On my way down to San Diego to pick up my race packet, I stopped by the gas station to fill up the gas tank and to possibly buy some more fish for the aquarium at work. The pet store didn't open until 10 am, so that was about when I showed up. They didn't have what I was looking for, but they do have some nice young green terrors! Those are one of my favorite freshwater fish, very mean suckers! So I hopped back on the freeway where Waze had me headed for the 15 freeway which was understandable since the 5 freeway going south is almost always crowded on the weekends. It wasn't all that better on the 15. There was a lot of road construction and congestion. It took me over 2 hours to get down there. The first thing I did when I arrived at the Road Runner Sports in San Diego and parked was to locate the restroom.
Parking was a bit hairy with people coming and going, but there was ample parking spaces. I'm not sure if it was wise for them to take up part of the parking lot for the bib pickup. It was just an awkward venue for an expo. After picking up the bib and race shirt, we were given a pint glass and a pair of sunglasses. It was nice to actually get some decent swag at a race. We were also given a discount coupon for merchandise inside the store. The store was busy, so they definitely got some boosted traffic and sales.
For lunch I wanted to try something new instead of the old usual places, so I made my way over to the Iron Pig Alehouse in Pacific Beach. I haven't been to that area in ages, the last time was possibly back when I was still going to UC San Diego. There was a huge line of cars queued up to exit the freeway at the Balboa Garnet Ave exit. I don't think I've ever seen it this bad before. I supposed the weather was nice and everybody was headed to the beach. Street parking was a bit hard to come by, but eventually I found one that wasn't too tight even for a Mini Cooper. Once inside, I found a seat at the bar. I started things off with an Espresso Yeti. I then ordered the brisket with collard greens and potato salad for my meal. My goodness, that was some good brisket! I finished off the meal with a Big Backbones IPA.
Beers on tap
Great Divide Espresso Yeti
Brisket
Noble Ale Works Big Backbones IPA
I then drove up to the Quality Inn in Miramar to check into my hotel. I saw it from Kearny Villa Rd, but missed it when I came around on Kearny Mesa Rd. So I ended up circling again. It was sort of hidden by the Carl's Jr next door. I got a room on the second floor. I went through my expo haul and laid out my flat runner. I rested a bit before rolling out of bed to go check out some new breweries and to get an early dinner.
Quality Inn
Swag
Back of shirt
Flat runner
Drink all the beers! I'm always up for checking out new breweries. I've never heard of Duck Foot Brewing and it turns out that they were just established in 2015, so they're still very new to the heavily saturated craft beer scene in San Diego.
I drove on over and pulled up to the bar and ordered a flight of beers, each were 4 oz tasters. Here's what I ordered: Choco-nut Lust Porter, Irish Stout, Honey Ale, The Contender IPA, Double White IPA. The honey ale was not bad. While I dislike those in-your-face-super-bitter IPA's, both IPA's that I tried were virtually tasteless bland beers where I couldn't taste any hops. It was the same with the porter and stout. The tastes were extremely subtle... too subtle for my taste.
I read on their website that they aren't trying to brew the same type of popular beers as the top breweries in the San Diego area. That's a great approach to try to be different, but based on the tasters that I had, I thought they were very underwhelming beers. They need to step up their game especially with all of the great beer available in the San Diego area.
One thing that does stand out for them is that their beer does count as gluten free as they use an enzyme to remove the gluten protein. They claim that the enzyme is flavorless and odorless... probably as true as vodka is tasteless. I'm wondering if that had made the beers taste odd to me. Since I don't have gluten intolerance or Celiac disease, this place was just not for me.
Duck Foot Brewery
Flight of tasters
My next stop was at Reckless Brewery which was just down the road. It was a very small, informal, and somewhat unprofessional operation especially when compared to the big bad Ballast Point across the street. There were office chairs strewn all over the place. It was empty except for one bartender when I got there. I ordered a flight of 4 tasters: Beowulf's Mead, Sultry Black, Down and Out Black, Dude Abides Rye. Now these were much better beers. I especially liked their Beowulf's Mead.
Reckless Brewery
Tasters
I then walked across the street to eat dinner at Ballast Point. It was super busy, but I was able to find a seat at the bar. I ordered a Blunder IPA and their Surf n' Turf burger for my meal. I finished the burger and beer, but I couldn't finish the fries. The burger was nice and delicious because it included shrimp, my favorite combination for a surf n' turf. However the fries weren't very good. They tasted stale and just plain gross. The Blunder IPA made me wonder why I even bothered with beers from other breweries.
Surf n' Turf
Sunday 7/17
I woke up feeling a bit queasy, but I felt better once I took a shower and got ready to head to the race. Parking was at Green Flash Brewery. There was a huge parking lot just north of Green Flash and it was really convenient. From there, we headed east on Top Gun St to catch one of the nice luxury shuttles to the start line. It's always nice to ride in those instead of the school buses designed for elementary school kids. The shuttle dropped us off at Camino del Sur, just south of the 56 freeway. Just around the corner and up the Torrey Santa Fe Rd were a small table for gear check, more tables for water, and a bunch of portapotties. As to be expected for an inaugural race, there was almost a 10 minute delay before the start of the race. It was pretty much a no frills start. There was no singing of the national anthem. There wasn't even a starting gun, horn, or anything.
Start line
It was a decent and challenging course. The first half of the course was pretty nice and easy, just running on the 56 bike trail until we reached the 5 freeway. We then head down El Camino Real and Vista Sorrento Parkway before turning east on Sorrento Valley Blvd which would soon turn into about a one mile steady climb up. We finally got a longer stretch of downhill as we turned onto Camino Santa Fe. However there was another half mile or so climb up to Top Gun St for the final stretch to the finish line. Make sure you do your hill training to be ready for this course! My legs were pretty trashed by mile 6 or 7 as I'm still dealing with a couple of nagging injuries.
Mile 3 from Stephanie B.
Free race photos
Finish line
Click here for my Garmin data.
After taking my sweet ass time and finally crossing the finish line, I made my way down the finisher chute. They had small cups out for water and Nuun water. They also had Larabars, bananas, and other snacks. The finisher chute was a bit chaotic. The volunteers were having a hard time keeping up with the distribution of the finisher medals. The medals were individually bagged and they were spending a lot of time getting them out. There was so much traffic as people were all getting in line to trade in their drink vouchers for tickets. That really made no sense to me, as they weren't using that process to control the flow of people. There were 4 tents dispensing beers among other vendor booths, but the lines were all very long. They should have designated a centralized spot for the beer garden. Instead it was just a bunch of long lines almost crisscrossing each other. I got in the shortest beer line and got the Cosmic Ristretto Baltic Porter with espresso. I took a few sips and tossed it. My stomach just wasn't ready for any beer so soon after finishing a race. Since my calves were cramping up a bit, I found a vacant fold-up chair and sat down to eat a banana before heading home. I don't think it's very safe to drive long distances with calf cramps! :)
Medal
Complimentary beer
Cosmic Ristretto Baltic Porter with espresso
Overall, it was a pretty well organized race for its first year with a few minor hiccups here and there. I'm pretty certain that they will improve the race if they continue to hold the event every year. Will I be back? Only time will tell.
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