First and foremost, for those of you wondering about my "dogter", Ella, she's still alive and well. In the four months I've had her, she's gone from a sweet little 8 pound pup to a 40 pound running, jumping, brilliantly klutzy dog. We are still figuring each other out and don't always like each other, but I'm glad she's in my life. She's a fun challenge and I think she likes me most of the time (and vice versa).
I have continued to run, of course. In preparation for the Rock 'n' Roll San Diego 1/2 Marathon, I did a 10-mile race in Dallas, and just completed my umpteenth 5K at the Wounded Warrior Military Miles 5K in Irving over the past weekend. Before I write about my San Diego trip, I'm officially announcing my retirement/hiatus from long-distance running, for those of you who hadn't already been informed. I ran my first half marathon in October 2014 and since then have completed 5 halfs. Frankly, I'm a little burnt out on training, my body is a wreck, and I am ready to focus on other aspects of fitness for a while. I do plan on pulling a Michael Jordan and returning to the half marathon in approximately 2 years, so look for a blog post on my sixth half marathon in winter 2018. ;)
Now for the fun part of this post: SAN DIEGO. Most of ya'll know, I love taking racecations, and my friend Shane and I have now done 4 half marathons together, 2 of which were to amazing destinations. The first was, of course, Disney World, and this time we took it to the left coast for the Rock 'n' Roll San Diego half marathon. We also brought along two other friends, our two additional sole sisters. As a team of four we are running 2,016 miles this year.
This was my first trip to California, and I was more than excited to get a taste of the beautiful weather, beaches, and scenery I'd heard so much about for many years. I expected it to be similar to Florida, since both are beachy and touristy, but I was w-r-o-n-g. To compare SD to Florida is like comparing apples to oranges, because they're completely different places entirely.
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| Torrey Pine trees over the Pacific at Torrey Pines |
I was shocked to find that San Diego is jam-packed to the gills. Literally. Everything is built on top of everything else and it's just clustered and busy! I also expected the weather to be muggy and warm, but that was also another mistake. It was pleasantly cool in the evenings (around 60!) and warmed up to 75 or 80 during the day, but it wasn't humid, which was thrilling!
While in San Diego I ate some good food, and some not great food. My favorite meal was not really a meal....it was the ice cream. I ate ice cream three times in five days, and I don't regret a second of it. I also had some delicious spinach and chicken gnocchi for my pre-race carb load Saturday night. My least favorite meal was at a little Mexican restaurant in the Gas Lamp district. I ordered a bowl which included shrimp, rice, and beans. To my dismay the shrimp was unpeeled and I learned that shrimp have legs. I just couldn't stomach peeling the little guys who still had their extremities and tasted like they came straight out of the dirt at the bottom of the Pacific.
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| Scotch Eggs at Balboa Park for brunch |
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| One of many delicious ice cream treats (FYI brown sugar ice cream is delectable) |
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| Spinach & Chicken Gnocchi at a fancy Italian restaurant I wore workout clothes to for dinner :) |
Another highlight of my trip was seeing Switchfoot in concert. I can't even tell you how thrilled it made me to see them in their hometown at the Del Mar fairgrounds right off the coast. It was an amazing show (as all 5 of the shows I've been to have been) and I thoroughly enjoyed singing along to each song for the 90 minute (!) show.
I was able to see the amazing wildlife at the San Diego Zoo, and also visited multiple museums at Balboa Park in San Diego. They have 19 museums there, but our daily admission pass only allowed us to check out five of them. I saw some awesome old automobiles, learned about ancient Egypt and genealogy, and saw Tony Gwynn's jersey on a wall. Pretty sweet stuff. We also spent some time on the beach. The water was much colder than I expected, but like usual, I got in and took advantage of it. Unfortunately, a sting ray got ahold of my left foot and left me with a nice souvenir. Thankfully, after 90 minutes of hot water soaking, the toxin dissolved and I was back to 100%. Seriously the weirdest thing ever, but praise God it didn't do any real damage.
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| Koala hanging out. I officially decided the koala is my spirit animal. DYK--they sleep 20 hours/day! |
Finally, for the wrap-up of the reason I went to San Diego in the first place: the half marathon. Going into this event, I had zero expectations and my only goal was to finish. I developed a shin splint in my left leg a few weeks prior and cut out most of my heavy distance training because it just wasn't worth it to me to have excruciating pain with every step. I was still running several miles each week, but broke it up into 1-3 miles each day and stopped doing super long runs aside from the 10-mile run in Dallas two weeks prior to heading to SD.
I had always heard the RNR race series was super fun and interactive, so what better place to participate than a tropical locale? The race course did not disappoint. The path took us through multiple San Diego neighborhoods, where there were fans cheering us on pretty much the entire way! It was so funny to read the signs, see the roadside table set-ups, and hear the different high school cheerleading squads and bands root us on. There were also several live bands along the course, which added to the awesomeness of the race.
The first 6 miles were up and down with a few bigger hills, but after that it was mostly a flat race, which I totally appreciated. For the first time ever, I had to stop during the race at a restroom pitstop, and it just so happened that it occurred after one measly mile. Oh well! I finished the race and got a sweet sparkly medal and a fun t-shirt, so I was happy. After the race we walked another mile or so to the main stage and got to listen to a concert by Gavin DeGraw. I scoffed at first because he is kind of a "has-been", but he put on a great show for an hour and a half.
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| Post-half marathon with my Sole Sisters! |
All in all, the trip to San Diego was special and was a blast! I'm now thoroughly enjoying retirement and looking forward to lifting weights and improving upon my 5K time through some speed workouts. I hope running will always be part of my life in some capacity, but for now my health is going to take priority! To those of you who are still with me, thanks for sticking it out to the end.
PS Are you partial to the east coast or west coast?
PPS Where should half marathon #6 be in 2018?
Twitter: @jen_being_jen
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