat with 2 monster hills.
The race
As we started the race, my right ankle felt a little weak and weird. But I tried not to panic and just jogged it a bit. It didn't feel any worse, so I picked up the pace a little bit to get out of the initial crowding. After going through about 4 miles following a girl running around my pace, I pulled over to take my S-cap. I've been getting used to taking them every 30 minutes. Once I started back up, I tried to dial it back a little since we had a monster hill coming up at mile 7. It was a dirt road zigzagging a bit all the way to the top. I had thought about jogging up it, but then I decided to just save it for the later miles. I took my second S-cap while walking up the hill. The downhill on the other side was quad-busting steep! I tried to keep my non-hilly miles between 8:30 and 9 minutes. I was pretty gassed by the final big hill at mile 12. But I knew that I had accounted for the extra minutes for the 2 big hills to come in comfortably under 2 hrs. I took my final S-cap while walking up this hill. I still had to run one final mile. It was a relief knowing that I could go really slow and still come in under 2 hrs.
1: 8:33
2: 8:01
3-4: 16:25 (8:13)
5: 8:39
6: 8:37
7: 11:18
8: 7:56
9: 8:37
10: 9:01
11: 8:43
12: 12:11
13: 8:05
13.1: 0:50
Finish: 1:56:56
Post race stuff
I knew when I ran a 2:04:06 at the Hollywood Half Marathon last month that I was ready to get back down to sub 2. It felt good to be back on this side of the 2 hour mark. It also felt good to execute a plan exactly the way I had envisioned it. I'm hoping to be at least sub 1:50 by Disney World.
I'm starting to like the Gemini Timing system over the disposable D-tags. You end up getting to keep the nice looking timing chip as a souvenir. I didn't feel like staying in the zoo this year, so I headed for the exit after grabbing a Powerade and getting my stuff in order. On the way out, I had to stop to take a picture of these white faced ducks. My favorite meat next to steaks is duck! Run! Run away! :)
mmmm ducks! :)
At the exit, I caught one of the shuttles back to the mall. I changed out of my shirt and relaxed a bit in my car before making the near 2 hr drive back home.
I liked this year's shirt better than last year's orange one. Kind of wish the shirt was cotton. I'm really tired of tech shirts. I thought the medal this year was also better. The tiger eyes were green little "gems"! Gotta have the eye of the tiger! Gotta have that edge! Rawr! :)
I'm pretty sure I'll be back next year for this race again. Sure it's far and at a somewhat remote location, but it's a good race supporting the endangered Sumatran tigers.
Shirt, bib, and medal
Eye of tiger!
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