La Jolla Half Marathon

packet pickup
I left my house at 10am for my Saturday morning drive to La Jolla. I had planned to spend some time down in SD for old time's sake but due to an unforeseen "emergency" I had to waste my visit by driving right back home. I'm thinking that they need to move the expo to another location with better parking. Every year it has been a zoo hunting for a parking space, but for the 2nd year in a row I was able to find a parking spot right outside of Jonathan's Market. They moved the expo to the recreation center this year. The packet pickup was easier than prior years. But the expo did not have anything that interested me. I went through the RRS run-once shoe sale and did not find any good shoe to buy. And that concluded my extremely short visit to La Jolla. I thanked Jonathan's Market for leaving me a parking space by going in and buying a powerbar before I headed back home.

race day
I woke up at 1am to watch the London marathon. Man I felt like a serious marathon junkie. After watching the Boston marathon and now the London marathon... I just can't seem to get enough of it. I ate my usually wheat toast and orange juice. I've moved away from eating Campbell's soup. I only do that when I feel sick. Right when I was ready to leave the house for the race, I watched Wanjiru win yet again. That guy was amazing.

Since I opted out of extra sleep for some elite marathon action, I was sort of dozing on my drive down to the Del Mar Fairgrounds. I was extra careful not to drive too fast because my friends seemed to all have gotten speeding tickets lately and I wasn't about to join them. There were hardly any cars out at that hour so it was a rather dark uneventful drive. I arrived at 5:30am and parked in the dirt lot. I took a quick nap and then got ready for the race... why are there so many 98 degrees songs on my iPod?

I jogged around the parking lot to warm up a bit. I then hit the potties and found a place to sit and relax. I then went to hit the potties again. After which I was spotted by one of my forum friends, so I hopped back into the line with her. It's always good to run into someone you know, it passed the time much faster. I had originally thought about jogging a bit more to keep loose, but instead I hit the pottie yet again with her. Just as we finished our business, the race was about to start.

It's 7:30am and off we go in the first wave! I used the first couple of miles to gauge what my legs were going to give me. I passed so many people and wondered why these folks started in the first wave for people wanting to run sub 8 min pace. But it's usually because the walkers and slower runners don't want to deal with the 3hr cutoff. I much rather have these folks out exercising and blocking my way than have them waste their bodies away doing nothing. Everybody has been created with so much potential and it's just a shame to waste it.

I was moving pretty well for the first 5 miles and I could see the first challenge coming up quickly. The first major hill was the one up Torrey Pines Reserve. This "hill" has killed me both years and I was much better prepared for it this year. I did not have to walk at any point, but it was every bit as hard as I remembered it to be. Once I got to the top, I was ready for the race to end. But I kept plugging away. This was where I spotted my bunny. She was very tanned and reminded me of my Hawaiian friend, so I dubbed her the "very tanned Hawaiian bunny". She was pretty much running at the same pace as I was, so I followed her. Several times I would pass her but she would pass me right back later. My lower back was giving me problems at around mile 8, but I tried to stay relaxed and was hoping it was just a "bad patch" and luckily it went away.

I was relieved when we finally reached mile 10 where we got to fly down a long stretch of downhill. I took my 1 and only powergel and tried to not go too fast because I had to save enough for the final climb at mile 12. I was continuously passed by much stronger runners, but I had to stick to my game plan. I saved enough strength and was able to power up the last hill and the rest was just a super steep downhill to the finish line. The final stretch was a quick sprint to the grassy finish line and I loved that the crowds were nice and loud. I lost track of my bunny at the end, but her job was done as I was crossing the finish line pretty close to my Goal A.

Splits:
1 - 8:37
2 - 8:07
3 - 8:35
4 - 9:17
5 - 8:00
6 - 10:29
7 - 9:34
8 - 8:46
9 - 8:53
10 - 8:52
11 - 8:27
12 - 8:51
13.1 - 9:56

2007: 2:13:06 (as usual, was dealing with IT-band injury)
2008: 2:17:55 (succumbed to the heat)
Goal A: 1:55
Goal B: sub 2
Goal C: don't die
I finished in 1:56:29