I went for my usual morning walk around the neighborhood. I didn't hit the road until after I had finished watching the first half of the match between Aston Villa and Tottenham. I felt that the Spurs were very lucky to be up 0-1 with an early goal from Son. Villa looked to be the more aggressive team and more likely to score the next goal. However, those Villa players were going down quite easily trying to get a cheap penalty or a free kick. In the end, the Spurs won 0-4.
There was a ton of traffic once I got down to the San Onofre area. I guess that's why the car's navigation kept wanting to route me over to the 15 freeway instead of the 5. The far right lane was definitely moving the fastest out of all of the lanes. The traffic was stop and go until I got past Legoland. I'm going to guess that this was just your typical weekend traffic as most people are opting for a staycation.
I rolled up to Road Runner Sports at just before 1 pm. Man, the parking lot was packed! I didn't find a parking spot until I circled the place twice! Per the usual, the packet pick-up process was quick and painless. In addition to the bib and race shirt, I was given a drawstring bag. They were also giving out sample bottles of Topo Chico and a bottle cap opener.
Race shirt
Drawstring bag
Topo Chico
I then hopped in my car and drove over to the Chick-fil-A on Mission Center Rd to get lunch. Before hopping in the drive-thru lane, I placed my order on the mobile app for the usual Cobb salad with grilled nuggets, mac & cheese, and medium Sunjoy. After I got my food, I started heading over to the Tesla Supercharger at Fashion Valley to charge up the car while I ate my food. I tried to take the most direct route. Unfortunately, Hazard Center Dr didn't go beyond the turnabout. I had to turn around and enter the Fashion Valley parking lot via Friars Rd.
Lunch
Tesla Supercharger Fashion Valley
After the car was done charging, I started driving over to the Super 8 at the Hotel Circle. It should've been a very short drive, but there was construction along the eastern end of the circle. I had to backtrack and cross back over the San Diego River. I then cut back over on Fashion Valley Rd and had to take the long way by heading west in order to cross the 8 freeway. From there, I headed east and finally reached the hotel.
I checked in and was assigned room #302. I was on my way up to my room, when the guy who was waiting behind me shouted to get my attention. It would appeared that I had left the counter without getting back my driver's license and credit card. Once I got to my room, I found their WiFi to useless. The signal was strong, but it wouldn't assign an IP address to any of my devices. I ended up just using my cell phone service. Since I pay by the amount of data used, I didn't use much and ended up watching TV instead. I caught round 3 of The Masters.
The Masters, round 3
At about 5 pm, I hopped in the car and drove over to Chick-fil-A again to pick up dinner. The construction didn't affect the traffic heading east on Camino de la Reina. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with added pickles & pepper Jack cheese, Greek yogurt parfait with granola, and a frosted lemonade. On the way back, I bypassed the construction by taking the 8 freeway and exiting at Hotel Circle. I still needed to head west and take the long way around the hotel circle.
Dinner
After finishing my dinner, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race. I decided to go with the race shirt from last weekend's race. I then took a shower before calling it a night and going to sleep.
Flat runner
Sunday 4/10
I got ready and checked out of my room a few minutes before 5 am. The short drive over to Mission Bay Park took less than 10 minutes. I exited at Clairemont Dr and found street parking along Mission Bay Dr just south of the San Diego Mission Bay Resort. I showed up early enough just to make sure that I could secure a parking spot. I relaxed a bit in the car before I got my stuff together and started walking over to the starting area.
When I arrived at the starting area, I found an empty portapotty to take care of my prerace business. It wasn't long before my friends started showing up. It was pretty funny to see a guy on stilts as Semi-pro's Jackie Moon. I never saw that movie as I'm not a fan of Will Ferrell. It was good to see Rudy as the race announcer. Things were slowly starting to return to normal.
PK
Rudy
In the starting corral with PK
Ready to go!
I started near the back of the first wave and crossed the start line at 6:35 am. Man, both of my Achilles tendons were very tight during that first mile! They finally loosened up a bit and I was able to maintain around an 8:30 - 8:45 min per mile pace. That should easily get me to the finish line in under 2 hours. I held that pace for the first 4 miles. Then my pace slowly faded over the next 3 miles, taking me to mile 7. There would be another drop in pace for the next 3 miles, taking me to mile 10. Then for the final 5k, the pace dropped again and I was running on fumes.
Finish line
Finish: 2:00:05
Click here for my Garmin data.
My goal for this race was to finish in just under 2 hours, so even with those 6 extra seconds, I was fine with my effort today. Close enough. I was just glad that everything felt fine for the majority of the race having completed a bunch of races recently including a marathon just last weekend. I did however feel some discomfort in the left calf during the latter half of the race. It would definitely be unwise to run at 100% effort at this point.
After getting my finisher medal, a banana, and a bottle of water, I walked around to the various vendor booths in the post race area. I picked up some more drinks, other various snacks, and a package of single serve Ultima electrolyte packets. I used one of the portapotties before walking back to the car for the drive home. The drive home took about 1.5 hours.
Finisher medal
Post race snacks and drinks
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