I had a late start getting down to San Diego. Per the usual, I encountered a bunch of traffic while driving down the 5 freeway. There's usually less traffic taking the 15, but the route isn't as scenic. I got into San Diego around 10 am. I drove to the small parking lot on 10th Ave, located just south of Market St. This time around the kiosk to pay for parking was actually reading my credit card. It was a flat $7 to park for up to 9 hrs.
Gaslamp Quarter
From there it was a short walk over to the Convention Center where I crossed the tracks at 5th Ave. The expo was pretty much the same Rock n' Roll expo that I've come to known since running my first back in 2003. However the decor has changed slightly. They have been streamlining things and making things look more generic, so that everything can be reused at another Rock n' Roll race. It's a financially smart decision to use less race specific decorations. I didn't spend too much time there since I had already signed up for next year's race on National Running Day. What I found a bit odd was that they were passing out small samples of Michelob Ultra. I don't think they have done that in a while.
Legacy runners
Beer at the expo
I thought about eating somewhere in the Gaslamp Quarter, but ultimately decided on driving over to Phil's BBQ to eat some delicious ribs for lunch. Parking wasn't bad yet since I was there before noon. Since I was dining alone, I headed straight for the bar section and found a seat at the bar. I started things off with a Ballast Point pale ale and ordered a full rack of baby back ribs with a corn on the cob as my side. They have some of the best ribs on the west coast. I could've easily eaten another two racks.
Ballast Point pale ale
Full rack baby back ribs and corn on the cob
After lunch I drove over to the nearby Modern Times Beer to buy some coffee to take home for my coworkers. Since I was there, I found a seat at the bar and had two of their beers, Nitro Black House coffee stout and Fruitlands passion fruit guava gose. I would've very much liked to try some of their other beers, but I still had to drive up to my hotel in San Marcos. I will have to return here the next time that I'm in the San Diego area.
Nitro Black House coffee stout
Fruitlands passion fruit guava gose
Ethiopia Chelelektu coffee
I rolled into San Marcos at about 2:30 pm. When I first booked my room, it was still called the Ramada Limited. According to the lady at the front desk, it had changed to a Days Inn a couple of months ago. It had some pretty bad reviews, but it wasn't too bad for just a one night stay. It was definitely one of the most affordable hotels/motels in the area. I liked that at the counter, they had a sign warning people not to come here for a party. If you do, you will be kicked out and the room fee will not be refunded. Once I got to my room, I started sifting through my expo haul and threw away what I didn't need. I then watched some TV and took a nap.
Expo haul
Originally I had planned to only visit the Belching Beaver Brewery Tavern & Grill to have dinner and to check out some of their beers. However the Waze app on my phone took me to the tasting room at the Belching Beaver Brewery where they had some catered food, but it wasn't what I was craving. I'm glad that I had stopped at this tasting room as it was a much more relaxed atmosphere. I had a flight of 4 of their beers: Rabid Beaver, Hop Highway, Beaver Buzz, and Here Comes Mango. Of course I loved the Beaver Buzz because it was a stout, but the Here Comes Mango was a surprise. It was better than I had expected for a fruit beer. I bought one of their Hawaiian looking t-shirts before leaving for their tavern.
Belching Beaver shirt back
Belching Beaver shirt front
Parking was much harder to come by at this location. It was pretty nice and new inside. They had a good ambiance and decor going here for a restaurant. Since I was by myself, I went to the bar area to look for a spot. Since I love their peanut butter milk stout, I started things off by checking out their Viva la Beaver chocolate peanut butter milk stout. The Mexican chocolate they used was called Abuelita. I guess you can improve on something that's already good! The chocolate made it even better!
For my meal I ordered their caramel pork chop. It came with caulimash and vegetable. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so I didn't eat much of that caramel glob. The pork chop was indeed very tasty and moist. Definitely something you should order if you're a big meat eater and looking for something besides red meat.
Viva la Beaver chocolate peanut butter milk stout
Caramel pork chop
On the way back to my room, I stopped by an Albertsons to pick up some water. I laid out my running gear before going to sleep.
