Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon

Done, state #20.

I arrived in San Diego late Friday night because my flight was delayed.  I went straight up to my room and met my roommate, Rebecca from Run Like a Girl, and Mean It!  She is a sweet person!  We talked for a little bit and then went to sleep.

The next morning I met another runner, Kim, and Rebecca’s mom and aunt.  I also ran 2.2 miles for this challenge.  It was such a beautiful morning in San Diego.

After my run I went to the expo.  Again, RNR expos do not disappoint.  I bought two pairs of Pro Compression Socks and two running shirts.  Plus, I made a video for Team Refuel.  I’ll find out July 5th if my video was selected for one of the top 10 and then voting begins to be selected to be on the team.

Race day I was up at 4am.  Yes, ridiculously early.  We got ready and went downstairs for the shuttle bus to take us to the start line.  It wasn’t a bus but a limo bus.

Once we arrived we had plenty of time to find the gear drop off area, start line, and go to the bathroom.  I was the only one that went to the bathroom. Before we knew it more people had arrived and the bathroom lines were getting longer.  Rebecca was the only one running the full marathon (6:15 am start time) and Kim and I were running the half marathon (6:45 am).  We got in line to go to the bathroom one more time and I am not kidding but we waited about 30 minutes.  Whew, definitely felt better afterwards.

Kim and I got in our corral and we were ready to tackle the race!

It was humid!  I was sweating within the first mile.  Here are my splits:

Miles 1 through 4 – 9:22, 10:44, 10:24, 11:23
Miles 5 through 8 – 10:30, 11:07, 10:53, 10:41
Miles 9 through 12 – 11:33, 11:01, 11:34, 9:35
Mile 13 – 11:13

The course had its ups and down.  There were so many turns.  I got annoyed and did not like them at all and had to take a few walking breaks.  We did run through some nice neighborhoods and there were so many people cheering for us.  My favorite part was mile 12 because it was mostly downhill. Actually, it was about a half mile going downhill and it felt really good.

My finish time is 2:22:06.  According to my Garmin I ran 13.26 miles in 2:22:08.  Doesn’t really make sense right? The winner of the half marathon was Bernard Koech from Kenya with a finish time of 58:41.  That is a 4:29 pace per mile!!!