Ran this one after a night shift! Forgot to ask off of work, so had a friend come in an hour early… I changed in the locker room and ran 1.6 miles to the start line in Balboa Park. Waited a half hour for a bathroom… and just as I’m about to get my chance, they play the National Anthem. Being active duty, I feel I should probably stand at attention. The lady behind me starts poking me (I’m trying to maintain military bearing and pay no attention…) until the lady behind her points at all the other people standing at attention, explaining my sudden statue-like state. It was over with quickly enough, after which I had to run up to my corral and figure out my new Garmin!
At the Expo the day prior I stopped at the Garmin counter, asking questions about which one I should get. I’ve been thinking about one for a while, and having just come off a night shift also, was tired and susceptible… and made an impulse purchase. No regrets though! My new Garmin is AWESOME! And my first use was on this race. Boy was I surprised by what it said…
Well I’ll talk about the course itself first. I did the full marathon two years ago, and the planning and execution of the whole event was again very good. Unlike before, the finish was at SeaWorld instead of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. However, I still haven’t truly been to SeaWorld, just its parking lot 
The half course went through Hillcrest and Balboa Park, but that’s about where the scenicness ended. It was then a slow uphill without rock bands playing until the end of a long stretch of highway, but we were rewarded by a large spectator crowd at Fashion Valley Mall.
We then continued onto a side street of the I-5 and the route got better again at mile 12 when we turned towards SeaWorld and I actually saw a friend working the medic tent! I ran out to see her, and she said “oh my gosh, what do you need?” thinking I was injured. At first I didn’t understand, so all I said was “a hug!” I had packed 4 AccelGels into my SPIbelt and stopped at nearly every water station, a strategy which worked fairly well.
My pace was pretty good until mile 9, when I started to feel the effects of the previous week’s half marathon. On reading the results of my Garmin, it definitely correlated with what I thought! HOWEVER what did NOT correlate was that I found out I was at my Max Heart Rate the whole time!! I knew I was pushing myself- Hey, I wanted to do better than last week- but Seriously??? Wow, I really gotta work on my cardiovascular fitness! Not like it’s terrible, my resting heart rate is 63 but it seems I have room to improve. My time was slightly better, 2:01:36, a 9:14 pace…
Though this race was really nice- my personal trainer met me at the end and we had MGD at the beer garden- it was a bit cloudy and I was tired. I had to go back to sleep ASAP to work a hift that night again… squeezing a half marathon between two night shifts was tough but definitely worth it
