The Great Magnetic Wife and I got up and headed down to La Jolla early to avoid what is usually heavy Saturday traffic to San Diego. We stopped in Encinitas because The Great Magnetic Wife loves Encinitas and it was her birthday and she got to do whatever she wanted. I also wanted to go by Nytro, a great triathlon store to pick new bottles for my Fuel Belt.
From Encinitas we continued down PCH because we would meet up with the course of the La Jolla Half Marathon. I wanted to get a feel for it. I have ridden my bike along the route, but I just wanted to remind myself. There were going be some hills.
After a quick stop at the parent's house we headed out to go to the La Jolla Recreation Center to the event expo to pick up my bib, timing chip and t-shirt. I have dozens of event t-shirts and I don't wear most of them, but somehow, I still have to pick up the t-shirt. The one event t-shirt I do wear regularly is my finisher's shirt from Ironman Arizona. There was a guy who was looking at my shirt and said that he had also done Ironman Arizona last November and so we got to reminisce about our pain and triumphs of completing an Ironman.
It brought back a lot of memories going to the La Jolla Rec. Center. When I was in Junior High School there used to be Friday night dances at the rec center. My band regularly played those dances and when we weren't playing, I usually attended. I went into the auditorium and it seemed much smaller than I remembered it. It all came back, from the awkward times of trying to figure out girls to the mischief that went on outside. Always a lot of fun.
It was The Great Magnetic Wife's Birthday and so I took her out for lunch. We were planning on having dinner with my dad and my mom if she got home in time from her nursing school reunion up in Palo Alto. We went to Karl Strauss in La Jolla and had some fine beer and food.
The race started at 7:30 in Del Mar. I wanted to be there by 7:00. It takes about ten minutes to get from my parent's house to the start point of the race at the Del Mar fairgrounds. I knew there were about 6,500 runners so there could be some traffic, but 6,500 people is nothing compared to a busy day at the Del Mar Fair or when the thourobreds are running. However about a mile away from the Via De La Valle exit, there was already a backup. We got in line and were glad that we left early and had plenty of time. After about a half and hour I said that I was seriously thinking about getting out and running to the start. I was going to give it fifteen more minutes. Fifteen minutes went by and we had inched closer, but were still aways away from getting off of the freeway. A few people had the same idea I did and were running along the freeway. The Great Magnetic Wife convinced me to wait five more minutes.
We finally got off the freeway, but were stuck on Via De La Valle. I finally said, "I can't wait anymore, I have to get there." So I hopped out and headed for the race. About three minutes later I realized that I still had my long sleeve running shirt that I was going to take off before the race and hand to The Great Magnetic Wife. Oh well, I'll deal with it later.
I did manage to get to the starting line about fifteen minutes before the start of the race and had a change to stretch and relax a little. I decided I would start the race with my long sleeve shirt and take it off when I got hot and just wrap it around me.
There were two waves at the start. I started at the back of the second wave because I am, after all, Slow John. It was a very wide starting place and as a result there was very little crowding. It probably also helped that a significant number of runners were not able to make it to the start on time because of the traffic back up. About three minutes into the run I was starting to get hot. My plan was to run the first mile and then walk for a minute before I started my usual routine of run for five minutes and walk for one minute. As it turns out The Great Magnetic Wife was able to park and was watching, but I didn't see her and she didn't see me. It would have been nice to give her my long sleeve shirt.
I made it to the first mile and took off the long sleeve shirt and wrapped it around my waist. That lasted about thirty seconds. The shirt is made of a very slippery wick-away materiel that does not hold very well when tied around your waist. Plan B. I stuck it in the back of my Fuel Belt and would just have a blue tail the whole run. That lasted about a minute. I finally had to knot it up multiple times on itself around the fuel belt. I remember having this same problem with the same shirt while I was running the marathon during the Ironman.
The first part of the course has some mild hills, but nothing too hard. There is a section that goes from Del Mar down to Torrey Pines State Beach that is a long, sustained, not-too-steep down hill. At the top there was a big yellow traffic sign that said SLOW. I turn to some of the runners next to me and said, "I know I'm slow, but do that have to put up a sign?" It made them laugh.
It was nice to run down hill, but in this race, what comes down must go up. At the section of Torrey Pines Road that climbs into La Jolla, we left the main road and went into Torrey Pines State Park. The road through the park is very winding and steep. Almost everyone stopped running and started to walk this part. I then looked up ahead and saw that the official race photographers were ahead. I couldn't have a race photo taken while I was walking, so I started running again and smiled as I went by the photographers. The moment I passed them I started walking and stopped smiling. This extremely steep section went on for over a mile. When I finally got to the top, it was still a mild uphill for another mile or so. I started running and got back to my 5 to 1 run/walk routine. As we were passing Torrey Pines Golf Course, I heard someone say, "do you think Tiger's playing there today?" I said, "probably."
At this point there were a few miles of relatively flat running as we went by the Salk Institute and UCSD. After that long uphill it was quite nice. We eventually turned onto La Jolla Shores Drive and after about a mile it goes downhill rather steeply. I like running downhill on moderate grade roads, but running down steep hills is not a lot of fun. I can go a lot faster than I can run on a flat, but to some extent I have to hold back to keep my balance and it is hard on the quads, the knees and is not very efficient. This was a steep downhill of about a mile.
I finally made it to La Jolla Shores and ran along the boardwalk there. This was fun. I have run here a number of times before. We made our way around the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club and then up another steep hill to meet up with Torrey Pines Road again. This part of Torrey Pines road is a moderate uphill that I have run before, but over twelve miles into a half marathon it is tough.
Finally we turned on Prospect Street and it went downhill again. Then we veered right onto Coast Boulevard towards La Jolla Cove. This was a scary steep downhill with very uneven road, I was moving fast, but I was careful with every step.
Finally, I could see the finish line at La Jolla Cove Park. I ran as fast as I could for the last four hundred yards and finished in 2:36:16. That time was actually almost two minutes faster than my last half marathon in Pasadena in March, also a very hilly affair. But the weather was beautiful for this run a awful for Pasadena.
I met up with The Great Magnetic Wife and we had brunch at the Brockton Villa. We both enjoyed Meg's Eggs.
The legs feel pretty good. A little sore, but considering all the downhill running I did, not bad at all.
