SAN DIEGO HALF MARATHON MARCH 10, 2013

Wow, I can't believe it's taken me this long to blog about the San Diego Marathon on March 10!  It was a great, well run race, and of course the most beautiful, interesting, and historic location! 

http://gaslamp.org/

We journeyed down to San Diego from Riverside on March 9, the Saturday before the race.  It had actually rained the day before, so we were a little worried about what race day might bring us.  It was a little brisk and windy for the Expo, which was held at the pavilion on the harbor, across from the Midway, an aircraft carrier turned museum.  The expo was well run and full of interesting exhibits with all the stuff you'd ever want as a runner, blocks, sports drinks, socks, Halo headbands, etc, etc.  We journeyed through the expo and picked up our bibs, goodie bags, and, of course, the wonderful shirts for the half.  We encounted a runner from Japan and his camera crew - he was running for tsunami victims in Japan.  Pretty cool.

That night we journeyed down, on foot of course, to find out where the start of the half would be and also where my husband would pick up the bus for the 5K the next morning.  Our journey took us past the San Diego Convention Center to Petco Stadium, where we located the parking lot where he would pick up the bus and also where the start to the half would be.  This turned out to be very helpful the next day. 

http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=sd

Early the next morning, March 10, we woke up around 5 and walked ourselves down to the same location, dropped off the hubby, and located the many porta-potties that were provided.  We stretched and waited for the race to begin.  The race was started in waves, which always is a little embarrassing for me, I'm usually in the slowest wave, which in this race turned out to be Wave 15!  Yikes.  My daughter was in a respectable  Wave 8.   Anway, it took a while for my wave to get to the Omni Sky Bridge and the start of the race.  Starting one of these races is always so exciting!  Your adrenaline is pumping and the announcer is encouraging you over the PA system and you almost think, hey, I can do this thing in 2 hours!  HAHAHAHAHA!  Then we were under the sky bridge and on our way.

And, oh, the San Diego weather did not let us down.  It was an absolutely gorgeous, perfect running day.  We ran through the Gas Lamp District and out by the harbor and the site of the previous day's expo.  I felt good, almost like I could just keep running and running.  I did pretty well, just kept a reasonable pace, trying to keep up with the 3 hour pacer, which I did for a while.  We ran past harbor island and scene of some historical restoration, also through a base, and by the Corvette Diner.  We ran a ways and I thought how great it is to see so much of San Diego, running down streets that I had previously driven down - when I had driven I never in my wildest thoughts imagined myself running down them!

At mile 9 began the 2 mile hike up to Hillcrest.  Oh....what can I say about that?  Except that running up this hill was out of the question for me.  I kept a pretty good walking pace, passing a couple of people that didn't quite make it - it was quite a challenge.  Then we were up the hill and into Hillcrest with the sights and sounds and smells - oh, the smells!  So many tantalizing restaurants!  The urge to stop and have a pizza was pretty overwhelming.  Once we were through Hillcrest we were in a nice downhill stretch that took us once again into the Gaslamp District and to our finish line.  What a great feeling to finish that race, have my finisher's medal put around my neck by a member of the US military!  It was a fantastic race, a fantastic day, and a fantastic accomplishment. 

Stay tuned for stories of the Santa Anita 5K this weekend.  :)