FIT Project (San Diego Edition)

Posted on 23. Jun, 2011 by Sarah in General

Don’t know what the FIT Project is all about? Take a few seconds and read this.

So the week of June 3, I was in the lovely city of San Diego. If you haven’t been to San Diego, well you should change that! It is an amazing city. And I was there at the perfect time (everyone kept telling me that). The sun was shining, the sky was bright blue with puffy white clouds and the evenings were cool. Yep, pretty perfect!

The pre-San Diego story will have to be saved for THE BOOK, but just know that getting to San Diego wasn’t exactly a piece of cake (or apple). However, I made it and the trip was great and made new friends. Score!

After landing, I headed straight for the expo. My seventh of the year. On a side note, race expos certainly have changed over the years. This year alone, I’ve seen kitchen knives and hardwood flooring exhibits. Not sure how one would carry a knife let alone a hardwood floor on a plane!

Saturday, my new friend Kimmie and I went to her company picnic at the San Diego Safari Park. It was so much fun – besides being free!

One huge map!

If they can stand on one foot, so can you!

Looks like a horse with Zebra stripes!

Mountains on our drive up

Baby elephants

Saturday was a super fun day!

The race was to start at 6a.m., so that meant a early bedtime. Which wasn’t so early! It was a little painful to wake up a few hours later at 3:30 a.m. Kimmie and her roommate were volunteering at a water station, so they dropped me off at the race start line. Only a handful of people were there in the darkness!

Start line at 4am!

THE start line (at 4am)

It is kind of fun to be one of the first people at the start of the race . Slowly, more and more runners (and their disgruntled drivers) started arriving. As usual, I started conversations with the people around me. I love talking with runners before the start of a race – so much excitement is in the air!

Met up with Melissa & Erich before the race. Erich & I both ran the Dallas Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon. It was good to see them again!

Sarah w/ Michele & Erich (not bad for 5:45am!)

Sarah w/ Melissa and Erich (not bad for 5:45am!)

A new friend I met at Dallas Rock n’ Roll race, Nghia, was also at this race. Which is awesome to see a familiar face when one (me) travels so much. The other awesome thing is that we prayed together before the race. Then it was time to say hello to the corrals!

...and then there was 10. Or 35,000

And then crazy dude. A word to future Tarzans: If you want to play one, at least look the part. This guy might have been rockin’ the loin cloth, but that’s about it. Thankfully I didn’t have to run with him!

Runner Tarzan (word to the wise: don't be a Tarzan hero if you can't rock the FULL look!)

Because I had been for a few hours at this point, I had to pee SO bad. There was no way in hell I was going to wait to run 13.1 miles. After the gun (really a sound horn) went off, I quickly crossed the start line and found a tree. Yep, that’s what we ultra chicks are used to . Only this tree wasn’t in a forest. Oh well.

Beautiful morning!

Running through Balboa Park

You can't see it but this is organ. Someone was playing too!

One of the last pretty sections of the course

The Half Marathon turn (into a concrete jungle)

Getting ready to run on the highway (aka 163)

The first four to five miles were pretty scenic, but once we turned onto Highway 163, we were running on a concrete jungle. Concrete is the worst surface to run on! I sought out pavement on the side of the highway for some relief.

Running under the bridge (and the marathon lead runners were left of us. Pretty awesome!)

Lead runners (sorry for the blurry photo).

Overlooking a future water station and a pretty cool band.

Margaritaville themed water station

This water station was just about the only pretty thing on the course after about 4ish. The sun was becoming hot and I just wanted to finish the race. I put my head down and ran till I crossed it. Race 7 for 2011 done. Race 5 of 20 Rock n’ Roll races in 2011, DONE.

Time: 1:55:18 (8:48 pace)

Overall: 2291/17194

Age Group: 189/2320

Gender: 855/11568

Meb & me! He won the half marathon. Not sure where his medal is.

Friend Andy Baldwin & me

I have to say, I was disappointed with the course. We didn’t run through downtown San Diego at all. Saw it off in the distance, but that’s it. We ended in Sea World – the Sea World parking lot. Not what I would call wonderful.

Thankfully, I had a few days to spend in San Diego to really see the city. Which was AWESOME! Photos to come!

And the other thing that would rock is if you would help me reach my fundraising goal for the American Cancer Society! Thank you!

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