SDRNR Race Report Part I

The San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon weekend was quite an amazing experience. I feel that it is most necessary to break it up in to three parts to give you a wonderful race recap; before, during, and after. So keep coming back today for the FULL RECAP!

Before

The Rock n Roll San Diego Expo was GINORMOUS and super crowded! There were a ton of booths and I was very excited about visiting them all.

The first thing I did was pick up my bib number, free technical tee, and goodie bag. Then I quickly met up with Meghann to explore the expo together.

The Free Shirts, nice material, but they are a little big :(

Pictures courtesy of Meghann

We walked around and I got to see so many new and interesting products, but I stayed focused and only bought one thing that I knew I needed, sox! Asics had their Hera Low Cut Running socks for $8, which looked like a very comfortable pair that would work perfectly!

I had a lot of fun sampling my way through the booths.

Froze Bar

Odwalla Smoothies

More Smoothie Goodness!

Meghann and I saw some people with fruit samples and quickly hunted them down to find out where they got it! We enjoyed some fresh apples and kiwi!

We also ran into some other runners at the expo including Aron from Running Rambles.

Meghann and Aron

And Amanda from Run to the Finish.

Amanda flew in from Kansas City that morning. Amanda and her husband joined Meghann, Derek and I for a light late lunch.

We walked out of the convention center to hit up the Gas Lamp district to find something light and delicious.

Meghann and I ordered the same thing, the Veggimanary that had Sprouts, Tomato, Cucumber, Avocado, and Roasted Red Peppers inside as well as a small salad on the side.

It was just what I needed!

It was nice chatting with the Meghann and Amanda about their expectations about the race, I wanted nothing more then to support Meghann and help her reach this amazing life accomplishment, after all only 1% of the population actually are crazy enough to run 26.2 miles!!!

After lunch I had to check in to my Hostel for the evening. I found out the night before that the place where I was originally staying was about 45 minutes from the start line, which meant I would have had to get up at 3AM!! So Derek told me about the cheep, yet nice Hostel that he was staying at and it was within walking distance to to the start line, luckily they had a room available.

My friend D picked me up and we went straight to the Hostel. I have never stayed in a Hostel, this was quite the adventure!

Our room was small and sweet, I was just glad to have a BED! After we checked in we met up with my friend Erin and walked to Little Italy for my pre-race dinner. On our walk we got some sample of some pink lemonade liquor, they were giving away on the STREET!!!

When we finally made it to the restaurant, Erin and D were STARVING!!! I think all the expo samples were holding me over just fine.

D was carefully scoping out the menu to find the perfect meal to fill her monstrous appetite! I love this girl, she drove all the way out here to stay with me for the night and watch part of the race!!! BFF’s for life!

After we ordered the waiter brought us some warm and gooey rolls that we quickly devoured! I had two, I was starting to hear my tummy growl.

I ordered the Chicken Pesto and Red Pepper Pizza with no cheese. It had: pesto, pine nuts, chicken, red peppers, and tomatoes. Holy yum!

It was very delicious, but huge I only finished half and sent the rest away with my friend Erin. D on the other hand, had quite the appetite and finished her whole pizza, she had a pizza baby!

After dinner we went back to our room, and started to wine down before the big day! D and I went through my goodie bag and looked at all the races and products people were advertising for, it was a lot of information!

I also prepared my breakfast, because we didn’t have a microwave I had to get creative with my instant oats. I used a plastic cup to mix my oats, PB2, cranberries, and water in.

I didn’t even have a spoon so I had to mix it with the back of a pen!! You can just call me McGeyver!

We did have a mini fridge, so I threw the cup in there in hopes that it would taste half way decent in the morning!!!

I also laid out all my running gear and so I could easily throw it on at my lovely 4:30am wake up call.

The weather was dreary and cold but perfect for a race day, so I was excited to see what the marathon day had in store for us!

To be continued…..

P.S. TSL Participants get your total points to me ASAP so I can give a winner!!!