After eating lunch, I gassed up the car and made the drive down to San Diego. I took the 5 freeway and exited at Sassafras St. I turned right on Laurel St and was planning to turn left on PCH, but I missed the turn and turned on Harbor Dr instead. I then turned left on Ash St to get on PCH. I didn't want to go searching for meter parking, so I parked the car at the parking structure at the Wyndham. I got there by turning on A St off of PCH just south of Ash St. It was also located just next to Ruth's Chris. It was $5 for 1 hr which was pretty reasonable. After crossing the street, it was a short walk over to the Broadway Pier.
The race packet pick-up process was super well organized. They also had people there to help you out if you really can't figure things out. The first step was to look up your bib number if you haven't already. Next you pick up your bib under the corresponding number range. Then you pick up your drawstring bag before going into the expo. The race shirts are all the way in the back under a separate tent out at the end of the pier.
Expo @ Broadway Pier
USS Midway
I bumped into a couple of my friends while at the expo. They happened to live only about 2 blocks from the expo. We walked together back to my car at the parking structure. Part of me wonders what it would be like to live in an apartment in downtown San Diego. It's my favorite city in California.
After paying for parking, I drove out to the Super 8 located at the Hotel Circle. I checked in and got a room all the way up on the 4th floor near the back of the building. The room had a very strong scented odor. I wonder if somebody had smoked in there and that was their way of masking it. Of course my sinuses protested, but eventually I got used to it. I guess I could tough it out for 1 night. I also noticed that the TV remote did not work. It had power, but it wasn't registering with the TV. I was able to figure out the buttons on the TV. I pretty much picked one channel and stuck with it. That reminded me of the good old days when there weren't remote controllers for TVs.
Super 8
I took a brief rest, taking the downtime to charge the phone before heading back out to find an early dinner. At first I thought about grabbing some ribs at Phil's BBQ or a double double at In-n-Out, but I wasn't really craving that much protein. Since I couldn't decide, I drove out to Kearny Mesa to check out Helm's Brewing. I first had a flight of 5 of their beers: Mariner's Marzen, Black Pearl, Hop the RIPA, Wicked As Sin, and Beeruccino. I liked their Wicked As Sin, but my favorite was their Beeruccino which won a top 5 best beer award in San Diego from CityBeat back in 2013.
Helm's Brewing
Flight of beer
Pint of Beeruccino
After I was done with my beer, I settled my tab and bought a bottle of the Beeruccino as a gift for my friend that had just earned his doctorate degree. We both love good porters and stouts. I then drove over to the nearby Santouka to eat dinner as well as to pick up some late night snacks at Mitsuwa. I ordered a small shio ramen combo with a natto rice bowl. The combo came with a flavored egg.
I then drove back up to my hotel for the night. I went through the expo haul and laid out my clothes for tomorrow's race. I watched some TV and eventually got out the negitoro bowl that I had bought from the mini fridge to eat as a midnight snack.
Front
Back
Flat runner
Negitoro bowl
Sunday 3/13
I had some serious stomach aches during the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure it was the ramen that I had ate that was the culprit. This was the second time that this has happened to me and eating at Santouka has been the common denominator. My body seems to reject the super oily ramen broth. I just think it can't process it anymore. It was probably not ideal to deal with diarrhea instead of getting some sleep before the race. Also with the start of daylight savings time, I even lost 1 hour. Fantastic! I got ready and headed Downtown to park near the finish line in the Gaslamp District. I found a nice metered spot at the corner of 6th Ave and Island Ave. Metered parking spots are free in Downtown San Diego on Sundays.
I met up with my friend to give him his race packet at the nearby 7 Eleven. We then walked over to the Omni San Diego Hotel which was right next to the start line to hang out and to use their restrooms. Thank goodness I only had one last bowel movement to clear everything out. My friend went to go check-in his bag and I headed into wave 1. There I bumped into a good friend.
Start line in wave 1
Photo by Chris Friend
I had a few goals for this race. The most important one was to finish in one piece. I wanted to get through the first 5 miles in about 40 minutes and then hang on from there hoping for a sub 1:50. I had not been running at all in between races and it had been 2 whole weeks since I last ran the Brea 8k. I knew realistically that my fitness had declined to where I my race limit would be about a 10k. Anything after that would be a huge stretch.
The race started promptly at 7 am. I took off at a pace that felt ok. I didn't chase anybody and didn't check my watch. I went through the first mile in 7:19. I knew that I had to pull it way back. I slowed down to a 7:50 for mile 2, followed by a 8:02, 8:11, and 8:24. That got me to mile 5 right where I wanted at 39:45. Mile 6 was 8:20 which took me to the 10k point at around Liberty Station. My fade started during miles 7 and 8 as I ran by the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot on Barnett Ave. Running along Barnett Ave always reminded me of my very first marathon, the San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon back in 2003. There was a short steep climb up Witherby St up to Hancock St. I took a short walk break as I grabbed a cup of water. Having run this race during the first 2 years, I knew that the long climb up Washington St was coming up. It really isn't that steep of a climb, but it's long enough to weed out the pretenders and those that skipped out on hill training. While running up this hill, there was a girl on a bike riding along side her runner. However she was having difficulty and the runner was actually pushing her up the hill until she figured out how to downshift to a lower gear. Anyways when I finally got up to the top, I thought I could coast to the finish line, but the inclines weren't over until I reached Hillcrest and made a right turn on 5th Ave. My legs were completely useless at this point. The left foot was hurting and the right hip was giving me all sorts of discomfort. I struggled to maintain a decent stride and a sub 10 minute pace. The downhills were actually causing more discomfort than the uphills. I reached the finish line running on fumes, but I made it under 2 hrs.
Finish line
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line I saw a couple of my friends who had finished ahead of me. I went through the finishing chute, picked up a bag of refreshments, and headed back to my car to get my jacket and to drop off my bottle. I walked over to the mile 13 marker and cheered on the finishers. I saw a few of my friends. After a while, I met up with my friend and we walked over to Henry's Pub to eat lunch and get some beer. They were among the places listed as having $1 beer for finishers. They had a pint of the Saint Archer Blonde Ale on tap for $1. After finishing my first beer, I switched over to a Sculpin. I'll gladly pay more for a better beer. To go along with the beer, I ordered The Burger and added avocado. Originally I wanted to add bacon, but I think I should put an end to that or at least cut back on the bacon intake.
Saint Archer Blonde Ale
Ballast Point Sculpin
The Burger added avocado
That was a pretty good burger. For some reason it was ringing up at a heavily discounted price at $5. The original menu price was $13. After settling our bill, my friend wanted to eat some more at the Burger Lounge, but I had to head on home, so we parted ways. I was pretty tired and wiped out from the half marathon and lack of sleep. I was dozing off a bit on the drive home.
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