New personal record: 1:46:45
Overall standing: 670/13573
Man Age Group(35-39) : 75/668
Man Age(38) : 16
First of all, I needed to say "thank you" to : Jason and Janice, Allen and Ellen
and especial thanks to Paul who woke up at 3:00am and came with us at 4:00am.
It took unusual courage and will to do that...
The decision of making this long trip seemed to a distant past. I couldn't hardly remember.
Well, we did it anyway.
The Rock N Roll race series was always my favorite, it had the best race service
among all the races I've ever joined. Yes, best service meant a lot of free food
and free beer for runner !!
So, here I was, 460 miles from home, and of course, I always carried extra bag with me in the race, ready for the post-race snacks and drinks.
Unlike the Rock N Roll San Jose, the arrangement in San Diego was a little complicated. Everyone (runner and family) was encouraged to park the car in Qualcomm stadium, and runner would take the shuttle to the starting line. Family would take Trolley train first, then take another shuttle to the finish line. That's why we needed to get up at 3:00am....
At first, I was really worried that my wife would need to take Allison to go all the trouble
by themselves to get to the finish line. Thank to Paul, who was willing to go with us
on the race day that I felt so relieved they could make it without any problem.
It made me feel a little bit guilty that we had to wake up the kid at 3:00am just for
her father's pleasure ...
Qualcomm Stadium, all the runners were lined up for shuttle
Just got off the bus
The starting line was in Balboa Park, there were more than 20,000 people for this race,
I could only say WOW, when I saw the countless people resting around the
starting line area, I had to be very careful not to step on the people on the ground!!
Starting Line rest area
people lined up waiting for massage
pre race massage ?? No kidding !! Wouldn't you fall asleep for that ?? I would, if I had one.
I preferred post race massage instead, but there was none.
People started to gather in the corral area.
taking off!!The fun began, let's rock and roll....
The people-boost took effect again. Somehow, when a lot of people ran together,
there was a invisible force to push you faster. My first 5 miles splits was around
7:45 min/mile, and I was not feeling too fast at all. Maybe it was the distraction or
something else. It was about 45 sec faster than my training speed.
Well, I had to admit, the speed was manageable, but couldn't say comfortable.
I could barely remember we ran into the downtown, and passed some museums, and parks.
All I remembered was I kept watching my speed, and controlled my running form.
The coolest part of this route was, we could actually run on the highway !!
We were running on high way
we were caught up by full marathoner lead group
The routes for full and half marathon were merged in here, this was the first time
I could personally see the lead elite runners this close !! Some crazy idea suddenly
came into my mind, I tried to catch up their speed, to see how fast they actually were.
Well ... as you could expect, it was very frustrated, it was like I was driving my Subaru and racing with a Lotus..
The Lotus kept going further, and I was still in the starting line, totally different league.
7 miles, still on the high way
After we got off the high way, around mile 10, I hit the "wall". It was kind of feeling that
suddenly all my energy was drained away. Usually, my GU power should take effect, because
in the race, I took one around mile 4, and the second one around mile 9.
My legs were so heavy, and I was panting heavily, feeling exhausted. The little devil started
to talk : You needed to stop, took a walk, no big deal ..
I hated this feeling, it was awful , but on the other hand, it was not a stranger to me.
Somehow, I just needed to let go my mind, and got it over with, and kept running, running.
Hey, where the hell was the beautiful view the official website promised me ?
It was mile 12 already, all I could see was gray sky, cars, and running people.
Mile 13, I was so exhausted and dragging myself. I didn't even notice my wife and Paul
were right beside me , taking this photo.
Springing to the finish line.
finish line looking back.
taking the trolley train back to stadium
on the train
Another Rock N Roll was collected !!!
Summary:
I found that my regular training distance was too short, it could carry me to the
finish line, but can't sustain my initial pace long enough. The speed after mile 10 was
terrible, it dropped to 8:50 ~ 9:00 min/mile.
I was a little disappointed about the race route, especially the half marathon, there was no beautiful view at all. It seemed all the best parts were in full marathon route.
In fact, they changed the route this year, last year's route was circling the mission bay
and passing two cross ocean bridges!!
Well, it gave me the reason to train for marathon again. Should I ?
Garmin GPS data:
