I left the house at about 9 am for the 2+ hour drive down to the Road Runner Sports in San Diego for the race packet pick-up. Lately I've been self-navigating and opting to not turn on the Waze app or Google Maps for any GPS assistance. I guess it's a great way to engage the mind and see if I can still remember where to go. I must say I do miss having to read and memorize maps.
Once I had arrived, I took the parking entrance just prior to the one for Road Runner Sports so I could skip the usual traffic and park in the back. Per the usual the packet pick-up was very straight forward and quick. After getting my race bib just outside of the store under the popup tents, I went inside to pick up the race shirt and a pint glass. Before heading out, I stopped to use one of the restrooms.
Race shirt
Pint glass
From there, I drove over to the Chick-fil-A on Carmel Mountain Rd near Poway to eat lunch. There was a lot of traffic surrounding this location mostly due to the drive-thru line, so I parked in one of the spots just to the north of the restaurant to avoid the congestion. Per the usual, I used the mobile app to skip having to stand in the ordering line. I normally order just their chicken sandwiches, but this time I wanted to try something new and went with their Cobb salad. Once the food was brought out to me, I found a booth in the back of the restaurant to enjoy my food. It was my first time having a salad at Chick-fil-A. I only used a small fraction of that huge packet of avocado lime ranch dressing. It was not bad, but I think I'll stick to their chicken sandwiches.
Cobb salad
After I was done with lunch, I drove over to the AMC Poway movie theater to catch a movie. Using my A-List membership, I got a ticket for Stuber. Overall it was pretty entertaining and funny. It looked like Bautista's acting is finally getting a little better. Kumail Nanjiani pretty much carried the movie. Obviously it wasn't an Oscar-worthy movie, however I thought it did well as a comedy film.
After the movie, I drove over to my motel to check-in. For this quick one-nighter, I stayed at the Ramada just down the road on Poway Rd near the corner of Pomerado Rd. It was pretty decent and adequate for just 1 night, but I probably should've heed the warnings from the reviews on Yelp. There were some shady people at one of the units near the check-in office, but they were probably just a bunch of potheads needing a place to crash. They were outside baking when I checked-in as well as when I walked over to the nearby McDonald's to pick up dinner.
Nice view from my window :)
For dinner, I picked up a cheap meal over at the McDonald's next door to the motel. I used the mobile app to order the usual 2 McDoubles for $3. In addition to that, I used one of the deals to get a small order of fries for $1. I brought it back to my room to enjoy it while watching the Dodgers game. It was a good game if you're a Dodgers fan as they beat the Red Sox soundly by a score of 11 to 2.
Dodgers vs. Red Sox
I laid out my flat runner before calling it a night.
Flat runner
Sunday 7/14
I timed it so that I would arrive at the parking lot near the Green Flash brewery at about 5 am. It was still pretty dark when I arrived, so it was pretty hard to see the volunteers that were directing traffic. They should probably give them better lights so that drivers can actually see them!
I must have been half awake because I got all the way to the shuttle loading area before I realized that I had forgotten my cellphone. I guess that's one of the reasons why I like to show up early just in case. I left the phone in the trunk.
Once we got dropped off at the starting area, I went over to use one of the many portapotties located along Torrey Santa Fe Rd. After I took care of that, I went over to the corner of Camino Del Sur and Torrey Santa Fe Rd to wait for my friends to arrive. I gave my beer ticket to my friend who was a big Green Flash fan. After we took our pre-race Half Fanatics photo, we all went our separate ways to take care of our own last minute things before the start of the race. I positioned myself just behind the 1:40 pace group while keeping in mind that I wasn't allowed to pass them even during that first mile.
Half Fanatics
1:40 pace group
Once the race started, the 1:40 pace group kind of pulled me into a quick first mile which I covered in about 7:30, but at least I didn't surge ahead of them. Although the left Achilles was still a bit sore, I was able to move at a decent pace without it feeling uncomfortable. I backed off on the pace to let the group fade away ahead of me. Still I kept a fairly hard effort as I wanted to see how both of my feet are doing. During that second mile, I had an equipment issue. My bib flew off the bib hooks. It would turn out that I had forgotten to snap it into place. Thanks to the guy behind me for notifying me. I had to jog back to pick up my bib. After the third mile, I had to take a couple of walk breaks as I was still having issues with my right arch. Even though the course was predominantly downhill for the next 3 miles, I had trouble keeping my pace below 9 mins per miles.
Once I got off of the bike trail and onto El Camino Real, that was where the real struggle began. It was a climb up to Vista Sorrento Pkwy for a couple of rollers. The big climb would be at about mile 10 on Sorrento Valley Blvd. The steepest part of the climb was from mile 10 to 11, but it wasn't over until finally making the right turn on Camino Santa Fe at about mile 12. It was such a relief to make that turn for a bit of a downhill stretch before the final climb. During that climb up to the final turn onto Top Gun St, one of the Race Guards was calling me a sandbagger as I was moving pretty well up that last climb. I smiled and told him that I was having ankle issues.
Finish
Finish: 2:04:55
Click here for my Garmin data.
I tried to get in under 2 hrs, but it would not be at the cost of further injury. I backed off as soon as the discomfort settled in. In my mind prior to the race, I figured that about a 2:05 was where I would finish and that I did.Relive 'San Diego Craft Classic Half Marathon'
After getting my finisher medal, I grabbed some post race snacks, a banana, and a small bottle of water before heading back to my car. After I unloaded the stuff at my car, I went back to the post race celebration area to use a portapotty before jumping in my car for the ride home.
Finisher medal
Post race goodies
Here are my prior results for this race:
2016-07-17: 2:19:48
2018-10-21: 1:53:01
Although I was in much better shape last year, I definitely prefer the race to be in late October! It's just too warm for my taste to run a race in July. Even though the course remains rather challenging, I don't mind coming back to see if I could do better. This race is heavily geared towards beer drinkers and Green Flash does brew some good beer. Despite being a former drinker, I don't mind that as well. Just here for the race! :)
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