Nothing like registering for a race the week of the race. When Jenn tagged me in a photo that SD Half posted of me 1 week before the race, Sean & I discussed it, eventually we decided to go ahead and register for the half.
I really like the San Diego Half, which I ran for the first time last year, you can read my 2016 recap here. The race starts by the convention center, takes you by the Harbor to Liberty Station, up the crazy Washington St Hill up in Mission Hills before taking us through Hillcrest, by Balboa Park (the start of RnR SD) and then down to the finish line by the Gaslamp sign.
The course is mostly flat until about mile 9 where you have hills for the next 2 miles before a nice downhill final 5k.
The race expo is on the Pier on Friday afternoon & most of the day Saturday. Since Sean & I had some plans for Saturday, I drove downtown to pick up our packets on Friday after work. You are able to pick up someone else’s packet with a signed release & a copy of their drivers license.
I was in and out in about 5 minutes with our bibs, shirts and bags. One of the really cool things that SD Half does is a legacy program that isn’t just for the people who have run every year. Running as few as 2 years in a row gets you legacy status. We are at 2 years in a row so we got a race shirt with 2 stars on the sleeve. I really like the gifts they have for years 4 & 5 so if we are able to, I’d really like to keep to our legacy up ;).
Sean & I went to the PCT for a nice run on Saturday, I had a fabulous run, which was so nice because I’ve really been struggling the last few weeks with not loving running and my mental state on the run.
We spent a little time taking photos and then headed back to SD.
We carbloaded at our fav new Italian restaurant, Cucina Basilico in La Mesa and then relaxed.
The only downside to the race being on this weekend is that the time change happens. It’s always a bit stressful hoping that there aren’t any issues with your iPhone changing time. The race sent a text reminding us to change our clocks, which was a nice surprise.
We got up around 5:00am and left around 5:40a getting downtown and finding an awesome spot on the street (free parking for the WIN!). We walked down to the race start area, we saw Jenn & her friend, hit up the porta potties and then walked over to gear check.
Sean is still nursing his knee so he decided to start with me in Wave 3 instead of his normal Wave 1. He always starts in the front so he doesn’t normally have to wait for the waves to go off and was like wow, it takes a while for the other waves to start, huh. They started each wave about 5 minutes after the last one so we waited about 10-12 minutes to start. It was super foggy at the start, a big change from last year’s race.
We finally got started, heading down towards the harbor, I felt really good, even with the really humid weather. I was keeping up with Sean and ran straight until about mile 9 when the hills started.
We finally got up the Washington St hill which I ran/walked. I took a minute to get down a Glukos gel, which was a good choice because I needed more calories.
Once we got up, we were in Mission Hills heading towards Hillcrest which is an area I run often at the #619Run club on Friday mornings. We headed towards Balboa Park and into downtown. I picked up the pace following Sean, the last 3 miles were ticking off. 9:01, 8:21 and then about a half a mile from the finish, my shoe came untied, oops, but I just kept moving. We fortunately missed having to stop for the Coaster like I did last year.
I was running down the street, huffing and puffing, just trying to get to the finish line. I finished that last mile with a super fast 7:47 mile – who would have thought? I haven’t run that fast in a very very long time & never at the end of a half marathon!
So while this was not a PR time, it was my fastest half marathon since Nov 2014 when I set my current half PR. Not too shabby considering my training hasn’t been for shorter distances lately.
After the race Sean & I got a few photos at the finish.
SD Half gives a great goodie bag of post run snacks and a nice medal.
Sean & I collected our gear, headed to Starbucks for a warm coffee just as the sun was coming out and then headed over to get breakfast at one of our fav brunch spots, Eclipse Chocolate.
They haven’t announced the date for 2018 yet, but as long as it doesn’t interfere with the LA Marathon, I definitely plan to return & I’ll register earlier to save 😉 lol.
