Earlier in the week, I was informed by the car body shop that my insurance company had decided to declare my vehicle as a total loss. Since they weren't going to be doing repairs, that meant that I had to return the loaner car to the shop. I ended up having to borrow my parents' Tesla for this short trip down to San Diego.
I started my road trip after eating lunch. There was a ton of traffic, so it looked as if everything is almost back to normal volume on the freeways. I arrived at Road Runner Sports at about 3:15 pm. Packet pick-up for these races are always really quick and easy. After getting my bib at the tents outside, I went inside the store via the side door to pick up my race shirt and a pint glass. It turns out, my good friend, Andrea was there passing out those pint glasses as well as coupons for the shoe store. We caught up a bit before I used the store restroom and headed on out.
From there, I drove over to the Tesla Supercharger location on Balboa Ave near the Genesee Ave intersection. All of the stations were occupied, so I got in the line of Tesla vehicles all waiting for a charge. It was a pretty short wait before there was a vacancy. If you're going to own a Tesla, you'd better quickly get proficient at backing into a parking spot. That's how most of these charging stations are designed. After I plugged in the car for charging, I walked over to the nearby Chick-fil-A to pick up dinner. I suppose electric charging is slow and inconvenient compared to gasoline, but hey, you can find ways to kill two birds with one stone!
After I was done eating my dinner and finished with charging the car, I drove further down west on Balboa Ave towards the intersection of Garnet Ave and Mission Bay Drive. That was the location of my hotel for the evening, La Quinta San Diego Mission Bay. It was just on the west side of the 5 freeway. I've come to this area many times during my undergraduate studies at UCSD... mostly to pick up some Double Doubles from In-n-Out. Fortunately, I found a parking spot near the front office. The layout of the hotel was really compact and awkward. Made me miss my compact Mini Cooper! I checked-in and was assigned room #113. I was given a parking pass to place on top of the car dash. I moved the car over to one of the spots in the garage. From there, it was just a short walk to my room. A room key was needed to access the hotel corridor door.
I started my road trip after eating lunch. There was a ton of traffic, so it looked as if everything is almost back to normal volume on the freeways. I arrived at Road Runner Sports at about 3:15 pm. Packet pick-up for these races are always really quick and easy. After getting my bib at the tents outside, I went inside the store via the side door to pick up my race shirt and a pint glass. It turns out, my good friend, Andrea was there passing out those pint glasses as well as coupons for the shoe store. We caught up a bit before I used the store restroom and headed on out.
Race shirt
Pint glass
From there, I drove over to the Tesla Supercharger location on Balboa Ave near the Genesee Ave intersection. All of the stations were occupied, so I got in the line of Tesla vehicles all waiting for a charge. It was a pretty short wait before there was a vacancy. If you're going to own a Tesla, you'd better quickly get proficient at backing into a parking spot. That's how most of these charging stations are designed. After I plugged in the car for charging, I walked over to the nearby Chick-fil-A to pick up dinner. I suppose electric charging is slow and inconvenient compared to gasoline, but hey, you can find ways to kill two birds with one stone!
Fuel for the car
Fuel for me!
Frosted lemonade
Cobb salad with grilled nuggets
I relaxed a bit in my room and noticed that I was having some discomfort in my lower back. I'm chalking it up to either age-related aches and pains or just having to sit a lot more as I continue to work from home. I do miss my standing workstation back in the office.
Since I ate dinner so early, I decided to walk over to the nearby In-n-Out for dinner #2. As I mentioned earlier, I used to come to this particular location quite often back in the day. I ordered the usual Double Double and a Neapolitan shake. It might have been the mask that the employee and I were wearing, but somehow I ended up with a burger without onions. Once my food was ready, I took it back to my room to enjoy.
Double Double and a Neapolitan shake
Before calling it a night, I took a shower and laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race.
Flat runner
Sunday 7/25
I got ready and checked out of my room at around 5 am for the drive over to the start of the race. This year, they weren't doing any pre-race shuttles. The final instructions had us park at the Westview High School which was within walking distance of the normal start line at the intersection of Camino del Sur and Torrey Santa Fe Rd. The walk over was about 1.5 miles.
Start line parking map
Start line
Restrooms that way
Dan and Karen
Half Fanatics
Natalie
More Half Fanatics
Start corral
1:50 pacers
The race start was delayed by about 5 minutes. Per the usual, the left Achilles tendon was burning at the start of the race. Thankfully, it's somewhat better and it felt okay after I got going. Even though that first mile was mostly downhill, I shouldn't be clocking a sub 8 minute mile. So once I saw that first mile at 7:56, I took my foot off of the gas just a little bit. Having run this course several times, I knew that I had to take advantage of the free speed before those hills on the back portion of the course. At about mile 6.5, the course had us hop off of the SR-56 bike trail and onto El Camino Real. I took a couple of walk breaks after reaching mile 7 as my legs just aren't ready for charging up hills just yet. I tried to get the legs going again after making a right turn onto Carmel Creek Rd. There was a nice stretch of downhill along Vista Sorrento Parkway.
SR-56 bike trail
The course flattened out once I made the left turn onto Sorrento Valley Blvd at about mile 9. I haven't even made it to the big climb and I was feeling like I was out of gas! This was where Dan caught me. I was just a sitting duck out there! Then as I approached the mile 10 marker, I was caught by Karen. I pretty much walked that entire hill. I tried to get the legs going again once the course crested at around mile 11, but it was a slow grind.
Dan caught me!
Karen caught me!
There goes Karen!
There was a nice stretch of downhill as I made the right turn onto Camino Santa Fe. That was followed by a somewhat steep climb up to the final right turn onto Top Gun St. The climbing finally ends at around Viper Way at about mile 13. From there, it was the final stretch to the finish line.
Final climb before the last right turn
Finish!
Finish: 2:06:31
Click here for my Garmin data.
Finish line
While I didn't run as well as I had hoped, I'm still making progress. I was almost exactly 20 minutes faster compared to last weekend's half marathon. I was kind of wondering if that had anything to do with me getting the first shot of the COVID vaccine or was it entirely due to the weather. It was a tad cooler this morning. I'm notoriously bad at running in warmer weather.
After taking some post race photos with my friends, I got my finisher medal and some post race snacks and drinks. I then made my way over to the post race celebration at Green Flash. There wasn't much for non-drinkers, but I did visit the GEICO booth as well as my friend at the post race photo booth. I'm considering changing my car insurance company once I purchase a new replacement vehicle. I believe GEICO gives UCSD alumni a special discount. After hitting a portapotty, I got on the shuttle for a ride back to my car. The drive home had much less traffic, taking only about 1.5 hours.
Dan and Karen
Finisher medal
Post race water and snacks
Post race celebration at Green Flash
Runner's six pack of... V-8!
My good friend, Andrea!
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