Category: half marathon

Rock N Roll San Diego – The Double Header Weekend

Posted on Posted in AirBnB, half marathon, marathon, running, San Diego, San Francisco, trainingLeave a comment

In my pursuit of the Cali Combo medal from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Limited Edition medals, I headed to San Diego for a double-header weekend. Running both Saturday and Sunday was also going to earn me the Remix medal.

Race Expo

This was my first time doing the Remix Challenge so I didn’t know I would have to fill out a waiver for each race before I could pick up my bibs for the 5k and ½ marathon. Lucky for me, the first person I approached for my first bib informed me I would need a waiver for my second bib.

After picking up my bibs I made my way through the rest of the expo including picking up the T-shirts for the 5k and ½ marathon, then onto the merchandise. I didn’t need to buy anything so I just made my way through to the exit.

Race Morning 1 – 5k

I was staying in an AirBnB on the Eastern side of Balboa Park and the race started and ended on the Western side. So I thought it would be a great way to warm-up for the race by walking to the race start. However, it was a 2.5 mi walk, with hills. I would have been fine but my dad joined me and was not a fan of the hills. Lucky for us, we handled the hills and made it to the start area.

Rock n Roll San Diego 5k course map

My dad stayed a little ways up the course from the start line so he could take photos and record video of me running because the 5k started by running North, making a U-turn, then running back South towards the start line before continuing for the remaining ~2 mi. After making it back past the start line, we were met with a long straight away and then a hill.

I thought I was in decent shape so I was aiming for roughly 9:00/mi at best, but I was running closer to 8:20/mi on the descent of the hill and that would come back to bite me. A little way down the hill was the turnaround point and I made it only part of the way back up before I needed to walk. There happened to be the one and only drink station just around the corner on the way back up the hill and I chose to start running right before I saw the drinks.

This drink station was about halfway up a small hill that led to another descent before reaching a quick left-hand turn that led to the finish which was, you guessed it, uphill! But this time the uphill climb to the 5k finish was gradual and hardly noticeable.

My official finish time was 33:42 placing me 1413/3338 Overall and 740/1306 for Men.

Race Morning 2 – ½ Marathon

Another day, another race to get to. I didn’t want to walk another 2.5mi to the race start so I requested a Lyft, but of course everyone was looking for one, and everyone was on the road so getting around the road closures made the Lyft difficult.

Eventually I made it to the start area, found my friend Lauren, and we dropped our gear off. I still needed to use a port-a-potty so I got in line even though the race was starting. Why was I okay and not nervous doing this? There were 20,000 people running the ½ and full marathons so it was taking a long time to get through all the corrals of runners. I was going to meet up with another friend who was also late getting to the race start, so Lauren and I decided to wait in the last corral. We ended up starting in corral 37 and every corral before ours was still packed like it was the 1st corral.

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Rock n Roll San Diego marathon and half marathon course map

As for the race, we started along the same street heading in the same direction as the 5k, but of course we continued on past the U-turn point from the 5k. The marathon and ½ follow the same route until about 7.5mi in giving my friend and me plenty of time to run together, the first time we’ve done this so far!

This wasn’t as flat as I expected, but I also thought we would be running through the Downtown area more. Instead, we (those of us running the ½) spent most of our time running through the North Park and Normal Heights areas which is actually where my AirBnB was. The race turned south to make its way towards Balboa Park around mile 8.5 which meant there were less than 5 miles left in the race.

Around mile 9.5 was a series of steep downhills leading into Balboa Park and towards mile 10 where a big inflatable rocker playing a double guitar advertising for Brooks running shoes.

Brooks advertisement from RnR SD half

Passing through the legs of the rockers led us to a short valley along the route, with a hill following shortly afterwards with a group playing large drums as we continued through Balboa Park. There was more uphill and downhill running as we made our way to mile 12 and into Downtown.

Finally into Downtown, I was feeling pretty good and thought it would be a good idea to all but sprint the last mile, so my pace went from 11:00 or 12:00/mi to 8:00/mi.

Needless to say, I “ran out of fuel” short of the finish line so I had to walk a little. I still finished strong and ran a decent pace into the finish line, but I need more practice with pacing my races and finishes.

My goal was to finish in 2:30 and I was very close at 2:32:04. This put me at 8555/15372 Overall, 252/328 for my Division and 4243/6204 for Men.

Like the start line, the finish line was packed when I finished even though the marathon finishers were still only trickling in.

Final Thoughts

I may have been far off on my desired time for the 5k (although right on pace for what I was aiming for in the ½) but I missed my desired time for the ½ marathon by just 2 minutes and I was happy with my performance. Coming into the race with more knowledge of the course profile may have helped my performance, but now I know what to expect if I return to run Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego again.

