I worked a half day from home and hit the road for San Diego a little after eating lunch and catching the first half of the Forest v. Spurs match. The drive down took about 2 hours. Per the usual, the parking lot at Road Runner Sports was quite full. It would seem that a lot of people were showing up around the same time to pick up race packets as the line was long. Once I got near the front of the line, there was a volunteer there letting us know that we should let them know our preferred wave. Wave 1 was for those running 1:45 or faster. They were already out of wave 1 bibs, so I took a wave 2 bib. I then got my drawstring goodie bag before going inside the store to get my long sleeve hoodie. Normally, I would use their restroom before heading the road. There was a long line for that, so I decided to just hold it until I got to my hotel.
Road Runner Sports
Long line for race packet pick up
Race swag
Long sleeve hoodie
Back of long sleeve hoodie
Pacers
For this quick one-nighter, I stayed at the Hampton Inn San Diego-Kearny Mesa. I cashed in some leftover Hotels.com rewards that was worth $82.53 for this reservation. I guess I never really noticed that Kearny Mesa was somewhat seedy. On the drive over to the hotel, there's an Adult Store and Cheetahs Gentleman's Club on Clairmont Mesa Blvd. I guess back in my UCSD days, we were willing to overload certain things to get some good Asian food over on Convoy St. I checked in and was assigned room #335. The lady also informed me that it would be $10 per night for parking. I went through the race packet and relaxed a bit before going back out for an early dinner.
Christmas tree in the lobby
Hotel guest parking
Normally, if I'm in Kearny Mesa, I would go to an Asian restaurant along Convoy St. However for this trip, I decided to check out Homestyle Hawaiian Pub & Eatery. Perhaps it was because I didn't go on my annual trip out to Hawaii. In all of the years that I've attended UCSD, never have I ventured out to the Tierrasanta area. Since it was just a little after 4 pm when I got there, the place was pretty much empty. I wasn't sure if the place was open, but there was one table that was occupied. After looking over the menu, I order Da Beast. It came with a huge burger patty, kalua pig, Portuguese sausage, and spam topped with homemade chili, fried egg, served on rice. I've been out of practice, so it did get a tad difficult near the end. The waitress was surprised that I was able to finish everything. The meal certainly did remind me of the food that I would eat while in Hawaii.
Menu
Da Beast
Halfway through
All done
After getting back to the hotel, I got a nice parking spot near the front entrance. Per the usual, I laid out my flat runner and took a shower. I then watched some WWE Friday Night SmackDown before calling it a night.
Flat runner
View from my room
Saturday 12/16
I got ready, checked out of my room, and left for the start at about 5:30 am. This year, we received an email ahead of the race telling us not to park in the Penasquitos Village parking lot. That's the lot for Floor & Decor and 24 Hour Fitness. However, the printed instructions that was in our goodie bag still told runners to park in that lot. I wanted to get to the start and get a parking spot in the lot by Best Buy in case there's parking chaos. I arrived at about 5:45 am and it was still pretty empty. After I found my ideal parking spot by the Geek Squad vans, I walked over to Starbucks to get coffee and eat my CLIF Bar. On the mobile app, I ordered a grande medium roast Pike Place Roast. I waited here until my friends showed up. We used the restroom before heading over to the start line. The line for the men's restroom was actually longer as it was a one person restroom versus multi-stalls in the women's restroom.
Grande Pike Place Roast
Red sky in the morning...
As soon as we reached the starting arch on Penasquitos Dr, we spotted our friends. We took our obligatory pre-race photo in front of the arch before we went our separate ways to get ready for the race. Even though my bib was for wave 2, I positioned myself at the back of wave 1 with the 1:45 pacers. Since my legs were starting to get comfortable with 7:45 min miles, I wanted to see how they would do with running 8 min miles. With another half marathon tomorrow, I was waffling between a goal of finishing in under 1:50 or just cruising to an easy sub 2 hour finish.
Pre-race photo
Natalie
1:45 pacer
Well, that 8 min pace was a bit too ambitious for me especially when we reached that first steep climb. I covered the first mile in 8:02 and the second mile in 8:10. The 1:45 pacers were definitely not running by effort as they slowly pulled away on that climb. I had to watch the pace and monitor the discomfort in my right hip. Thankfully, it allowed me to run a couple of the downhill miles in under 8 minutes. At about mile 8.5, the course came alongside a residential street. Per the usual this was where my pace dropped as the course flattens out with some tiny rollers here and there. As my pace slowed down to about 8:30 - 8:40 min per mile, my friend Robert, who started a few minutes behind in wave 2, eventually caught me at around mile 10. He snuck up on me just as we approached a race photographer. After a quick chat, he would power on ahead of me. I had to resist the strong urge to take walk breaks during that last 5k. I knew that I needed to hold it together if I wanted to make it in under 1:50. Thankfully, I had enough in the tank to do so rather comfortably.