Flat runner
Sunday 6/5
The race as with all of the other years that I've run this race started on 6th Ave on the west side of Balboa Park. However this year, the finish line was at a new location near the Waterfront Park. It seemed like for this year, the race organizers were pretty late in publishing our options as to where to park and how to get to the starting line. I thought my best option was to find metered parking (free on Sundays) somewhere in downtown and walk up to the start. I found a spot at the corner of A St and 6th Ave. The meters did have a new sign on them that said that there was a 2 hr time limit. I don't think that I've seen that before. I decided to take a gamble, grabbed my stuff and started heading up to the starting area. It wasn't too long of a walk. I ended up walking up there with two runners running for Team in Training.
Start line
After I went to the portapotties and checked in my gear bag at the UPS trucks, I headed to the start line to say hi to my friend who has been the regular race announcer at a majority of the Rock n' Roll races. It's always good to see her at these races. Then I went to go meet up with one of good running friends. We've seen each other at a lot of races all over the country these past couple of years!
My race announcer friend
My good friend Heather
Corral 5
I started out of corral 5. I went out pretty conservatively and there were plenty of people running around my pace. This year, the course was changed quite a bit. We headed out to North Park and up to Normal Heights. There was a lot of rollers. They had the wear blue: run to remember tribute to fallen soldiers at mile 5. I think that was the last good mile that I ran. After that mile, I had trouble dealing with my sore left foot and sore right hip which turned out to be an issue with my IT band. During one of my many walk breaks, I saw people passing out shots of tequila. I took one. Then about 50 yards ahead, there was a guy in a kilt passing out shots of whiskey. I took one as well. Couldn't hurt at that point, in fact it should help me deal with my injuries. As the course was taking us towards Hillcrest, I spotted a fellow runner that looked very familiar. It turned out to be somebody I knew from Honolulu. I usually only see him in December when I'm over in Honolulu for the marathon.
Shot o' whiskey!
I bumped into a couple of my friends on the way over to Sea World and Mission Bay. On top of dealing with a sore left foot and a sore right hip, I was also dealing with leg cramps. However it was fun catching up with some of my friends that I usually only get to see at races. As I was getting closer to the finish line, we ran up 5th Ave. I peeked over on A St to check if my car was still there. It was a relief to see that my car was right where I left it.
Finish line
Click here for my Garmin data.
After getting my finisher's medal, grabbing a few drinks and snacks, I started heading over to the post race area over by the Waterfront Park. I guess my friends were keeping an eye out for me as they spotted me as I was headed to go pick up my gear bag and finisher's jacket.
Medal
Maniacs
The lines were ridiculously long for the finisher jacket even though they had separate lines for men and women. As I was getting close to the end of the line, I saw my friends from Hawaii. Since it was practically the end of the line, I joined them in line. Once in line, it did move rather quickly.
Finisher jacket back
Finisher jacket front
After getting my jacket, I had to hurry back to my car to go meet up with my friends for lunch up in Rancho Bernardo. I was off by about 45 minutes in my predicted finishing time, so I was going to be late. As I was walking back to my car, I was hoping that I didn't get a parking ticket. Fortunately I didn't get one. After I changed out of my wet clothes, I started making my way out of there. Traffic was pretty snarled as they had to route us around the race course. I eventually made it onto the 94 freeway where I connected with the 15 north. From there it was pretty smooth sailing up to the Urge American Gastropub to meet up with my friends. I had a couple of beers along with their Wild Whiskey Pork Chop. The pork chop came with a Wild Turkey whiskey glaze and topped with fried onions. It also came with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and crispy Brussels sprouts. The pork chop was delicious, however I don't like my Brussels sprouts burnt.
Pork chop
Each year the drive home feels longer and longer than the year prior. I was starting to doze off near the end. My gas tank was low and I had to exit to get some gas. Getting out of the car and pumping gas helped me wake up a bit.
This year was my 14th consecutive Rock n' Roll San Diego marathon. I'll be back next year for my 15th in a row, however I'm starting to consider ending my streak since I don't want the pressure of always having to run this race. The race does have special meaning for me since it was where I ran my very first marathon. I just want to be able to take time off from running if I happened to be dealing with an injury. Knowing me, I'll probably change my mind as I continue to slowly recover from my current list of injuries.
No comments:
Post a Comment