As with most of my Saturday races in the San Diego area, I opted to work a half day before heading down to San Diego. Just before 1 pm, I left the house after eating lunch. The drive down to the usual location for packet pick-up took about 2 hours and 15 minutes. I arrived at Road Runner Sports shortly after 3 pm. After getting my bib, I went inside to get a goodie bag and a long sleeve race hoodie. I used their restroom before heading out.
Race packet
Long sleeve race hoodie
Back of race hoodie
From there, I drove over to La Quinta Inn & Suites near Mission Bay. When I pulled into that tiny little parking area right in front of the lobby entrance, I noticed that the Tesla destination charger was missing the connector. Hmmm, has it been removed altogether or do I need to ask them for it? I don't know the protocol. I just thought to myself, screw it, I'll park in a regular spot. The hotel lobby was pretty festive. When it was my turn at the counter, I was checked into room #422. I was issued a parking pass to put in the car.
It's beginning to look like Christmas!
After I dropped off my bags and got settled into my room, I went back out to get food at the nearby McDonald's. Since today was the 17th, I bought a McChicken sandwich and got a free cheeseburger off of the Mariah Carey menu.
McChicken and free cheeseburger
I watched Die Hard while enjoying my food from McDonald's. Now that I had seen this movie, that meant that my viewing of essential Christmas movies was complete for this year since I had already seen It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
"Come out to the coast, have a few laughs..."
"Yeah, that's a wild goose chase over here at Nakatomi Plaza"
"Welcome to the party, pal!"
Since it was still pretty early, I decided to head over to the In-n-Out across the street to pick up a Double Double and a Neapolitan shake. After I polished off dinner #2, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race. I then took a shower before calling it a night.
Double Double and Neapolitan shake
Flat runner
Saturday 12/18
I got ready and checked out of my room at right about 6 am. Per the instructions, I parked my car at Penasquitos Village on Carmel Mountain Rd just off of the 15 freeway. The drive over took just a little over 20 minutes. I gathered my stuff and headed towards the starting area across the street. I took along a mylar blanket as there was a bit of a chill in the air. I bumped into my friend while waiting in one of the portapotty lines. After taking care of pre-race business, I had to hurry over to the start line to take the traditional pre-race photo with my fellow Half Fanatics.
Bumped into my friend, Pam
Half Fanatics
The race started shortly after 7:30 am. I started at the back of the first wave with my friend who is usually faster than me. Right up to the start of the race, I was waffling between starting with the first wave or the second wave. The first 1.25 miles had a good climb, followed by a nice stretch of downhill. My friend couldn't keep up on the downhill, so I plugged on ahead. At about mile 2, I made a left onto Carmel Mountain Rd. That was followed by a right turn onto the State Route 56 bike trail. We would stay on this bike trail for almost the next 9 miles. It helped to be quite familiar with running on this bike trail. I kept a pretty decent pace, but I was starting to fade during the 10th mile. Then I was running on fumes during the last 2 miles, having to resist the urge to take a walk break.
Near the final stretch. Pic from Dan D.
Finish line!
Finish: 1:47:38
Click here for my Garmin data.
I was definitely happy with my finishing time given that I had just run the Honolulu Marathon last weekend. Even though it's a very fast net downhill course, it's not all that easy if you're not 100%. I did make a push for a 1:45, but came up a few minutes short. I simply ran out of gas in the last few miles. After I got my finisher medal, I continued down the finisher chute to get some post race drinks and snacks.
Finisher medal
Post race goodies
I encountered a little bit of nostalgia at this race. I bumped into Lifesabeach at the finish line. I haven't seen her in ages. I used to bump into her all the time at the La Jolla Half Marathon. Per the usual, she finished a few minutes ahead of me. I chatted with her for a little bit as I waited for a couple of my friends to finish. They were both not that far behind. One was about 2 minutes behind me and the other was less than 5 minutes.
Then on the bus ride back to our cars, I chatted with a guy from La Verne that sat next to me. We were on the subject about ultras and he mentioned watching videos by Billy Yang. Man, I know that guy! The bus driver was totally lost after getting off of the 56 freeway. A couple of us had to help guide him back to the drop off location.
Lifesabeach
Joy and her friends
After we were dropped off, I noticed a sign while walking back to my car. The sign warned that there were to be no race parking in the lot. It was not there earlier in the morning when I parked. I will have to remember that for next year and let the race director know. That would not be cool if our cars were towed while we were running the race!
Before heading home, I drove down South a bit to the nearby Tesla Supercharger Scripps Poway Parkway to charge up the car. While waiting for the car to finish charging, I walked over to the McDonald's in the same parking lot to get some breakfast. I tried to order the free hotcakes off of the Mariah Carey menu for the 18th, but I guess it was too close to the breakfast cutoff as the app rejected my order. So instead, I used the mobile app deal to order a large coffee for 99 cents. The weather was really nice, so I enjoyed the coffee at one of the tables just outside.
McDonald's
99 cent coffee
Along the way home, I stopped in at the McDonald's in Brea and finally redeemed the free sandwich coupon that I had received from running the Brea 8k way back in late February of 2020 before COVID shut everything down. I just don't eat McDonald's unless I'm running a half marathon or a full marathon. I redeemed it for a free Quarter Pounder with cheese.
Nice Christmas wreath!
Quarter Pounder with cheese
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