After my usual morning walk, I worked a couple of hours before hopping in the car to drive down to San Diego. I timed it so that I wouldn't get caught in the morning rush hour traffic on the way down. I also made sure that I wouldn't be stuck in any traffic coming back up. All this was to save some money by not having to get a hotel room for 1 night. I arrived at Road Runner Sports at about a quarter to 11 am. After parking the car, I got in line to be assigned a bib number. I also picked up the race packet for my friend as she had to work long hours today. Next, I got our usual long sleeve race hoodies. Per the usual, I used their restroom before heading back to the car. As I reached my car, I noticed an ambulance working its way to the delivery dock. I hope whoever it was that it wasn't anything serious.
Packet pick-up
Goodie bag
Long sleeve race hoodie
Saturday 12/14
I got ready and left he house at about 4 am. That turned out to be a bit too early as I arrived at Carmel Mountain Plaza at just after 5:30 am. I did notice that I was not the first runner to be parked there. After I mixed my drink for my handheld bottle, I put everything in the trunk before heading inside Starbucks for my usual prerace coffee to go with my CLIF bar. I waited inside for my friend to show up. I also used the restroom before it got too busy.
Starbucks
Grande blonde vanilla latte
I met my friend in the parking lot to give her the race packet. While outside, I bumped into my friend, Eric. She wasn't ready to head over to the start yet so I walked over with Eric. I would use the restroom inside the Starbucks, but the men's restroom was just 1 toilet and 1 urinal with no partition. So the line for the men's restroom was actually longer than the women's line. Once we got there, we got in line for a portapotty. After we took care of that, we bumped into a lot of familiar faces on the way over to the starting corral. I also bumped into the Millers. They were the pacers that I started with on both days for the Jack & Jill Marathons.
Friends
Rachel
More friends
Karen
I started the race a bit too optimistic. I thought that with a "downhill" course, that I had enough to push for a 1:40. Although, I covered the first mile in 7:39, I knew that I needed to adjust my goal. I went with my backup goal which was to finish in 1:45. That climb during mile 2 tempted me to take a walk break. It was short, but steep. I made a left turn onto Rancho Peñasquitos Blvd to hop onto the SR56 bike path. We would stay on this path until about mile 11. For the most part, I just took what the course gave me. I kept most of those miles just under 8 minutes. I ran out of gas during the 10th mile. I tried to hold it together, but the rollers wore me out. I was getting slower with each successive mile. The 1:45 pacers passed me during the last mile and I had nothing left to even try and latch on to them.
Finish line race photo
Finish: 1:46:46
Click here for my Garmin data.
While I was a little disappointed finishing slower than a 1:45, I was content with my result as it was my fastest for this course in the 6 times that I had run it. I collected my finisher medal and continued down the finisher chute. I grabbed some of the post race goodies and put them into the plastic bag that I had brought with me.
2023: 1:49:09
2022: 2:01:52
2021: 1:47:38
2019: 1:48:00
2017: 1:50:43 (short course)
Finisher medal
Post race goodies
I took a quick selfie before heading back to the last corner to catch some of my friends finishing their race. I didn't have my phone ready for some of my friends, but I stayed out there until my friends pacing the 2:15 group ran by.
Post race selfie
Karen approaching mile 13
2:15 pacers, Tracy and Patti
I then headed over to the line to catch a bus ride back to my car. On the ride back to the start, a guy named Dave, sat next to me. We chatted for a bit which surprisingly enough included politics. I think we both kind of on the same page with everything including our races, where we both ran 1:46 and change. He told me that he's the cross country coach at South Hills High School. Even after we got dropped off, we walked together back to our cars at Carmel Mountain Plaza.
On the drive home, I stopped in Irvine along the way to eat lunch at Tender Greens. Since I did not meet my race goals this morning, I had my usual post race salad. My favorite here is the tuna niçoise salad. Per the usual, the parking lot was super busy, so I ended up parking in a 30 min stall. It was also busy in the restaurant, so it took a while for my salad to come out. I had to eat very quickly in case they were actively ticketing cars.
My neighbor...
Tuna niçoise salad
No comments:
Post a Comment