The weather wasn’t perfect on Saturday for the 5k, but Sunday was pretty good. Another highlight of this race was my lack of forethought meant I didn’t have gels along the race which ended up being beneficial because I didn’t need to take bathroom breaks every couple miles like I did during the California International Marathon (CIM) in December.

Would I do this race again? Definitely, because it’s flatter than San Francisco but not as flat as a pancake like San Jose will be in October. Plus, the weather and area (Downtown, North Park, and Normal Heights) has a lot to see and explore.

I have uploaded to YouTube a video shot on my GoPro Hero4 Black throughout the race. You can find it here if you want to check it out.

Flight to San Diego #1: SMF – SLC

Posted on Posted in American Express, Credit card, Flying, half marathon, marathon, running, Travel, video, YouTubeTagged , , , , 1 Comment

I chose to run the Rock ‘N’ Roll San Diego for the first weekend of June. To get to San Diego, I chose to fly on Delta. My chosen route with Delta was Sacramento (SMF) → Salt Lake City (SLC) → San Diego (SAN) so I could check out the Delta Sky Club in SLC.

The Delta credit cards from American Express currently have their highest sign-up bonuses being offered, 60,000 points for the Delta Gold card with the annual fee waived the first year. These points are good for 1 or 2 round trip tickets for longer flights, like SFO – JFK, or roughly 5 or 6 short one-way segments like SFO-LAX.

To the Airport!

The trip to SMF was smooth without any congestion on the drive to the airport. Once at the airport, security was not busy at all so I spent maybe 10 minutes going through TSA. Delta flies out of Terminal A which is also used only by United and American which might account for the speed of security compared to Terminal B which has 7 airlines.

The Airplane

My flight to SLC was on an Airbus 319-100 which seats 126 people and has 2 cabins, First and Comfort+/Economy. Having only 2 cabins meant boarding went quickly, first Pre-boarding, then First Class and Diamond Medallion members, with Sky board followed by Group 1, 2, and 3 to finish things off.

The overhead storage bins were like buckets that came down from the ceiling and we dumped our luggage into them. I recently got a carry-on suitcase with a battery from Away called “The Bigger Carry-On” and it fit just fine in the overhead bin. Seating was 3 on either side of the aisle, so a 3-3 configuration.

 

This airplane felt new because the light and air vent controls looked like a WiFi router, which it might have been since there was an illuminated “WiFi” icon during the flight. The In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) also seemed updated because even though there was a screen in the back of the headrest on each seat, the screens were independent of one another and they were touch screens.

What impressed me was not only the touch and independence of each screen, but the fact there were hours of modern movies (like Moana, Hidden Figures, and Rogue One), TV series, and full albums all for free.

On the underside of the IFE screen was a headphone jack and a USB port. Each of these inputs had a blue light illuminating them but the light would switch off and on without any known reason. I couldn’t tell if my camera was charging or not, so I used the universal power socket that was on the near the floor of the seats in front of me.

Being about 6’ 2”, leg room is of great importance to me. With that said, I chose the window because SMF-SLC is just over an hour.

I didn’t have much to complain about in terms of legroom. My knees were about an inch away from the seat in front of me while my feet were directly below my knees and the seat was upright. Even the tray table was well above my knees when my legs were in the same position.

The short duration of this flight meant I didn’t find using the available GoGo WiFi worthwhile to use, but I did take a water and pretzel snack when the food cart came through. Another consequence of such a short flight was not being able to tell if the seats were comfortable. They weren’t uncomfortable and they looked new, but I couldn’t tell if they would hurt during a 2+ hour flight.

Landing in Salt Lake City went smoothly and I had a 3 hour layover so I headed from Gate D13 to the Delta SkyClub located between the D and C gates. The review of my flight from Salt Lake City to San Diego will be published in a few days, and videos of my flights can be found here.

If you think it’s as awesome as I did to have a battery for charging various things while sitting around with a carry-on suitcase, and you’d like $20 off your order of an Away suitcase, you can use my referral link and I will also get $20.

Action Cameras and YouTube Videos

Posted on Posted in Amtrak, Europe, Flying, half marathon, OnePlus, OnePlus 3T, running, Smartphone, Tech, TomTom, training, Travel, video, YouTube2 Comments

I am joining the world of action camera videography. With a couple GoPro cameras in hand, I will be cataloging my traveling, races and training on YouTube.

There will be separate channels for travel and races and another for full length recordings of me training.

On the travel and races channel, I have uploaded a time lapse of my recent trip on Amtrak to San Jose. And I have begun uploading my run workouts as I prepare for the Rock ‘N’ Roll San Diego race weekend.

I already have several videos planned for this summer with the first coming from my weekend of racing in San Diego. The majority of my planned videos will be from my trip to Europe in July. These will include time lapses of the flights going to and coming back from Europe, and train rides throughout Europe.

