After working a couple of hours, I hopped in the car at about 10 am to drive down to La Jolla to pick up my race packet over at the Ellen Browning Scripps Park. Originally, I had booked a one night stay at the La Quinta in Carlsbad using Wyndham Rewards points. Cash flow has been tight lately with unforeseen costs going up with stuff such as the renewal of homeowners insurance. I'll need those points for one of my trips out to NYC to complete the 9+1 program. The drive down took a little over 1.5 hours. At first I tried finding street parking on Ivanhoe Ave. I didn't find any so I made a left turn onto Prospect St to go look for parking on another street. Fortunately, just as I made that turn, I came upon a 15 min parking spot right in front of Starbucks. It was a tight squeeze, but it was too good to pass up! I took the small narrow little alleyway down to the park. In addition to picking up my race packet, I also picked up for 3 of my friends. I didn't have time to dilly dally in case the meter maids were out on patrol. As soon as I got everything, I headed back to my car. I liked that the race shirt had sublimated graphics. More races should do the same!
Tote bag
Goodie bag
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Short cut via narrow alleyway
The roads were super congested around that area making driving difficult. From there, I headed up to Escondido to meet up with my friend's wife to drop off their race packets. Originally, we had planned to meet up at the Shell gas station on El Norte Parkway. Since I wanted to get something to eat, I changed the location to the nearby Starbucks at the corner of El Norte Parkway and Centre City Parkway. Also for today, drinks at Starbucks was half off after 12 pm. On the mobile app, I ordered a bacon, sausage & egg wrap and a grande white chocolate macadamia cream cold brew.
Bacon, sausage & egg wrap and grande white chocolate macadamia cream cold brew
My friend's wife had 2 young kids with her, so she texted me to meet her out at her car. Once we made the transfer of those 3 race packets, I hopped back in the car and headed up the 15 freeway for home. I seldom take this route as driving up the 5 freeway is a thousand times more scenic.
Saturday 5/18
In the days leading up to this race, I was considering parking near the finish line over at the La Jolla Cove. However, come race morning, I was feeling pretty tired. I opted for parking at the dirt lot at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. I left the house at about 3:15 am and arrived at about 4:50 am. Since I was there pretty early, I got a nice spot right near the pedestrian underpass tunnel.
I walked over to the start line area to use a portapotty. On my way back to my car, I bumped into a couple of familiar faces. After a brief chat with them, I headed back to my car to grab my handheld bottle and to get ready for the race. Before queuing up in the corrals, I walked around to take selfies with my friends. I briefly exited the starting corral as they had brought up some guy to lead us with some goofy warm-up moves. Nothing new on race day, right?
Start line
Allan and son
Jim and Tracy
Almi!
Started in wave 2 with 1:45 pacers
The race started on time at 6:30 am. Instead of starting in wave 1, I opted to start in wave 2 with the 1:45 pacers. I believe they were banking time on the easier miles because they left me about 20 meters behind with me reaching the first mile in 7:56 minutes. That first mile on Via d la Valle took us to the first incline up to the left turn onto Camino del Mar. The next climb would be at mile 3 at the train tracks on Coast Blvd. It would be a gradual climb until the steepest section as we made a left turn onto 4th St from Stratford Ct. Once we made a right turn back onto Camino del Mar, we would reach mile 4 and get a nice stretch of downhill with a beautiful ocean view. However, I knew to not overdo it just yet with my troublesome lower back and the Torrey Pines Park Rd climb looming just up ahead. The hardest part of the climb would go for about 1 mile. Although it would flatten out a bit, we wouldn't reach the highest point of the course until we hopped onto Torrey Pines Rd at about mile 7. Even then, we would still be running some gentle rollers. At about mile 8.33, we made a right turn to stay on Torrey Pines Rd. With this being my 10th time running this course, I knew that there wouldn't be anymore climbing until the final mile. From here until we veered onto La Jolla Shores Dr was my favorite section as I got to run along the western perimeter of my alma mater. It's always crazy to see just how much the campus has changed since I was an undergraduate student here. The stretch on La Jolla Shores Dr is one steep downhill. I still couldn't take too much advantage of the free speed as I was afraid that my lower back wouldn't hold up. Nearing mile 11, we made a right turn onto El Paseo Grande and then hopped onto La Vereda at La Jolla Shores. I dislike this section as I hate the sand. It was also here that the 1:55 pacers caught and passed me. I was relieved to leave the sandy path and made that left turn onto Avenida de la Playa followed by a right onto Calle de la Plata, and another right onto Paseo Dorado. At about mile 12, the course curved into Spindrift Dr which was the beginning of the last difficult section of the course. It would be a short steep climb up to Torrey Pines Rd. After making the right turn onto Torrey Pines Rd, I was very much tempted to take a walk break. However, I pushed on, going at about the same pace as the cars in the lane next to me. For some reason, the climb up to Prospect Pl wasn't as bad as I had remembered. As we veered onto Cave St which turned into Coast Blvd, I tried to take advantage of the downhill, but I was unable to comfortably speed up a whole lot as it was just too steep for my rickety body!
