San Diego Rock N' Roll Race Report!

The weekend started at the butt crack of dawn on Saturday morning. :( I had to be at SFO at around 7:00 which means I had to get up really early-- boo hoo for me :( Once I got to the airport I was joined by a bunch of other TNTers from around the Bay Area, including some of my Bay Side teammates.

After an uneventful flight, we got to San Diego at about 10:00. A shuttle was waiting for us there to take us to our hotel. The hotel was really nice and BIG (I got lost trying to find the room). The best thing was that even though we were all there well before the check in time, they were able to get us into our rooms. I put my stuff in the room and then headed to the pool to meet up with some other teammates. We spent some time lounging there in the warm sun (that finally decided to come out) before we hopped on the shuttle to head to the Expo.

Me, Ian, Melissa, Deb, Christina and Fran waiting for our shuttle at the SD airport!

The Expo was pretty much like all the other RNR Expos I've been too... which means it was HUGE! I walked around a little bit, and then when Rocky and Claudia got there we all walked around some more. By this time it was around 2:00 and none of us had had any lunch so we walked across the street to this cute restaurant and had some lunch while sitting outside in the sun. The lunch was yummy, but filled me up way to much, especially considering that by the time we were done it was only an hour or so until the pasta party!

Claudia and I at the Expo

The Pasta Party was located just down the street from our hotel so it was a nice short shuttle ride. The food was standard pasta party food, which means not too excited. Good thing I was still full from lunch! I was happy to see though that they had cookies there :D At the Pasta Party we heard from The Penguin-- I've heard him speak a lot before but he still cracks me up! We also heard from some other race people and also an honoree who's also a participant. Everyone's speeches were nice, they just went on WAY too long! I think it was close to 8:30 by the time we finally left! When I got back to my room I spent some time getting all my race stuff ready for the next day. At 10:00 it was lights out!

Team "Because We Can!" on the way to the Pasta Party

Yummm, pasta party food!

Sunday:
I didn't sleep well at all the night before the race :( I actually woke up a few minutes before my alarm was set to go off at 3:30am because I had a dream that I was late for the race! I got up, got ready and then Claudia, Rocky and I headed to the hotel lobby to meet up with everyone. Coach gave us our pep talk, we did our shout outs and then we headed outside to get on the shuttle to the start. Everyone was a little nervous and tired but still excited!

When we got to the start area it was still dark out. We all pottied and then found a spot on the grass to hang out until the start. We pottied some more, checked our bags, and then at 6:15 made our way to our corral. When 6:30 came the race was on! (Which means we just stood there for a few minutes before we started the walk to the start line) :D While we were sitting around before the start the temperature had been a little cool but very comfortable. Great for sitting around, but not cool enough for running. Even though we had the "June Gloom" clouds above us, I started sweating right after we started running. It wasn't really HOT out, but it was a little humid. After just a couple of miles I had sweat pouring off of me... even dripping off my elbows. Sorry, that's kind of gross but I honestly have never sweat more in my life. And when I looked around I could see that everyone else was having the same problem... people's shirts were already drenched and the sun hadn't even come out yet!

The first few miles were pretty nice... we ran down through Balboa Park and then around the downtown area and Gaslamp district. Because I don't know the city well, and there were quite a few turns, I had no idea where I was the first few miles. The only thing I really knew was that at mile 8 I would be one street over from mile 4. This was where we hung out when my brother ran the full marathon, and it's the same place where Claudia and Rocky were going to be. At 4 miles I was feeling really good but had left my teammates behind. I ran past Claudia and Rocky, gave them a quick wave and then kept going.

Between mile 4 and 8 is when I started getting tired. I had started out the race hungry (I either ate too little, too early or both) but after I had a GU around mile 5 I felt better. By mile 8 though I was hungry again :( I also noticed that when I stopped to walk during the water stops my quads were really tight. I was worried that with the humidity and sweating that I'd start to cramp up so I kept drinking more of my gatorade instead of the water at the water stops. I ran into Claudia and Rocky again... I gave them my race belt, got a refill of Gatorade (I had gone through more than half of my bottle), chatted for a minute and then said goodbye. Since they had to get over the the marathon finish line I wasn't going to see them again. :( THANK YOU for being out there and supporting me! Knowing they were going to be there at mile 8 motivated me to keep moving!

