San Diego Race Report

5k

Gerlinde set a PR of 34:53 in this race, which is a lot faster than her 37:01 at Run the Woodlands last week! The 5k was run totally in Balboa Park on a very scenic out and back course. The start/finish line for the 5k was at the finish line for the Half Marathon, so the races started at the exact same time (1o minutes late at 7:10am). Gerlinde got to hang around for 90 minutes waiting for me to finish, although she only had to wait about 30 minutes before the Kenyans started to arrive from their half. Balboa Park is definitely a must see. It claims to be the nations largest urban cultural park and is the home of 15 museums, the San Diego Zoo and more. One way to see it is to run the Rock n Roll Marathon San Diego.

She said that the race was easy and she could hold a conversation. She asked me how she can run faster and would like to set a 30 minute 10k goal! Sounds like we have another runner in the family to me.

Half Marathon

The half is a point to point race and one must take shuttle buses from the finish area in Balboa Park to the start area. The start area happens to be at the end of a penisula at Cabrillo National Monument, which overlooks San Diego and the Pacific Ocean at the top of a 300+ foot hill. So the good news is that the race drops 300 feet into San Diego along the waterside. The bad news is that there is a 200 foot elevation rise to the finish line starting during mile 11.

We arrived for me to catch the shuttle bus at about 5 am. By 5:30 am I was off the bus at the start area for a race that would begin at 7:00 am. There is only one road into the park, so they could not get the road closed until the last shuttle bus arrived. Since they had to shuttle 6000 runners to the start line, it is no surprise that they ran 10 minutes late waiting for the last bus.

The start area was extremely dark when I arrived as there are essentially no lights up there. It was nice watching dawn break over San Diego and the Pacific Ocean, so I was not bored. One thing I was concerned about was wind and cold on the top of the hill. I had not worn any extra clothing and did not check anything at the start, although one could. Since I much prefer running cold, my ideal race conditions will have me in gloves at the start, I was somewhat disappointed that it was rather balmy and I was not at all cold. The weather was brilliant, probably in the 70's and slightly humid. The announcer kept talking about how "hot" the run was going to be and how we should hydrate. Well, it would be better a little cooler and a less humid, but compared to Houston it was heavenly.

The first couple of miles bisects Fort Rosecrans Military Cemetery and Military Reservation and was rather rolling. I took the first couple of miles somewhat conservatively running about a 9 minute/mile pace. During mile 3, the course drops steadily for about 2 continuous miles and loses 300 feet in elevation. This is the longest continuous drop I've ever run. I took advantage of it, but perhaps could have picked up another 1 minute through there with more hill training. I also stopped to have a drink at the bottom of the hill and lost some momentum.

I hit the 10k split in 53:11 or a 8:33 pace. Bill was not out of a steak yet. Indeed, if the course had been flat the rest of the way, it may have been possible to make up the time. I felt good. I ran strong until between mile 9 and 10 when the doubts and the fatigue started to set in. I was flashing back to bonking in the Houston Marathon, thinking about how there is no way I will be running a fall marathon since a half is so hard and dumb enough. I believe I hit mile 10 in 1 hour and 27 minutes, so I'd have to run a 5k PR for Bill to win a steak. Even if it was flat, that was not going to happen, and it was not flat. I did settle down in mile 10 as one has reached downtown, so one knows the end is near.

At mile 11 the true ordeal began. We started the 1 mile, 200 vertical feet climb. At the start my left shoe came untied. I stopped and bent over to tie it, rather clumsily and loosely at that. I straightened up and was light headed, so I restarted rather slowly. Uphill. Up. Can't run. Walk a block uphill fast. Run a block uphill. People passing me. I'm the only flatlander idiot who has to walk. Run some more. Going up and up and up. Walk faster, you are losing all this time. Run some, gasp, did I really do any training at all on the Kemah bridge?

Well in the end I made it up the hill. The last half mile is about a quarter mile incline slightly up. Even that killed me and I had to walk a little of it. Then the last quarter mile was a slight downhill. Wouldn't you know it I had some sprint left and flew past about six or seven people in the last 100 yards. Where was that energy on the uphill? Got my medal, got my PR in 1:55:55 at under a 9 min/mi pace, so all was right with the world.

San Diego is a runner's paradise. Put it on your list of places to run if you have not already done so.