I put in a couple hours of work and waited until the morning rush hour had died down before hopping in the car for a drive down to San Diego to pick up my race packet. I arrived at Road Runner Sports at just before 10:30 am. Per the usual, it was a very quick process to get assigned a bib number. After receiving a drawstring bag, I went inside to get my race shirt and to use their restroom. This year's shirt looked rather nice!
Road Runner Sports
Pacers
Drawstring bag
Race shirt
Before heading home, I drove over to Diamond Bar Village to finally check out Pho Souper Bowl. After being seated, I ordered their #32 regular size Phở Dặc Biệt (special combination) and #2 Nem Nướng Cuốn (charbroiled pork patty rolls). I came here mostly because it was participating in the AAdvantage Dining Program. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this place was a solid Vietnamese restaurant. About the only thing that I could see that they could improve upon was the decor.
#32 regular size Phở Dặc Biệt (special combination)
#2 Nem Nướng Cuốn (charbroiled pork patty rolls)
Saturday 4/12
I got ready and timed my drive to get down to the Mission Bay Park area at about 5 am when the nearby Starbucks would be open. I opted for the drive-thru location on Garnet Ave just off of the 5 freeway. As I was approaching the exit, I placed my order for the usual grande blonde vanilla latte on the mobile app. With my pre-race coffee in hand, I drove down to the parking lot sandwiched between the Leisure Lagoon and the San Diego Mission Bay Resort. There were street parking much closer to the start and finish line, but I prefer to be away from all of the action. Also this particular parking lot was very close to a nearby public restroom.
Grande blonde vanilla latte
Mission Bay Park
About 5:30 am, I got my stuff ready and started walking over to the start area. Along the way, I used one of the many portapotties before it got a bit too crazy and crowded. It was still dark, so it was kind of cool to check out one of the Lucid cars parked there. This was one of the EV brands that I would look into if I was looking for an alternative to Tesla.
Exterior
Interior
Once the morning light started to makes things brighter, I quickly noticed a couple of my local friends. I went over and grabbed a quick selfie with them before heading over to the race announcer booth to say hi to Rudy.
Karen and Dan
Rudy
Course map
Course elevation profile
The race started on time at 6:30 am. I didn't position myself anywhere near the front, so I ended up starting out of the second wave. I started the race with a rather quick first mile (7:58). I wasn't in shape to hold that pace for another 12 miles, so I settled into a steady pace for pretty much the rest of the race. I focused on running 8:30 for each mile. I caught up to my friend Dan at about the 10k mark, as we ran along the Ocean Front Walk. I told him that I was holding onto an 8:30 pace. We ran together for a stretch, but he started pulling away. I stuck with a lady that wore a blue top as she was running about the same pace. I would pull ahead at certain spots, but she would always catch up. Eventually, I caught and overtook Dan at about mile 10. I did not catch my other friend Karen until the last mile. Throughout the years, we've finished around the same neighborhood time-wise for a lot of our races!
Finish: 1:51:35
Click here for my Garmin data.
This was my 4th time running this race. I ran it in 2018, 2019, and 2022. I wasn't in my best running shape, but today's run turned out to be my fastest by almost 4 minutes. Although it's a pretty flat course from start to finish, I do not like that there's sand on a good majority of the course. It's hard to get good traction when there's beach sand on the ground.
2022: 2:00:05
2019: 1:55:31
2018: 1:59:17
After collecting my finisher medal and taking a quick selfie with it, I waited for my friends to cross the finish line. Once they had come through, I continued on and got some post race goodies. The finish area was quite crowded as the bulk of 5k and 10k runners were also finishing around that time. After using a portapotty, I started heading back to my car. Instead of walking down Mission Bay Dr, I decided to backtrack on the course. While I got to cheer on my fellow runners, it probably wasn't a good idea as parts of the course were narrow without any space on the shoulder.
Finisher medal
Finish
Post race goodies
Finish crowd
Beer garden
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