Saturday 8/17
I drove down to the Irvine Transportation Center for an early morning Amtrak train ride down to San Diego. I remember when I was able to just drive down on the morning of the race, but these days sleep has become such a valuable commodity that I'm unwilling to give up! Since I chose not to forego sleep, I booked a room and made it into a quick weekend trip.
I arrived at the Santa Fe Depot in Downtown San Diego at about 9 am. From there, I walked over to the race expo over at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel on Harbor Island. The walk took about 35 minutes. It wasn't too warm, but the higher humidity made for a bit of a sweaty trek. Since the race expo wasn't scheduled to open until 10 am, I used the hotel restroom and waited in the nicely air-conditioned lobby until it was open.
Star of India
Free parking
The race packet pick-up process was pretty standard with the flow of traffic well controlled. After first picking up my bib, I picked up the bibs for 2 of my friends as well. On my way into the main exhibition area, I came across some girls passing out cans of Waterloo sparkling water. Since I was kind of thirsty from my walk, it really hit the spot.
Waterloo sparkling water
I walked past the rest of the vendor booths to get to the other end of the expo tent to pick up my race shirt. Of course, per the usual, my friend Dexter was there volunteering. In addition to the race shirt, we were given a nice sturdy tote bag. I usually use them to bag up my medals once the year is over. They're strong enough to handle the weight of the medals.
Dexter!
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Tote bag
After I was done with the race expo, I walked over to the Little Italy Station to catch the light rail over to Mission Valley. Since I watch a lot of movies with my AMC A-List membership, my movie choices were pretty limited. I ended up watching
Dora and the Lost City of Gold. I had some time to pass before the start of the movie, so I walked around looking at the different movie dioramas. I also took the time to schedule my order of a large bucket of popcorn with the mobile app. I used my reward dollars to pay for it. Once my popcorn showed up at the express pick-up location, I grabbed my bucket and headed to my seat. It was pretty empty inside. As to be expected, most of the other patrons for this movie were kids and their chaperone. It was a pretty entertaining movie with some funny parts, but I was definitely not their target audience. At one point, I had dozed off and when I came to, the movie had switched to the animated version of Dora. That was quite a trip!
Express pick-up
Large popcorn
After the movie, I walked back to the Mission Valley Center Station and took the light rail over to the nearby Fashion Valley Transit Center to catch the #20 bus. That bus would then take me over to my vacation rental, WorldMark San Diego - Balboa Park. I got off of the bus at 10th Ave and C St. From there, it was just a short walk over.
Bus#20
Even though it was a new guy at the front desk, the check-in process was pretty quick. Per the usual, I had to see the concierge for my welcome bag of goodies. The nice lady gave me so much junk food which will go back with me to work to feed my coworkers. Unfortunately despite me tell her that I didn't have the time, she still tried her hardest to invite me to another one of those breakfasts with a promise of a gift card. Eventually she let me go after she told me that she would temporarily hold a spot for me on Sunday after the race.
Check-in goodies
After I got settled in and took a shower, I relaxed a bit in my room before going across the street to pick up dinner at the recently remodeled McDonald's. I used the mobile app to get $1 off an order of large fries. In addition to the fries, I took the current deal for 1 Quarter Pounder with cheese at regular price and another one for $1.
Remodeled McDonald's
Quarter Pounder with cheese x2 and large fries
Later that evening, I walked over to my friends' hotel to meet up with them and give them their race packets. I found them at the bar and hung out with them for a bit. I ended up hanging out with them as they ate their buffet pasta dinner.
Impromptu Half Fanatics dinner and photo-bomb by the bartender
After I got back to my hotel, I checked out a movie from the library. The selection that I had to choose from was a bit limited, but I was finally able to watch
Suicide Squad. I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race while watching the movie. Per the standard DC Comics movie, it wasn't very good, but it wasn't the worst that I've seen. I liked Margot Robbie's portrayal of Harley Quinn, but that's about it. The story itself was pretty lame. However I did wish that I had seen this prior to seeing
Justice League. The mid-credit scene showed the secret intelligence that Bruce Wayne had obtained to help form the Justice League.
Flat runner
Sunday 8/18
I got ready and walked over to the corner of Presidents Way and Park Blvd to meet up with my friend. The shuttles were scheduled to run between 4 and 5:15 am. We had agreed to meet at about 4:45 am to catch a shuttle to the starting area over at the Cabrillo National Monument. While waiting for my friend, I bumped into a couple of my fellow Half Fanatics friends. My friend was running late, so we ended up catching the shuttle closer to 5 am.
