Yesterday, I ran the the San Dieguito Half Marathon as my inaugural race of the 2009 season. This was the 41st edition of the event, making the event one of the longest continually running events in the country. The course is a difficult one... not a flat spot as the athletes make their way through the rolling hills of gorgeous Rancho Santa Fe.
The last and only other time I've run here was three years ago (seems like forever), when I was just getting back into shape. The hilly course kicked my ass on that day, I ran 1:36 and it just about killed me.
Saturday night and early Sunday morning, we got a quite a lot of rain. On the way down to the race, it was still raining... but spots of clear sky were shining through so I was optimistic that once the race started it would clear up. Things weren't looking good as I picked up my race packet and it was still coming down.
But, in typical San Diego fashion... by 7:30 or so, the rain stopped and a beautiful blue sky appeared.
Before the race, I did a quick 15 min jog to get warm and loose, stripped off the warmup gear and lined up about 2 rows behind the front. Then I realized I forgot to wear my HR strap. Oh well... it was too late to run up to my car to get it.
The mile splits tell the story. These are from my Garmin, the actual race mile markers were way off.
5:47 - downhill and fast.
6:07 - mostly flat. Tried to settle into a pace.
6:54 - big ass hill. OUCH. HR is probably 300 at this point.
6:08 - downhill and then rolling. Tried to recover from big ass hill.
6:25 (31:22 for 5) - another hill.
6:31 - ok, another flippin' hill.
6:34 - a small hill and then flat to the turnaround. Tried to count to see what place I'm in, stopped counting at 20.
6:08 - mostly flat.
6:00 - downhill
6:30 (1:03:07 for 10) - up again.
5:52 - down, down, down. Quads are hurting.
6:01 - pretty flat. Just hanging on now.
6:30 - UP. This sucks.
:47 for last.1 (6:12 pace) I got passed by one guy about 300 yds from the finish. Tried to accelerate to bring him back but was toasted.
1:22:17 watch time
25th overall, 6th age-group.
Post race, my quads were pounded from the downhills and I developed a nice blood blister on my left pinky toe. This is pretty unusual for me... but running downhills is tough on the feet, I suppose.
Overall, happy with this. Not a PR, but considering the course, I'll take it.