Starting my climb up Torrey Pines Park Rd
Running along La Vereda with little less than 2 miles to go
Speedy youngsters smoked me in that final stretch!
Finish: 1:57:00
Click here for my Garmin data.
I was pleased with how I ran this morning. In the 10 times that I had run this half marathon, this was only the 2nd time where I had finished in under 2 hours. The only other time was back in 2009 which was and still my personal best for this course. I knew that I had a chance of meeting or beating that time, but I came up about 31 seconds short. I was just thankful that my lower back was good enough for me to even show up! I threw my back out the day after returning from Solvang. Sleeping on that lumpy Murphy bed really did a number on my lower back! In 2010, I was in much better shape and should've also finished in under 2 hours. However, I had just run a little over 20 miles the day before in Nashville, TN where the marathon was cut short due to inclement weather. Overall, my progress in recent races are giving me hope that I could actually train to run a BQ.
2023: 2:19:50
2019: 2:04:29
2013: 2:16:24
2012: 2:21:17
2011: 2:23:27
2010: 2:00:04
2009: 1:56:29
2008: 2:17:55
2007: 2:13:06
Finisher medal
After collecting my finisher medal from one of the volunteers, I continued down the grassy finisher chute and picked up a banana, a Nature Valley peanut bar, and a chocolate milk. I finished what I had left in my handheld and then refilled it with water from the huge water dispenser. That made me think of the runners that didn't bring their own drink bottle for the race. A reusable SpeedCup was included in everyone's race packet. However, there's nothing speedy about it. From what I saw, you would have to break stride and stop to get your cup refilled by a volunteer at an aid station. I did notice that some of the last few aid stations did have cups. Thankfully, there was overcast, so although it was a bit humid, it wasn't too warm. I was glad that I was very accustomed to running with my own handheld bottle for distances that were at least a half marathon.
Finisher medal and post race goodies
Cup-less aid stations. Runners given a reusable SpeedCup in race packet
After I recovered a bit, I headed over to the final stretch of the race to see if I could catch my friends coming in for the finish line. By the time I found a suitable vacant spot along the railing, I think my friends had already run by. I waited until my friend that was pacing the 2:20 group to come through before I left to catch a shuttle back to my car.
Big beautiful dog!
Allan and son
Almi
After getting back to my car, I drove up to Tip Top Meats in Carlsbad to eat some brunch. I had been wanting to check this place out for quite some time. They're a full service meat market and a deli eatery. It appeared to be a popular spot for breakfast as the parking lot was pretty packed. Fortunately, I was able to find a rather tight spot in the front lot closest to Paseo del Norte. Here's a PDF of their menu. There were 2 prices listed for everything with the lower price being the discounted cash price. Before getting in line to order, I first used their tiny restroom. When it was my turn in line, I ordered the steak & eggs with the steak cooked medium rare and the eggs sunny side up. I got it with white toast. It also came with home fried potatoes. For my drink, I got coffee. After paying for my food, I grabbed a coffee mug and found an open table to sit down. Coffee was self served with the black handle being regular and the orange handle being decaf. Food was good and very reasonably priced. I'll have to make this place a regular stop whenever I'm in the area!
Lucky #13
NY steak and eggs, home fried potatoes, toast, and coffee
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