Mt Baldy Run to the Top 2025

Originally, my plan was to run the Conquer the Bridge race out in San Pedro. However on 8/20, they issued a rather last minute announcement of the cancellation with details to follow in a subsequent post. Whatever the reason was for the cancellation, it was nice that the race director issued refunds for everyone!

Monday 9/1
I got ready and left the house at a little past 5 am. I timed it so that I would arrive at the Mt Baldy Resort at about 6 am with the race packet distribution scheduled to start at 6:15 am. The drive up was pretty nice on a holiday, free of traffic. When I arrived, I was a bit surprised to see that there was already a lot of cars parked at the trailhead by Falls Rd! I thought we were supposed to park up at the resort parking lot. As I was headed up there, a guy was shouting pretty loudly to park behind the white car. I rolled down the window to make sure he was shouting at me. Yes, he was. As instructed, I parked off to the side of the road, behind the white car. I was directly across from the cache of portapotties.

Even though it was only 6 am, the volunteers and race staff were already distributing race packets. My friend, Sergio, was there handing out t-shirts. This guy volunteers at pretty much all of the local races! I liked the t-shirt. The design was pretty nice for the 60th anniversary of this race and it was a comfortable 60% cotton, 40% polyester blend.

Mt Baldy Resort

Sergio, volunteer extraordinaire!

Race shirt

As I went back to my car, I bumped into my friend, Dexter. We caught up a bit before heading back to the packet pick-up table where we got pictures in front of the race banner. We got one with the race director and another fellow newbie participant. I used a portapotty before going back to my car to relax. As I waited, more and more people showed up. There was quite the crowd in front of the portapotties making it a rather tight squeeze for the cars that were showing up.

Dexter!

Pre-race photo from Dexter with the race director

At about 30 minutes before the start of the race, I got out of my car to begin heading over to the starting area. I shed my outer layers and grabbed my handheld bottle. I saw that there were still a lot of people checking-in and picking up their race packet! With about 15 minutes to go before the start, I bumped into my friend, Nadia.

Starting area

People still checking-in

Almost go time!

Speedy Nadia!

Course map

The course started at about 6,000 feet with a steep downhill run on Mt Baldy Rd to the trailhead. Once I hopped on the trail, it was pretty much an uphill climb all the way to the top of Mt Baldy. It was going to be a warm day, so I paced myself and made sure that I didn't let me heart rate get too high. I kept it to about 140 bpm. A little past the halfway point, I had reached the Notch. From there, I hopped on the Devil's Backbone Trail. As I was approaching mile 5, I bumped into my friends from our old church! I took a quick selfie before continuing on with my hike. After my watch beeped to let me know that I had reached mile 6, I could see up ahead, the last mile up to the summit. Slowly, one by one, people were starting to pull over to take a breather.

Bumped into old church friends on the way up

Yikes, about 1 mile to go, the final push up to the summit just up ahead!

Nearing the final stretch, I let a couple of people pass me. One wore bib #450. She wore Vibram Five Finger which I haven't seen much of these days. They were quite the fad about a decade ago. I tried to follow her up to the top, but eventually couldn't keep up. The elevation had my heart beating so hard! My legs were feeling a bit rubbery, so I had to be extra careful with my footing as there were a lot of loose rocks. Boy was I out of breath! I didn't even have it in me to jog through the finish line! I was just glad to be done!

Finish: 2:24:57
Click here for my Garmin data.

That was quite the ass-kicker of a race! It was about a 4,000 feet gain over the 7 miles to reach the summit at 10,064 feet! I received my finisher medal and a bottle of water. I then wandered over to the line to take a photo with the summit marker. That was definitely more difficult than a regular road half marathon!

Finisher medal

Made it to the summit!

After getting my summit photo and getting a bag of Ruffles potato chips, I ended up chatting with an older gentleman that wore bib #237. He introduced himself as Father Brian, a Catholic priest. A quick search on Google of his name plus running brought up this article about a charity fundraiser that he took part in back in 2019 in Texas. I continue to meet a lot of interesting people through this hobby of running. Before heading out, I got a selfie with Hector, who I had met at the Griffith Park Trail Marathon earlier this year.

Hector!

On the jog down, I ended up behind a pretty happy-go-lucky cheerful guy in the conga line. He looked pretty familiar. I seemed to recall seeing him at the Griffith Park race that I had run earlier this year. He confirmed that that was indeed him. Some of the sections were quite technical and more difficult going down versus going up. The chair lift at Turkey Shoot was running. Not sure where it went, but I was dead set on jogging all the way back down. I continued ahead along Devil's Backbone Trail which was the steeper, but more direct route down to the Notch. The aid station was abandoned, but they had oranges and bottles of water left over. I started peeling and eating an orange while I chatted with a faster runner having a beer. I talked about some of my favorite beers when I used to drink and how Guinness 0.0 was one of the best non-alcoholic beers out there. However, he wasn't a fan of porters and stouts. We headed out together as he wasn't too familiar with the way down. I jogged a little over a mile with him, but I could tell that he was still feeling fresh. Unfortunately, I was feeling pretty pooped so I told him to go ahead without me. It was turning into a scorcher of a day, so I best not push myself! I was out of water by the time I had gotten back down to the trailhead. It was a rather steep walk back up to my car. I had to pull over several times for a short break.