After I left them the race route took us onto the freeway. It was very weird running on an empty freeway, and not all the comfortable. The surface isn't smooth and the road is tilted. You don't notice how much when you're driving in a car but running it you do notice. A few people had told me to either run on the very left, or very right side where the road was a little more even so that's what I tried to do. The sucky thing is that in addition to running on this tilted freeway, we were also running up a 2 mile incline :( I knew that for the next 2 miles we'd be running uphill so I just started walking. I knew I couldn't power up this hill and didn't want to tire myself out trying. I noticed at this point that A LOT of people were walking, and A LOT of people were stretching along the side of the road. Not really a good sign so early in the race. I think that the humidity and the course were causing people some difficulty.

While I was on the freeway the sun started to come out. At first I was not happy about that but I was actually more comfortable at that point. I was able to cool down a little when I was walking, and with the sun came a little breeze which helped even more. It also didn't feel quiet as humid which was nice. At mile 10 we got a nice little downhill... a lot of people were still walking so I managed to pass quite a few of them. Then, another little uphill that I walked before we exited off the freeway around mile 11.

These guys cracked me up... I saw them at two spots, once at the top of the big hill cheering "GO GO UP THE HILL!" One guy was REALLY good at the high kicks... kind of scary from a boy in a short skirt!

From mile 11-12.5 I did some running and walking off and on. The bottom of my feet really hurt from the darn freeway and it was just plain hot out there. :( Somehow my Garmin got off course because it was showing .5 miles more than the mile markers. So when I hit 12 miles on my watch, I was only at 11.5. That was really screwing with me because I kept thinking I was almost at each mile marker, but was really a half mile away! When my watch hit 13 miles, I knew I had just .6 left so I started running a little faster. I was on the lookout for a finish chute, or special area for the half marathoners but I didn't see anything. I crossed the mat at 13.1 miles and saw an area off to the right that was the finish area for the half marathoners but was unsure if I should stop running right there, or continue running down the path into the finish area. I kind of did both, so I think that my "finish" photo is of me actually walking. A little anticlimactic and confusing, but oh well, I was just so happy to be done!! They had a special medal for us that looked exactly like the full marathon medals, but with a different color ribbon and a little 1/2 in there :D The finish area was nice too... I saw some of my teammates so we sat in the grass and had some snacks.

Heather and I at the finish area

The plan was that after we finished, we'd be bussed over to the full marathon finish line so that we could get our bags and then get the shuttle back to the hotel. The shuttle took FOREVER, and by the time I got to the finish area Lael, who was running the full marathon, had already finished! I met up with Lael, Claudia and Rocky and then went off to get my bag while they looked for our other friend Bill. The finish line area was so crowded I was starting to get super irritated with people! I was hot, tired and hungry... GET OUT OF MY WAY!!! When I made it back to the family area Bill had showed up and we went to get our free beer-- We sat in the grass, drank our beer and baked for a little bit :D

We decided it was finally time to get going so we made the long trek off to the car, and then drove Bill and Lael back to their car near the start. We couldn't figure out how to get on the darn freeway so we stopped for some lunch at the sandwich place and then made a second attempt, SUCCESS! Back to the hotel we went! I jumped in the shower, laid down for a short rest and then it was time to get ready for the Victory Party!

The Victory Party was at the Convention Center downtown and there were TONS of people there. It was hard to find everyone so I ended up at the table with some of the managers. We ate, drank some beer and then finally found our group on the other side of the room dancing it up! The party was over at 8:00 and most people had already left by then. Claudia and Rocky were having dinner down the street so I went down to meet up with them and then the three of use hooked up with some of the Diablo Valley team who was at a bar down the street. We hit a couple of San Diego's hot spots before finally heading back to our hotel. It had been a LONG day for all of us!

Monday:
The next morning I got to actually lay in bed for awhile. We didn't have to be on the shuttle until about 11:30 so I had time to be a lazy bum :D I was a little sore and achy but wasn't doing the "marathon waddle" like many other people were! I nodded off on the plane, and then finally got to my house at 4:30 :(

All in all it as a good weekend. San Diego is such a fun town and I wish I could have spent more time there having fun, rather than being shuttled all over the place and running the race! I feel pretty good about my time, considering I walked for over 2 miles of it and was sweating like a pig! I don't think I'd ever do the race again though... I've crossed it off my list and that's where it can stay!

THANK YOU to everyone who supported me this season... both financially and emotionally! I couldn't have done it without you all!!!