A couple more videos I will be creating will be a follow up to my blog about my TomTom Spark and a brand new blog post about my newest phone, the OnePlus 3T.

 

Rock ‘n’ Roll San Francisco

Posted on Posted in Bay Area, Forrest Gump, half marathon, marathon, San Francisco, TravelLeave a comment

A week ago, I competed in the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Francisco half marathon. From getting to San Francisco, making my way through the pre-race expo, and trudging up and down the hills of San Francisco, this race had me face new obstacles in real time.

Pre-Race Expo

Walking up to the race Expo, I wouldn’t have know there was a race Expo going on inside if someone had not walked in the doors ahead of me. I knew the Expo was at Pier 35, and I saw Pier 35 on the building, but the signage for the Expo was rather limited and small. There were some people near the entrance because they, like me, needed to confirm their registration to learn their number and then sign the race waiver.

With my number in mind and waiver signed (that rhymed, didn’t it?), I made my way to pick-up my number. I was one of the first groups because the bibs were organized 0000-0999, 1000-1999, etc. and my number was in the 4000’s. At this first stop I only received my bib; I had to continue to the next stop to grab my shirt and bag.

Before I continue, this Expo was split into 4 “Stops”.  Stop 1 was getting your Bib, 2 was getting your Shirt and Gear Bag, 3 was Merchandise and 4 was Main Expo.

When I grabbed my bag I thought “Okay, this has all of my things including my VIP information” without realizing the bags were not unique to each other and not noticing the VIP table was not “just up ahead”. This meant I did not have my VIP packet, but I’ll move on for now.

The merchandise was nice, but I had everything I needed so I didn’t spend much time in Stop 3. I did take a look at the glasses they were selling with a Rock ‘n’ Roll and 13.1 logo.

The vendor I was most excited for was United because United had their new Polaris business class seats on display. Other vendors I noted were Brooks, Garmin, Run Disney, and SF Chronicle.

The one “vendor” I actually needed was the VIP table. Unfortunately for me, I was pre-occupied mentally. However, the VIP table was at the very end in a back corner of sorts. All of the vendors were set up with one row on the left and 2 rows on the right. VIP was the 2nd on the right so it wasn’t even easy to see when walking towards the exit.

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Race Day Morning

If I had received my VIP packet I would have known where the VIP shuttle pick-up was, but since I didn’t I needed the general shuttle pick-up area which was at the Civic Center Plaza.

Before leaving my hotel room I had to change into my running clothes, which meant I got to put on my Forrest Gump costume! With a natural beard, it’s hard not to want to dress as Forrest Gump.

Forrest Gump costume RnR SF halfI left the hotel and headed to Market St. towards Bay and noticed the streets were pleasantly barren. The sidewalks were being cleaned, but this isn’t a review of the streets of San Francisco.

Parc 55 San Francisco
Market St

After a quick shuttle ride to the start, I had to walk past the start line and through the general information and port-a-potty areas to the far back. This is where I was able to get my VIP wristband and VIP breakfast.

Once I felt ready I shed my jacket and shorts and checked my gear in my bag with the VIP bag check, grabbed a croissant breakfast-bag, and headed to the start line. Next, I began my warm-up by doing a quick jog down the nearby trail and to the corrals followed by some dynamic stretching to get my body ready for the next 3 hours of hills.

Everyone started congregating and condensing around the “Corral #” and pace runner signs as 6:15 began approaching. I saw the 2:45 pacer and wanted to get ahead of them so I could take it easy at places while still finishing close to them, so I looked for the 2:30 pacer.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the other pace sign well so once I got close enough to notice it said “2:00”. I thought I must have been blind since “2:00” was in Corral 7 and “2:45” was in Corral 8. But I wasn’t blind, the “2:15” and “2:30” pacers either weren’t holding their signs up or didn’t have them yet.

Anyways, Rock ‘n’ Roll races feature rock ‘n’ roll music blasting on speakers at the start, roughly every mile throughout, and at the finish of the race. But this time there was no music at the start. Maybe it had to do with the start line being in Golden Gate Park, but I wasn’t terribly disappointed about not having music at the start.

Good news was we still got a count down, of sorts. The lack of music was most likely because the race couldn’t make a lot of noise which meant they also couldn’t shout the count down through the speakers nor use an air horn.

The Race – 13.1 Miles of Hills

Course profile of the RnR SF half marathon
RnR SF half marathon course profile

The Start

Crossing the start line, we headed to the left and met our first tease of the course, a slight hill to get out of the Golden Gate Park. Once we summited this “bump” we had to go back down it then immediately turn to the right and then another left to introduce us to our first real hill.