Keep on truckin' Dexter!

Made it back down to the trailhead

My car was an oven when I arrived. I changed out of my wet shirt and used a portapotty before heading out. It took a while for the air conditioning to cool down the car. After driving down the mountain, I stopped in at the Starbucks on Base Line Rd before hopping on the freeway as I really needed something cold to drink! I ordered a trenta salted caramel cream cold brew on the mobile app before going inside to wait for my drink. No one really needs that much coffee, but I was feeling quite dehydrated as I was starting to develop a headache.

Trenta salted caramel cream cold brew

America's Finest City Half Marathon 2025

Saturday 8/16
The Premier League season started this weekend. There was an early 4:30 am match between Villa and Newcastle. I didn't really care for that match as I wanted to catch the 7 am match between Spurs and Burnley. I caught the first half and some of the second half before I got in the car and hit the road at 8:30 am. Thank goodness, they were able to easily beat Burnley 3 nil. The drive down to San Diego took about 2 hours. As I was on Laurel St, I stayed on the right lane to turn onto Harbor Dr. However, they had changed the traffic where the right lane was routed straight to terminal 1 and 2. Then as I exited away from terminal 2 via the exit ramp, I actually needed to get to the left lane in order to head straight onto Harbor Island Dr. Instead, the ramp took me eastbound onto Harbor Dr. I had to make an u-turn to get back to Harbor Island Dr. After I parked the car in the dirt lot, I headed over to the Eventide venue located at the southern end of the Sheraton San Diego Resort parking lot for the race expo.

Race expo

Per the usual upon entry, I turned left to first pick up my bib. As I got to the tables, I bumped into a couple of SD locals, Dan and Karen. I grabbed a quick selfie before continuing on. In addition to my own bib, I picked up the bibs for Robert and the other Karen. Karen wasn't running as she had just had surgery recently. Robert also might be a scratch as he was running a Tron-themed night race later tonight out in the valley. Might as well pick up their stuff since they had paid for them.

Dan

After getting the bibs, I headed over to the other end of the venue to pick up the race shirts. I thought that the design was okay, but I wish that they would use cotton or at least a cotton-blend for the material. I just don't like the feel of 100% polyester. I usually donate all of my polyester race shirts to a charity. In addition to the race shirt, runners received the usual sturdy tote bag. Inside the bag were 2 cards, an exclusive pass for the Columbia employee store and a promo for the San Diego Tijuana Binational Race. I believe this would be the 2nd year for the race. I would like to check it out, but not this year as it's on the same weekend as the Marine Corps Marathon.

Race shirt

Back of race shirt

Sturdy tote bag

Expo stuff

After checking out each of the vendor booths, I went back to Dan and Karen to chat a bit and catch up. As I was headed out, I bumped in my friend, Willie. It's a bit uncanny how we keep bumping into each other at races without really any planning. I grabbed a quick selfie before heading inside the resort to use one of their restrooms.

Willie

Sunday 8/17
I got ready and left the house at about 2:15 am for the drive down to San Diego. I arrived at the Park Blvd exit off of the 163 freeway just before 4 am. This year, the huge lot south of Presidents Way was open, but I still opted to park in the San Diego Veterans Museum parking lot. I relaxed a bit in my car while I ate my CLIF bar and filled up my handheld bottle.

Parking map

I then crossed the street to use one of the portapotties before I got in line to take a bus ride over to the starting area at the Cabrillo National Monument. I didn't see a fancy luxury motorcoach in the queue, so I boarded one of those uncomfortable school buses designed for elementary school kids. Per the usual, I got a seat in the very last row.

Early morning school bus ride at dark o'clock

Per my routine, after getting off of the bus, I found an empty portapotty to take care of my morning business. Since I was among the first few buses up there, there was no difficulty finding an empty one. After that, I then went back to the drop off spot to wait for my friends to show up.

Ginny

Karen and Dan

As the start of the race approached, I moved myself closer to the front, but not too close to the start line as I didn't want to be dragged out at too fast of a pace for that first mile. Per the usual, after the last bus came through, they had us move up to the start line.

Ready to go!

