San Diego
As a massive race, Rock n' Roll San Diego is a bit unique in my experience-- they start both the marathon and the half marathon at the same time. There's 26 (!) corrals, and unfortunately a total mess at the start as a result. When the race officially starts, they then stop enforcing the corral entrances, and a whole horde cut in front of you. -_- We were in corral 8 and so many cut in front of us, we didn't actually start til they called corral 12.
Being my first half marathon in San Diego... honestly had no idea where we ran. Roads were a bit rough in some areas, the course was a bit narrow for so many runners in places, but it was perfect running weather, not too warm and overcast, and in some neighborhoods the crowds had a great turn-out, especially with the alcohol (!). Also, as expected, the little hills on the course were short, but there were some particularly brutal ones, particularly around both sides of mile 10.
They were also strangely slow with results, and there was no live runner tracking. Finished in 2:05:32 (9:31/mile) GPS time, 2:06:11 (9:38/mile) chip time, which honestly was pretty good given the lack of training, and a five minute improvement on the previous half barely a month before (also with no training).
Caught up with Mike after the race, watched him take off for the finish with Allison, then things sort of got mired in traffic and miscommunication. Apparently AJ (who finished the full in 3:17, great job!!) and his friends somehow never got back in touch after they finished, and with traffic in the area only getting worse, I opted to check out of the hotel and get out of the immediate area, which turned out to be smart. By the time Mike and Allison got ahold of the kids, traffic, which was yet not awful, was apparently much worse.
Like two nights before, made the journey between San Diego and Los Angeles in less than 2.5 hours of driving, thanks mostly to the earlier than expected departure. So as fun as it would have been to catch up with the Lee family and friends after, honestly, also cannot complain about getting back early.
Early enough in fact to catch Japanese souffle pancakes for lunch at Burnt Crumbs in Irvine. Pancakes were pretty good, have more structure than others, but still on the lighter side. Breakfast potatoes were good, sausage was meh, eggs were okay, Texas toast was fun and good, but definitely over-ordered. Hard to say it was worth the 35 minute wait in line, but at least the kitchen was fast. Made it to Lauren's 4th birthday as well, although I didn't stay long given I had just run a half marathon and was not in a drinking mood-- always good to catch up with the Tseng family, however briefly.
Plus some random United inaugural EWR-SCQ flight swag photos, since I was tardy in taking them...