Originally, I had booked the usual timeshare near Balboa Park. However, fortunately, I noticed that I was running very low on vacation time with some bigger trips coming up. I had to cut back on some of these little short getaways. So a little over a month before the race, I cancelled my reservation.
Today, I drove down just to pick up my race packet. I left the house at about 7:45 am after catching the first half of the Arsenal v. Wolves match. The drive took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I remembered how much I disliked parking in that free dirt lot at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel. It gets a bit chaotic once it gets pretty full.
Expo
Per the usual, I headed to the left side of the venue to pick up my race bib. Then I headed over to the right side to pick up my race shirt and the nice sturdy tote bag. I use these bags to store my race medals. Inside the bag was a ticket for shopping at the Columbia Sportswear Company Employee Store. I was hoping to see my friends that normally volunteer for the expo, but none of them were there this time around.
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Sturdy tote bag
Columbia Sportswear Company Employee Store
Before leaving, I checked out each vendor booth. One booth was passing out flyers for the new San Diego Tijuana Binational Half Marathon. The flyer had a discount code written on the back. I'm interested in running it, but I'm currently in a spot where I have to watch my spending. I also checked out the pacer board to see which of my friends would be pacing. I chatted with a guy from the San Diego Track Club. He noticed that I was wearing the race shirt from Jack & Jill last month. He told me that he had run the marathon. Small world!
Pacers
On the drive home, I saw the heavy traffic that was headed southbound. I was glad that I had left early enough to miss out on all of that traffic. The bulk of the traffic was around Mission Bay. It must be a popular spot for staycations or there had to be some event taking place there this weekend.
Sunday 8/18
Waking up super early to make the drive down to San Diego has been the main reason why for the past few years, I've gotten a place in San Diego to stay the night before this race. I left the house a little before 2:30 am. For the majority of the drive, I had to make sure to steer clear of impaired drivers. I arrived at the parking lot at the intersection of Park Blvd and President Way at just before 4 am.
After finding a suitable parking spot, I walked across the street to use one of the portapotties before boarding a fancy motorcoach for a ride to the start line. Normally, I would wait for a couple of my friends to ride up together. However, they were going to show up later, so they told me to go on ahead without them. I arrived at the Cabrillo National Monument at right before 5 am. Not a whole lot of people were there yet, so I had my pick of pretty much any portapotty. After I took care of that, I stood next to the light and the portable gas generator near the bus drop-off to wait for my friends.
Early morning bus ride to the start
Eric
Start line
The race started at 6:15 am. I had positioned myself near the 1:40 pace group. I didn't want to be that far up front, but the course can get quite congested if you're lined up too far back. Having run this race many times, I knew that the first 2 miles comprised of rollers. That was followed by a good stretch of downhill to mile 4. I was hoping to maintain a 8:30 min/mile pace until I reached the last 2 uphill miles. However, I started to experience the usual fade that I had come to expect at mile 8 of this race. This year, due to some construction, we did not make the right turn towards Liberator Way. We continued on towards Harbor Dr and hopped on the Bayshore bikeway. At about mile 9.3 I was caught by Deadpool. He saw that I was going to take pics, so he put on his mask. I've seen him run other San Diego races as Spider-man. Eric also caught me as we headed towards the Star of India. For some reason, seeing Deadpool motivated me to continue to try and hang on to him. We leapfrogged each other as he would pull on ahead, but I would pass him when he stopped at aid stations. As I came up to the left turn onto Broadway, I noticed that the MTS light rail train was just about done passing through. If I had run just a little faster, I would've been standing there waiting for the train to pass through. I was able to overtake Deadpool one last time on the last uphill climb up 6th Ave. I knew that he wasn't too far behind me for the remainder of the race as I could hear the spectators interacting with him.
Deadpool!
Finish: 1:54:58
Click here for my Garmin data.
This was my 15th time running this race with this being my 2nd fastest time. My fastest was back in 2010 where I ran it in 1:54:17. I have not run a sub 2 hour race here since 2011. Thank goodness, the mere presence of Deadpool was enough to motivate me to keep running when I was struggling!
2023: Cancelled due to Hurricane Hilary
2022: 2:25:07
2021: 2:10:46
2019: 2:17:59
2018: 2:05:19
2017: 2:11:13
2014: 2:04:25
2012: 2:11:24
2011: 1:58:11
2010: 1:54:17
2009: 1:57:25
2008: 1:57:46
2007: 2:13:46
2006: 2:07:33
2005: 2:13:52
My friend, Eric, finished not too far behind me. Prior to the race, we both thought that we would run around a 1:55. We were both pretty accurate with our current level of fitness. Near the end of the finisher chute, I got 2 chocolate milks, a banana, and a bag of snacks. I hung out there until a few of friends came through. I grabbed a selfie with them before I started heading over to my car.
Finisher medal and post race goodies
Theresa and Mary
Almi
After I got back to my car, I changed out of my wet shirt and put on the dry race shirt before hitting the road. I started heading up to Carlsbad to get breakfast at Tip Top Meats. For some reason, there were pockets of congestion on the freeway. Then I came upon a huge caravan of vehicles that were all clearly Trump supporters with their flags and stickers. Per the usual, when I arrived, I got in line. Since the line was long, I got to chatting with the guy in front of me. Unfortunately, it looked like the meat market and deli will for sure be closing on 9/30. Here's an article on it. When it was my turn, I ordered my usual steak & eggs with coffee to go with it.
Steak & eggs at Tip Top Meats
After I was done with my meal, I went around the market and picked up a few items. My parents had always fondly remembered eating "white" sausages when we were in Germany a couple of decades ago. So I picked up a pack of bockwurst and some mustard for them. I also got a pack of currywurst for them to try.
Löwensenf sweet & spicy mustard
Bockwurst
Currywurst
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