Course map

The race start on time at 6:15 am. I started the race with the 1:50 pacers and covered the first mile in 8:15. The second mile was 8:07. That was a bit too fast for my liking since those first 2 miles had rollers. After getting past the gatehouse, the pacers seemed to be self correcting for the early fast pace and was taking the gradual downhill at a slower pace. I covered the third mile in 7:58 and overtook them as I wasn't going to turn down free speed.
(8:15, 8:07, 7:58)

After making the left turn onto Gage Dr, I opened up my stride a bit. I covered the fourth mile in 7:31 as it was a nice downhill stretch down to Scott St. The course flattened out starting with the fifth mile which I covered in 8:21. I settled into my usual 8:30-ish min/mile pace. The 1:50 pace group caught and passed me during the sixth mile along Harbor Blvd as I clocked an 8:27 for that mile.
(7:31, 8:21, 8:27)

The next mile, the course turned right onto Harbor Island Dr for a couple of out and backs. I reached the seventh mile in 8:26 still feeling good. As for the eighth mile, the pace was starting to feel not so easy even though I covered it in 8:21. Just like last year, the ninth mile had us heading back up to Harbor Dr. However, I made the mistake of following the runners ahead of me and ran onto Harbor Dr instead of hopping on the Bayshore Bikeway. They really should've stationed a course marshal at that spot! It was fine until about a quarter mile later when we came up to the traffic that was coming off of the airport ramp that comes out onto Harbor Dr. Thank goodness all of the cars stopped for us! It would seem that most of the runners were oblivious that they were running in open traffic! A pretty well-known social media influencer and her camera guy were probably the only 2 that came with me and hopped onto the bike path. I covered that mile in 8:32.
(8:26, 8:21, 8:32)

I was somewhat concerned when I started fading a bit earlier than I had anticipated during the tenth mile even before getting to the major climbs. I covered that mile in 8:44. For the eleventh mile, I passed the Star of India and turned left onto Ash St where they had the usual "car wash" sprinklers. I don't recall if they were passing out the usual sliders as I was trying my best to not fall apart completely. My feet felt like they were stuck in mud. People were zooming past me, including a barefoot runner. As I turned onto Broadway followed by India St, I was kind of hoping that the trolley would be running through just to give me a reason to take a break! I covered that mile in 9:07. The twelfth mile started after turning onto A St. This started the gradual climb for about the next 1.5 miles. It was slow going up 6th Ave. Thankfully with all of my daily hilly walks, it gave me a stronger lower gear. I was able to grind out that section without having to take a walk break. I covered that mile in 10:08.
(8:44, 9:07, 10:08)

The thirteenth mile covered the rest of the 6th Ave climb up to El Prado. I was pretty gassed and running on fumes as I crossed over the bridge. As I reached the final right turn onto Pan American Rd, that social media influencer and her camera dude came flying passed me. I reached the thirteenth mile marker in 9:54. While I didn't have much left in the tank to match that sprint, I was able to find a faster gear and accelerated to a sub 7 min/mile pace for that final stretch to the finish line. I ended up being in her IG post. Pretty easy to spot me as I was wearing a bright orange shirt. Honestly her form looked pretty sloppy especially in slo-mo and her camera dude was quite annoying. He had to be a stud of a runner to be running circles around her, but still annoying when you're trying to run your own race! I can see why people generally dislike social media influencers as the finished video was so artificially produced. FYI, based on chip time, I had beaten her by 12 seconds while wearing a pair of Nike Pegasus Next Nature shoes made with recycled material versus her fancy pants Altra shoes that she most likely was comped to wear per a second IG post.
(9:54, 1:24)

Finish: 1:53:12
Click here for my Garmin data.

This was my 16th time running this race. This race was my very first half marathon way back in 2005. I was pretty pleased that I ran well enough to set a new course record beating my 1:54:17 set back in 2010. I think with more course specific training, I should be able to finish in under 1:53. However it's still rather difficult having to train for a summer race!

After receiving my finisher medal and a bottle of water, I continued along the finisher chute. Near the end of the chute, I received 2 small cartons of chocolate milk and a sack of post race snacks. I knew that some of my friends weren't too far behind, so I waited off to the side for them as I drank both of the chocolate milks. Eventually, the security guy that was stationed there asked me to move along. I moved a few more feet until I had gotten past the exit to continue my wait.

Finisher medal

Back of finisher medal

A couple of chocolate milks, water, and sack of post race goodies

Post race goodies

Eric

Theresa

Mary and Theresa

Eventually, we made our way into the post race celebration area. We went over to the Triple Crown area for our friend to receive her bonus medal. In addition to the extra medal, Triple Crown finishers received additional post race goodies.

Mary got her Triple Crown medal

After that, I went to meet up with my other friends, so we went our separate ways. Eventually, I headed over to use one of the portapotties before hitting the road. On the way over I saw that they were letting us print out our results. I took care of that as well.

As I went to exit the parking lot, I had to get on the left lane if I wanted to hop right onto the 163 freeway to head north. That lane was very much backed up from cars leaving the other parking lot, so I opted to head north on Park Blvd. I took Robinson Ave to get to 10th Ave and entered the 163 just after crossing Essex St. Along the way home, I had to exit the freeway to get a quick charge at the Tesla Supercharger at the San Clemente Outlets. Not sure why a Mercedes decided to tailgate me all the way to the back of the parking lot where the charging station was located. As with most Tesla charging stations, I had to back into the stall. The idiot nearly ran into me while I got ready to back-in.

San Clemente Outlets

Once I had enough charge, I unplugged and swung by work to pick up some fish that my coworker had left for me. Unfortunately, when I arrived on campus, the entire building was locked. It wasn't an emergency, so instead of having to deal with the hassle of a key assist from campus safety, I decided to get it later in the upcoming workweek.