And just like that, I’m BACK!!
First off, I need to thank Sandy Feet Events and the San Diego Resolution Run for the entry to their race this past Sunday. Yes, they did give me an entry but like always, all thoughts and opinions, good or bad are my own.
As we already know, 2017 was a rough year. Honestly I think I ran 65 miles in December, 21ish of which were at Ray Miller. I was not motivated to get out the door and I honestly spent waaaay too much time playing games on my phone.
While I know you can start going after your goals at any time, I really needed that change of date to push me to get out the door. I needed to put 2017 and my year of injury behind me.
Sean & I went to Borrego Springs for New Years to go somewhere new and I changed my attitude. With 2 halfs & a 52 miler in January, the time for being lazy was over! Last week including the half marathon, I ran almost 35 miles! That’s over half of what I ran in December!
Anyways, now that all that’s out of the way, let’s get to the race. Like I said I got my entry for free, however the race was reasonably priced, ranging from $69 – $99 depending on when you registered. They also offered a 5k & 15k distance. This was the first year for the half marathon.
We got a number of emails from the race in the week before the race. They sent over our race numbers, info on parking, expo, etc. We decided to pick up our bibs at Road Runner on Saturday to save time. Interestingly, at this race they had decided to only give shirts to the half marathoners. The other interesting thing was that they had reusable timing chips that we had to put on our shoes, that were collected after the race.
On Sunday, we drove over to Mission Bay where the race was being held. The Half Marathon started at 7:15am so we wanted to have some time to settle in and not have to search too hard for parking.
We got there with plenty of time, they had a decent number of port-a-potties, we went early enough that there was barely a line. Smitha (@runningwithsd) was parked right behind us so we walked over to the start together & got a few photos. We were all #runmatchy, which was totally not planned at all.
The start line was really low key, barely anyone was there at 7:10, when eventually the announcer arrived and said a few words, announced that the wheel chairs were heading out. Then about 30 seconds later it was like and Go. It was a bit odd but it’s a really small race.
So off we went, down the parking lot to Fiesta Island where we would run all the way around the Island. It’s really nice running the island when there are no cars and very few bikes ;). The weather was really nice, humid, but the fog burnt off quickly.
I felt decent but I kept thinking, I’m running too fast, I need to slow down. I’ve barely run more than 10 miles in months & the last week of runs was really rough, but my legs felt good so I just kept moving.
Eventually around 5 miles in we finished the Fiesta Island loop and headed over towards the SeaWorld parking lot.
As I was entering this part of the course, I saw Sean on his way back. I’ve actually run parts of the course and this part was an out and back. The turn around was the only part of the course that I really disliked. They had us go down to the boat dock and do a really tight turn around on small sidewalk ramp. Fortunately there weren’t a ton of people because it would have seriously bottle necked if there had been.
Once we got back towards the finish line, we were running near the 5k finishers and then starting to see 15k runners. The second part of the course was an out and back on the sidewalk by the water.
I felt decent until about mile 8 when I took a short walk break. I took a second break when I saw Smitha ahead of me so we could get a quick photo & we saw Sean heading for us. I took a quick photo of him and then got moving again.
I felt pretty good, but I was getting tired. I had Skratch in my bottle but I didn’t have any carbopro so I wasn’t high on calories. I looked at my watch around mile 10 and realized that if I could finish the next 3.1 miles in less than 30 minutes I could sub2 so I pushed. At mile 11 I had to walk for a bit at the aid station, I was so tired, but I ate a few Skratch Labs chews and felt a little better.
All I had to do was make it to the finish line. I passed a few people, I don’t know if they were 15k or half runners, I saw my friend Robin from #run619 and just kept pushing. And then there was the turn to the finish line and my watch was slightly short, dang it! But I was under 2 hours! which was the fastest half marathon I’ve run since November 2014 – that’s huge!
After I finished, I got my medal, which is cool, it’s a little chalkboard where you can write your 2018 goal. I saw Sean & asked him how he did, he was way up there and I knew he probably placed in his age group. They had computers at the finish line so you could check your results. We checked Sean’s, he was 1st in his age group, 7th male and 9th overall. My results weren’t up immediately but when I did look again, I was 2nd in my age group! WOW, so exciting! Silly I know, but I’m not going to place in a big race so it was kind of exciting to know I placed in a race.
They gave us medals for our age group wins. We also got a little goodie bag with snacks, since going vegan I can’t eat most of the stuff they put in these bags so I just had a mini smoothie from Jamba Juice & grabbed a juice from Suja.
We were drenched so we headed out pretty quickly, but there was a nice post race environment with lots of vendors.
Overall, I would definitely recommend the Resolution Run & if we are in town again next year, I will be putting this race on my calendar :).