If you haven’t realized it now, I’m going to be saying hill and talking about climbing frequently in this race review, so get ready!

On our way to the Golden Gate Bridge

This is a San Francisco half marathon so it has to include running over the Golden Gate Bridge (GGB). Of course that means we had to get to the Bridge from Golden Gate Park.

Getting to the GGB meant we had about 3.5mi of gradually steeper and steeper hills. The bottom of the first set of climbing featured a band dressed as hippies. I almost asked if any of them had seen Jenny but they were busy taking selfies with other runners.

Right around the 2.25mi point the final climb leading to the GGB began. Nearly 1mi later, we had climbed nearly 300ft with almost 200ft in the last half mile.

I am proud to say I did not walk the entire climb, nor was I alone in walking part of the climb. And as the saying goes, “what goes up must come down” and down we hiked. It was just as steep going downhill as it was uphill, but the downhill was longer.

After the torturous 1mi climb and 1mi descent, we were finally in sight of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge was pretty crowded because there were nearly 6700 runners who needed to pass over the bridge in two traffic lanes with one lane going North and the other South.

Reaching the Vista Point was a relief because there was much more space so the runners didn’t need to be shoulder to shoulder anymore, plus the view was nice. This also featured the second band, this one being a band of military personnel. Heading back to the Bridge and starting the return into San Francisco helped remind me just how long the Golden Gate Bridge is and how long it was going to take to get back across.

Despite all my complaining about the hills and length of the Bridge, the view made the trip worth the suffering, as well as the Forrest Gump references from people crossing paths with me. One woman complimented me on my outfit and said I had the legs to pull it off, so that eased the pain I was feeling.

Bidding the Bridge Fair-well

With the Bridge in my rearview mirror, I was tasked with running down to Marina Blvd which, surprise surprise, featured a steep downhill which I had to walk most of the way down. Once I got to Marina Blvd, it was nice and flat.

Marina Blvd allowed us a mostly flat course for about 2 miles but then we were right back to the typical San Francisco hills making our way towards our final summit.

After beginning to climb the city streets past Marina Blvd, our summit was About 2 miles with about 200ft of climbing. Now, the finish line was all downhill from here.

However, if you remember, downhill does not mean the final stretch was a walk in the park nor was it a piece of cake. I did walk, but only because it was still a steep downhill and running was difficult (but it’s a half marathon, it’s not supposed to be easy). And there wasn’t even cake at the finish line.

I finally made it to the final stretch without much of a slope and I was feeling fine so I picked up the pace. The final performer was dressed as Beyoncé and almost everyone was passing the performer on the right so I decided to go left. Coming in to the final 0.1 mi and I started passing people.

At the finishing chute the announcer was calling off names and told everyone “here comes Forrest” when I came into view. Crossing the finishing line, I was finally done and able to avoid any and all the hills I wanted.

Running down the finishing chute

Post-Race Party

The finish line had the usual volunteers passing out medals, people taking photos with their new medals, and others trying desperately to get refueled via chocolate milk and sports drinks (that was me).

Music was played by another live band, but the music made it difficult to hear people. Fortunately, I had not reconnected with my parents yet so this wasn’t much of a problem for a few minutes.

Since I had my VIP package, I made my way to the VIP area, but I accidentally went to the VIP area for people from The Westin. Strangely, my checked gear bag was at this VIP area instead of at the United VIP area next door. So it worked out despite me being in the wrong place.

Rock 'n' Roll San Francisco post-race VIP area

In the VIP area I found some light food and got a massage after changing my shorts. The masseuse’s name was Sean, I think, and he was magnificent at the massage. My neck had a kink for about a week (hey, I rhymed again) and my upper-back tends to get tight when I run so I asked for my 10 minute massage to be focused on my shoulders instead of my calves.

Check-out at my hotel, the Parc 55 San Francisco, was at 11 and my massage ended at 10:10 so I needed to hurry back to my hotel. I texted the hotel desk to ask for a late check-out and they said yes, I could check out an hour later. That left me enough time to eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant, shower and change back in my room.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought this race was lacking when I compare it to what I’ve seen at the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Jose the previous 2 years. The pre-race Expo was arranged too neatly. I know that seems weird but the orderly layout of the Expo prevented me from getting my VIP package at the Expo.

Beyond the Expo, I was disappointed in the lack of music at the start line, and I was not able to train for the hills well, so it was not entirely Rock ‘n’ Roll’s fault I didn’t have a blast.

If I do this race again I’ll have to be in a more hilly region while I train or I need to make some trips to San Francisco. However, I’ll have a better understanding of the organization of the events for the weekend next time.

In the end, I chose this race because it is local and one of the four races which qualify people for the special California medal, which requires 3 of 4 California half/full marathons. With that, I’m glad I did the race, and I’m happy with my performance.