I left the house after eating lunch. The onboard navigation wanted me to drive down the 15 freeway, but I opted for the 5 freeway. It actually turned out to be a decent drive and I didn't really encounter the usual congestion around Carlsbad.
I arrived at Road Runner Sports just before 3 pm. Per the usual, the race packet pick-up was really quick. I showed them my QR code from the email that they had sent out and they assigned me a bib number. Then I went inside to pick up my long sleeve hoodie and a goodie bag. I then used their restroom before heading out.
Packet pick-up at Road Runner Sports
Long sleeve hoodie
Goodie bag
I placed an order on the Jollibee app for my dinner purely because I had a code for a free peach mango pie. The requirement was that I had to order at least a 2 pcs Chickenjoy meal. I got my usual palabok fiesta with 2 pcs Chickenjoy and a pineapple quencher to go with that free pie. I thought that I had set the pick-up time for 3:45 pm, but the confirmation email said 4 pm, so I drove up to La Quinta Inn Miramar to check-in first before heading to the restaurant.
When I checked in, it looked like they were training a new employee. He appeared pretty sure of himself, but kept making mistakes. I was assigned room #225. As I was making my way to my room, I saw that the hotel was knee deep in renovations. The entire row of rooms leading up to mine were being pulled apart with the carpet, mattress, and toilet removed. My room wasn't in bad condition, but I'm pretty sure that it will be pulled apart as well after I leave.
I didn't know how traffic would be, so I started heading down to nearby Mira Mesa to pick up my dinner. I haven't driven through this area in ages. The last time was probably in the late 90's. Things looked fairly the same. I arrived at Jollibee at about 3:45 pm. I noticed a long line for the drive-thru as I walked inside to wait for my food. An employee noticed that I was waiting away from the counter and asked if I was picking up an order. I told him that my order was scheduled for 4 pm. He got my info and my found my order ticket and started getting my order together. It was nice of him to do that even though he could've just waited.
Palabok fiesta with 2 pcs Chickenjoy, pineapple quencher, free peach mango pie
After I got back to my room, I ate my dinner and went through the goodie bag. Most of it went into the trash. I then laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race before taking a shower and calling it a night. It looked like the tub wasn't draining very well. The towels looked fairly new, but they weren't cleaned very well and they all had few strands of pubic hair stuck to them. Nice. I had to pick the cleanest one out of the three.
Flat runner
Saturday 12/17
I got up at 5 am to get ready to head to my race. I guess that alerted some lady outside my door that someone was inside and awake, so she started banging on my door. The peephole on the door was useless and I had no time to deal with that shit, so I went on with my morning routine.
When I left my room at about 6:15 am, I crossed paths with the guy that was staying in the room next door. It looked like he was bringing back coffee. I believe it was just an early morning booty call where she got the wrong room. That was a bad mistake on her part as it was pretty cold outside.
It was a short drive over to the start. Instead of parking where I normally park, the Penasquitos Village parking lot next to Floor & Decor, I decided to park at the Starbucks on the other side of the 15 freeway. It was a longer walk, but last year, I saw a sign warning that there was no race parking allowed. Granted, I saw that sign after the race and didn't read it carefully, the last thing that I wanted was to come back after running the half marathon only to see my car had been towed. It's always better to be safe than sorry.
Start line
List of pacers
From Scott, the Beardsleys and Natalie
Latino Heat
From Scott, national anthem
Latino Heat during the first mile
2 hr pace group right on my tail shortly after crossing mile 9
From Latino Heat near the finish line
Final stretch to the finish line
So glad to be done!
Finish line
Finish: 2:01:52
Click here for my Garmin data.
While this course wasn't the easiest for a net downhill course, it's still a fast course. I came into this race thinking that I should be able to run it in under 2:10, but I just didn't know by how much since I had just run the Honolulu Marathon last weekend. I went out pretty conservatively until I got past the major climbs at the beginning. Then I let the legs run as fast as they wanted while still feeling comfortable. I was thinking that I could just make it in under 2 hours until after reaching mile 8. My legs then began to feel very tired and my breathing was way too labored, so I had to take more walk breaks to let my heart rate calm down a bit.
While I was hoping to be in better shape heading into the Dopey Challenge in January, I do still have some time to improve until that Walt Disney World trip rolls around. Regardless, I am really looking forward to that trip!
After getting my finisher medal, I got in line for some post race goodies. I saw my fellow Half Fanatic friend, so I went over to say hi. Shortly after that I started making my way over to the shuttle pick up location to catch a ride back to my car. The post race area was so crowded! As I was making my way through that crowd, I got stopped by someone who was also wearing his Honolulu Marathon finisher shirt. I guess I wasn't the only dumb dumb that did these 2 races on back to back weekends! :)
Finisher medal
Post race goodies
Karen
For my drive home, the onboard navigation once again had me take the 15 freeway. I hadn't taken this route in quite some time, so I went with it. It was definitely not as crowded as the more popular 5 freeway with the beautiful ocean views. I guess it's always nice to mix it up every now and then. I had just enough charge in my Tesla to make the entire roundtrip this weekend without having to stop at a Supercharger station.
No comments:
Post a Comment