I had the pleasure of being a part of the shake-out run with Meb Keflezighi this past weekend as part of the Suja Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon & Half Marathon weekend. I had seen the shake-out run advertised, and since my birthday is coming up, I decided to give myself an early birthday gift & so I signed myself and my friend and running buddy, Pete up to Run with Meb.
This event took place on Saturday, May 31 at the San Diego Hall of Champions and would include the following: (from the RnR SD website)
- 3 Mile Shakeout Run guided by Meb Keflezighi
- All participants will receive a pair of CEP Progressive+ Run Sock 2.0, the same socks Meb won the 2014 Boston Marathon in. which run $60
- Post Run, light Brunch
- Limited Edition Run With Meb Bib
- Photo Opportunity with Meb
- Run With Meb Gift signed by Meb Keflezighi
- Guest appearances from other participating Elite Athletes
I told Pete that we were going to do this and he was a “little” concerned about it being a super fast shake-out run, but I assured him it would be for all levels, they weren’t going to just limit the event to super fast runners – LOL.
Saturday morning, we started out with a semi-light breakfast in the morning, well, light for me, just an egg sandwich and some potatoes, around 7a. The event started at 9:30a and I knew I’d be starving if I waited until after the run to eat so I needed something.
After breakfast we headed over to the Hall of Champions and arrived around 9a. There was already a line to get the limited edition Run with Meb bibs, so we lined up too. All in all, I believe there were about 150 or so people there.
We got measured for our CEP Progressive+ Run Socks, there are both mens & womens sizing and then there are 3 sizes and multiple colors. I normally wear ProCompression when I wear compression socks during runs, but I do have a different pair of CEP compression socks too. I found them super compressive so I typically only wear them when I’m in recovery. Meb wore these when he raced and won the Boston Marathon so we got the same style in white. This was an awesome gift since they retail for $60.
I tried these new Progressive+ Run Socks out and they are amazing, padded sole and don’t feel nearly as tight as the other style I have. I especially like the padding on the sole. I still love ProCompression and they are my go-to socks, but these have been nice since the bottoms of my feet have really been bothering me.
After that, we headed over to some tables that they had set up and Alan Culpepper, the director of the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon & Half Marathon, but also a super accomplished runner, himself, came up to introduce Meb and a few other elites that were there. He ran in the 2000 & 2004 Olympics, the later with Meb, when he won the Silver medal.
They introduced the other elite runners, including Alan Webb, who holds the American record in the mile, 3:46:91!! That’s 3 minutes 46.91 seconds!! For one mile! Also introduced were Jeffrey Eggleston, who placed 8th at the 2014 Boston Marathon. Tyler McCandless, a Newton Running Elite (I love Newton Running Shoes!!), and Andy Wacker, all three of them have run a 1:03 half marathon and train in Boulder, CO.
And then came the main event! Meb coming up and talking to us for a few minutes. Check out my video of Meb talking with us on YouTube.
After this, we all headed out for the run. By this time it was close to 10am and the sun was out, so we grabbed some water and headed out.
I tried to start out kind of slow, we were going to be racing the next day after all and I had a big goal in mind, so I didn’t want to overdo it. I forgot to start my Garmin, so I only ended up tracking 2.84 miles but those were at a 8:54 pace. I was towards the front of the group, and actually was running with/near Tyler McCandless for a while, he was talking to another runner. It was a fun run, and great talking to lot of other people, I even met 2 ladies who live in the Phoenix area and are training for the San Francisco Marathon too (I’m just doing the first half).
I high-fived Meb post run, he finished a few minutes ahead of me and then post run, I had to do some downward facing dog, my calves were so stiff, I was a little concerned but we only ran 3ish miles and it normally takes me a bit to get loosened up.
I was waiting for Pete to come in before heading in for a light brunch. I knew he would be a little bit behind me, but I saw Meb run back to go find the slower runners.
I saw Daniel, who introduced himself to me earlier, he recognized me from my instagram account, how exciting! Lol! It’s the little things, right? He was with his sister and he was going to be running the marathon on Sunday, his second. He had done NYC last year as well as his first.
Soon after this Pete came in and was a bit hot, so we headed in to get some food. They had a nice little buffet with yogurt, granola and 3 types of breakfast burritos. It wasn’t anything super special but it was decent. By the time we had gotten inside most of the tables were taken and they were just about to start with some Q&A with the other elite runners.
Meb ran in with the last of the runners and then got ready to start signing. They lined everyone up by the number on your bib so obviously being numbers 96/97 we had a bit of a wait, especially since they were grouping everyone in groups of 20. Eventually it got to the point where they had to speed things up, the first 20 or so people got a lot more time to chat with Meb and have more things signed than we did. I ended up having my bib signed and then got a photo with him. It was kind of rushed so I don’t think it’s the best photo, but you can tell I was excited. One with just me & Meb & then the other with Pete added in.
After this, there was still a long line of people behind us so we ended up heading out. All in all it was a good event. The only thing I think that would have been better would have been if Meb could have done a little Q&A with us as well, but there were a lot of people and only one of him :).
Have you ever done an organized shake-out run before a race?
