Last year I decided I wanted to run the Pikes Peak Ascent half marathon in August of 2016. The first step was to earn a qualifying mark before the March registration period. After enjoying the experience of combining racing with travel last year with a 5K in Chicago, I wanted to do the same for my qualifier. I had family/friends I could stay with in Orlando, Portland, and San Diego, each of which would have the added benefit of avoiding the MidWestern winter weather. The Disney World race would have been perfect, but the sign up period was too early. Ultimately, San Diego won as it was the one of the three cities I had yet to visit.
In addition to having a free place to stay with my college teammate, Matt, I had a $300 travel voucher from my New York trip last February. So, no hotels, no car rental, and I got my flight for $18. That’s the way to travel!
I had actually misjudged the San Diego climate. I thought it was far enough south that everyday was a beach-weather day, even in January. Before I arrived, it had basically rained for a week straight and during my week there highs were in the low to mid-60s with lows in the mid-40s. So, while I found myself wearing my hoodie more than I had expected, this was even better than I had hoped for running a half marathon.
The race itself was the Carlsbad Half Marathon just north of San Diego. For over half the course the ocean was right along our side. It was beautiful. The weather was a complete non-factor. After being ever so slightly chilly at the starting line, I can’t say that I was either hot or cold the entire race. I had heard the qualifying mark for Pikes Peak was 2 hours and 30 minutes (it’s actually 2:25), and set my goal of breaking 90 minutes several months ago. I had ran faster before, but didn’t know if I had time to get my training where it needed to be–as I detailed in my post about stretching. I got in with the 90 minute pacing group who I stayed with for the first five miles. They were relying more on their GPS watches than by our times at the actual race mile markers, so I creeped a little ahead, but through ten miles I was probably only 20-40 meters in front of them and about 10 seconds ahead of goal pace. I was feeling pretty good, but kept repeating to myself, “patience, patience.” I didn’t want to get too aggressive and regret it. I wasn’t running for a PR, just to comfortably break 90. The last three miles I did steadily creep ahead, aided by a largely downhill finish and came in at 1:28:17. It felt fairly easy and I finished 82nd out of a field of 5,817. A Facebook friend who has ran Pikes Peak before felt confident I would be in the first wave of that race, so mission accomplished all around.
The rest of the trip was spent exploring San Diego, mostly led by Matt, and watching some football games (my Broncos narrowly beat the Steelers while I was out in California, and just yesterday hung on to beat the Patriots to earn a trip to the Super Bowl!). I had mahi mahi fish tacos. I saw the beautiful beach of La Jolla (pronounced Hoy-uh) complete with pelicans and seals.
The San Diego Zoo was actually a little smaller than I would have guessed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice. It’s like a theme park that’s a zoo (not sure how it might compare to Disney’s Animal Kingdom). We were there for just four hours and I feel like we saw everything at a pretty leisurely pace. I’d still recommend it, but not what I expected from the most famous zoo in the country.
On my last full day in town, Matt was back at work, so I strolled the chilly, breezy beach in the morning and spent a couple hours looking over the bays from Kate Sessions Park in the afternoon.
Everything went pretty much according to plan. The one tip I’d leave you with (and for myself) is just to make more of a point to have snacks with you at the airport and on flights. Options can be pretty limited, and insultingly expensive. I’m usually pretty good about having at least some granola bars, but didn’t have any on the way home. I ended up spending a lot of money and still finding myself uncomfortably hungry most of the day.
No other big trips planned at the moment, but it’s very possible something will pop up between now and tackling Pikes Peak in seven months.