Rock ā€˜nā€™ Roll San Diego Marathon - RunMarathon


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San Diego, California
United States
Competitor Group, Inc.
60F / 16C
Overcast
Total Time = 5h 48m 34s
Overall Rank = 6101/7087
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 482/525
Pre-race routine:

Got up at 3 AM and made some oatmeal with the hotel coffee maker. Got dressed and glided up. After the wife was ready we drove to pick up another runner and headed down to valley view casino to park. Caught the bus to the start line. That all went very smooth and we got there with a ton of time to spare. I figured we'd either be really early or late, so we went with early.
Event warmup:

Not a whole lot on the warm up front. We just hung out by the gear check trucks until it was time to take off my warm clothes. It was actually very, very nice out unlike the last year where it was pretty cool at the start (for an Arizona dude). We were in corral #29 so we had a lot of time before the start. Chatted with a few other friends that were doing the half today.
Run
  • 5h 48m 34s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 13m 18s  min/mile
Comments:

This was going to be my wife and my first marathon. We trained seperately and her strategy was to run 0.5 miles, walk a minute and repeat. My only goal on this run was to make sure she finished. :) We started out running with her friend that she trained with occasionally, but we lost her in the first mile. We stopped to find her but she waved us on, so we progressed. My wife was thinking she was going to take 6.5 hrs to finish and I told her no way. Maybe 5.5...We were on track through mile 20 for about a 5:15 finish. However, after the Mile 20 mark things started to really slow down. The run course on the sidewalk was crowded and seeing all the runners out on Fiesta Island was a bit depressing. My wife wanted to walk a bit more than the 1 minute, so we did. We kept running at a slow pace when we could and finally we had made it to the entrance to Fiesta Island. Thankfully the weather was as good as you could have asked for. We had a bit of wind out of the South, but the temps were perfect and no blazing sun. We walked a bit more on Fiesta Island and did some short running here and there. After we started South on Fiesta Island the wind was a bit stronger and we had to fight that. As we crossed the 25 mile mark I think we got a bit of pep in our step. Getting onto the last piece of of sidewalk where there were a lot of spectators my wife decided to push hard to the end. She suddenly looked pretty strong and ran all the way to the end. It was funny how we went back and forth with so many of the same people the entire race. You almost start to know them after 6 hours of running near them.
What would you do differently?:

While a run/walk strategy is probably not my preferred choice of running plans, it worked to accomplish our goal of the day. I would have liked to run a few more long runs (only did up to 18 in training) and I need to be more diligent about running shorter runs during the week. Add in the fact that I didn't run at ALL between the RnR Portland 1/2 marathon and this one and there's a lot of improvement to be had.
Post race
Warm down:

Grabbed some water, G2, and anything else that we could grab. No chocolate milk for the slow marathoners. Reunited with other friends and grabbed some merch for my wife. Back to the hotel for a shower, nap and then a bit of hot tub.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

The fact that a marathon is a really long way to run.

Event comments:

3399 out of 3712 (Men)

It was really cool to run my first marathon with my wife. I'm not sure we'd imagined we'd ever do this. She was pretty emotional after finishing and I was incredibly proud of her!


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Last updated: 2012-03-05 12:00 AM
Running
05:48:34 | 26.2 miles | 13m 18s  min/mile
Age Group: 482/525
Overall: 6101/7087
Performance: Good
AVG HR: 148
Course: Balboa Park to downtown, then along 163>Friar's Road, north and then back down around the Fiesta Island area.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]