There were several EPL matches at 7 am this morning. I didn't care much for any of the teams that were playing, but I kept the Crystal Palace v. Fulham match on in the background as it was on the USA Network channel. I left the house at about 9:30 am to head down to San Diego to pick up my race packet. There was more traffic than I would have liked on that drive down. Once I arrived and parked at Road Runner Sports, I first filled out a waiver form. Then I got assigned a bib number. Next was getting in the long line to pick a pre-race bus location and time. When it was my turn, I asked for City Hall at 5:15 am. The volunteer appreciated that I already had my choice picked out when I got to the front of the line. Finally, I went inside the store to get my very unique race shirt. Before heading back to my car, I used their restroom.
Road Runner Sports
Very unique race shirt
Good thing I went to the restroom before hitting the road. The drive was much longer than I had expected. After getting home, I caught the remainder of the Liverpool v. Aston Villa match while eating a late lunch. Although I was pretty tempted to take a rest day, I decided to go out for my usual 5 mile walk around the neighborhood.
Sunday 11/10
I got ready and left the house at just before 3 am for the long drive down to Coronado. As I was crossing the Coronado Bridge, I thought about just parking at the Starbucks first to get coffee. However, instead I decided to park my car at City Hall before walking over. Since I had arrived at about 5 am, I pretty much had my choice of any parking spot. I then walked over to Starbucks to get my usual grande blonde vanilla latte to go with my pre-race CLIF bar. This combo has been working really well for me. I used their restroom before heading back to my car. Along the way back, I got a beautiful view of the sunrise in the Glorietta Bay Marina.
Starbucks
Grand blonde vanilla latte
Beautiful sunrise in the Glorietta Bay Marina
After getting back to my car, I ditched the jacket. I grabbed my race belt and handheld bottle before I started walking over to the start line at Sunset Park. Along the way, I met up with Robert as his Uber driver couldn't make it all the way over to the park. Shortly after using a portapotty, we ran into some familiar faces.
Overlooking the Dunes
Friends at Sunset Park
Start line
Course and parking map
Robert and I started somewhere near the front of the corral. For some reason, the faster runners today were a bit shy and didn't position themselves ahead of us. Robert wanted to just finish in under 2 hours and I was expecting to finish right around 1:50, hopefully under. When the race started, we were passed by a lot of runners. I got pulled along at about a 7:20 min/mile pace. Eventually, I took the foot off of the gas and covered that first mile in 8 mins flat. I slowed it down a bit, but covered the 2nd mile a bit too fast in 8:05. I slowed it down a bit more to 8:15 for the 3rd mile. I could tell that Robert wanted to go faster, so I told him that I was planning to hold this speed or slow down a little more. With that, he surged ahead of me. I cruised along at that pace for the next 3 miles with a short climb at the Coronado Cays Blvd exit. I started to struggle starting with the 7th mile as my pace dropped to 8:30 min/mile. I thought that I could hold onto the 8:30 pace. Unfortunately, I continued to progressively slow down with each mile. The turnaround was at about 8.5 miles into the race. With 2 miles to go, I knew that I was behind my goal pace. I tried to speed up a bit, but it wasn't enough to break 1:50.
Finish: 1:50:34
Click here for my Garmin data.
That girl flew past me for the finish line!
Finisher medal
Friends at the finish line
With the friendly little competition, Robert was able to finish with a sub 1:50 instead of sub 2 hours. Since we knew that Eric wasn't too far behind, we waited for him at the finish line. Eventually, we all walked over to the bus pick-up spot for a ride back to our cars. Although Robert was going to just hail an Uber, I gave him a ride back to his hotel in Imperial Beach. There was a lot of sporadic traffic all along the way home. It wouldn't clear up until I started nearing El Toro. I decided to take a detour to get lunch in Irvine. The car's onboard navigation wanted me to get a charge in order to reach home. I exited the freeway in San Clemente to get a quick charge over at the Tesla Supercharger at the Outlets. I was only there for less than 10 minutes.
Tesla Supercharger at the San Clemente Outlets
For lunch, I went to the Tender Greens at the University Center in Irvine. Since I missed my goal of running the race in under 1:50, I ordered one of my favorite salads. I really like their tuna niçoise salad. The employee that took my order asked if I was a regular. I said yes, but she had mistaken me for someone else.
Tender Greens University Center
Tuna niçoise salad
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