Natalie and Kristin
We arrived at the parking lot at about 5:30 am. For some reason this year, they were very strict with people staying on the sidewalk and not allowing us to cut through the bushes. Once we got through the choke point, it was much easier to walk about freely. We headed over to the gear check area as it was getting pretty close to the scheduled Half Fanatics pre-race photo at 5:45 am. Next time, I should probably kneel in the front or make sure no one is standing behind me as my head was casting a shadow on someone's face! My bad!
Half Fanatics pre-race photo
After we took the photo, my friend and I went to go use one of the portapotties. Just as we were done taking care of our pre-race business, we bumped into our friend, Jessica. It just happened that we were all in the same general vicinity. We all headed back over to the gear check area for my friends to drop off their gear bags. On our way over to the start line, we came across a couple of runners dressed up as characters from the movie,
Anchorman. "You stay classy, San Diego!"
Brian Fantana and Ron Burgundy
The first mile at about 8 min pace felt okay, but I could feel that I was already starting to overheat during the second mile. I decided to pull over along the side and take a short walk break. Prior to the race, I was hoping to finish a bit closer to 2 hrs, but that goal was pretty much out the door since I was having trouble that early in the race. My friend Jessica caught me much earlier this year as I was walking along Scott St. I ran with her a little bit as we turned onto Harbor Dr. By the time I got to the portion on Harbor Island, I was wanting the race to be over. I kept having to pull over and take walk breaks in order to either cool down or for the arch discomfort in my right foot to go away.
View from Harbor Island
Running into Downtown San Diego meant that there was only about 2 miles left. Unfortunately those 2 miles are mostly uphill starting on A St followed by the final big hill on 6th Ave. My friend, the Latino Heat, passed me going up that long 6th Ave hill. I tried my best to run up that sucker without stopping, but my legs were cramping up!
Finish line
Finish: 2:17:59
Click
here for my Garmin data.
My friend waited for me at the finish line. He got a pretty good finish line photo of me when I finally showed up. After getting my finisher medal, we made our way down the finisher chute. We were given water, Harmless coconut water, TruMoo chocolate milk, and some post race snacks in a brown paper bag. The chute ended at the Finish Line Festival where there was live entertainment, a beer garden, and vendor booths. After snapping another post race photo, my friend went back to go find his girlfriend out on the course.
Finisher medal
Latino Heat
While it wasn't my personal worst for a half marathon, it was my worst for this particular race in the 12 times that I've run it! I will need to get my butt back into better shape and redeem myself the next time that I run this race!
I slowly made my way over to the Bling Bestowment area. I have not gotten a Triple Crown medal in a while, so it was nice to see that they've upgraded that whole experience. It was pretty cool to get that Triple Triple Crown medal in addition to the standard Triple Crown medal. Both were very nice looking medals!
Triple crown medal
Triple triple crown medal
Post race goodies
After getting my extra medals, I started heading over to the gear bag area as that's where I usually see my friends. I didn't spot them and was actually ready to head out, but fortunately they spotted me. After swapping race stories and saying our goodbyes, I started heading out. By then the paper bag had already disintegrated from the moisture from the drink bottles.
Ness!
After getting back to my room, I watch a bit of TV before jumping in the shower to get cleaned up. I noticed that the concierge had left me a note reminding me that my owner lunch was set at 12 pm which would include a $150 gift card. On my way out to meet up with my friends for brunch, I stopped by to tell her that I already had plans for the rest of the day. I know that that's her job, but they are so dang aggressive in trying to get me to attend! No means no! :)
I met up with my friends at
The Local Eatery & Drinking Hole. I started things off with an iced tea and ordered the Big Wet Breakfast Burrito with sausage. In addition to the burrito, I also finished off my friend's spring rolls as they were a bit spicy for her. My friends also had ordered the Big Ass Nachos with brisket. Although it looked pretty dang good, I was already pretty full from the burrito, so I only had a nibble of the nachos. Good thing my friend has a bunch of boys at home as those nachos would be easy for them to devour.
Iced tea
Big wet breakfast burrito
Big ass nachos
After saying goodbye to my friends, I walked back to my room where I proceed to veg out for the rest of the day. I caught the last parts of
Pretty Woman. I'm not a fan of Julia Roberts or Richard Gere, but I will occasionally watch this movie.
It had to be the top floor!
She rescues him right back!
I was feeling rather worn out from the half marathon, so I really didn't feel like going back out for food. However I did drag myself across the street to pick up 2 McChicken sandwiches for $3 which will do as a quick and cheap dinner.
McChicken x2
Monday 8/19
I checked out super early to go catch the 4 am train up to Irvine for work. This time I walked over to Broadway to see if I could avoid encounters with some of the homeless during my little trek. I thought it would be a bit quieter on a bigger street, but boy was I wrong. They were pretty much all awake and quite aggressive in asking for handouts. I think next time, I'll stick to the smaller streets.