Running along SR 56 bike trail
Latino Heat caught me!
Crossing the finish line
Finish: 1:49:09
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, I got my finisher medal. I was quite content with my race today. Robert waited for me at the finish line. We continued down the finisher chute and picked up some post race snacks and drinks. We then stopped by the awards table to get our San Diego 13.1 Challenge medal for having run the La Jolla Half Marathon earlier this year. We thought it was kind of weird that the 2 volunteers there weren't verifying that we had actually run the La Jolla race. Those medals were being distributed based on honor system. My brain was a bit fuzzy after the race, so I had to pull up my blog to make sure that I did indeed run La Jolla.
Finisher medal
Post race food and drinks
San Diego 13.1 Challenge medal
We then walked over to the last corner of the course to cheer on a few of our friends. We only stayed at that corner until our friends that were pacing the 2:15 group came through. We then went our separate ways. Robert walked back to his hotel to take a shower and I got in line for a bus ride back to my car.
Lea
2:15 pacers
During that bus ride back to my car, I had a nice conversation with an older gentleman in the seat next to me. We mainly talked about how we're getting slower as we get older and how these downhill races helped us relive some of our glory days. I used the restroom at Starbucks before heading out. As I was waiting to pull out of the parking lot at Rancho Carmel Dr, I noticed that the car ahead of me made a left turn and just plowed his way across the median. Yikes! That can't be good for the front end! Normally, I prefer to take the more scenic route up the 5 freeway, but I followed the onboard navigation and took the 15 freeway home.
Sunday 12/17
I left the house at about 5:30 am for the drive out to Pleasant Valley Fields in Camarillo. Race packet pick up didn't begin until 7 am and I was going to arrive too early, so instead of heading to the park, I drove to the nearest Starbucks to get some coffee. I like routines, so I ordered the same thing that I ordered yesterday. I ate my pre-race CLIF bar with my coffee before heading over to the race.
Grande Pike Place Roast
Since the race course began and ended on the east side of the park, I opted to park on the west side of the park. I entered the park off of Westpark Ct near the Camarillo Family YMCA. I parked within a stone's throw of the start/finish line and the packet pick up tent. After picking up my race bib, a tote bag, and a sublimated race shirt, I walked over to the park restroom to empty the bladder.
Race packet pick up
Doggie
Race swag
Sublimated race shirt
Back of race shirt
Park restroom
Prior to the start of the race, the race director briefed us a bit on the race course. The course consisted of 2 out and back sections. For the half marathon, we had to run that course twice. For the first time through, we would run the path just north of the parking lot before we turn around to run the course again.
Race course map
Robert and Rachel
Time to race
The race started promptly at 8 am. We ran out to the Calleguas Creek bike path and turned right for the first out and back. We headed south on the path until we reached the point where the path turned right near Pleasant Valley Rd. The turnaround point was at about 1.1 miles into the race. I mostly followed a guy that was running at a pace right under 8:40 min per mile. The second out and back took us out to about mile 4 for the turnaround at Upland Rd. From there we would head back to the start line. I kept the same pace, but the guy that I was following started pulling away. Eventually, a girl started following me really closely all the way back to the start. I don't think she wanted to pass me, but I stopped for a walk break after completing the first time through the course.
I tried to resume running the same pace as before, but the legs weren't having it. I tried to work my way down to a 9 min mile, but the weather started getting too warm for my liking. By the 9th mile, I had to start incorporating regular walk breaks to make sure that my body didn't overheat. I was hoping that I had enough of a buffer to still make it in under 2 hours, but I was slowing down way too much. In the end, I was just happy to had completed a half marathon double this weekend and not hurt anything.
Finish: 2:04:57
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line and collecting my finisher medal, I waited for some of my friends to cross the finish line. We then headed over to the food truck to get our complimentary post race tacos. I don't usually check, but my friend informed me that I was 3rd place in my age group. I only stumble across these awards in small races such as this one. The 2nd place finisher in my age group was just under 19 minutes faster than me! I had to stick around to receive the bonus medal as they were waiting for more finishers to round out the other age groups. Before heading out, all of the friends of Dee Dee gathered for a group photo. It's quite sad to see our friend in her current physical condition especially when she used to crush so many of these half marathons year after year!
Finisher medal
Ely
She ran really close behind me during that first half
Dee Dee
Robert
Order complimentary tacos
Picked up tacos
Results
Finisher medal and tacos
Rachel
3rd AG medal
3rd AG
Dee Dee
During the drive home, a pack of about 3 Mustangs came weaving through traffic. They were just your typical drivers looking for attention as their cars were modified and loud. Later down the road, the freeway got quite backed up near where it splits into the 405 south. Eventually, I came up to one of those Mustangs. The driver was wearing fingerless gloves. Yup, just your typical douchebag.
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