I thought that I would share some of the experiences that I had from the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. I think that, because I was more comfortable, I was able to remember much of the race. For the first few half-marathons, I can only recall some of the more difficult parts and I think that I was in a bit of a zone with some blinders on. For whatever reason, this race was different. Overall, I think that the Competitor Group did a great job with the course. During the expo the day prior to the race, I had a nice chat with one of the employees about all of the work that goes on behind the scenes. The road closures, permits, parking shuttles, vendors, sponsors; the list goes on. Anyhow, she had stated that when a race goes off with out a hitch, it is successful in their eyes. With so many moving parts, I would venture to say that if even if there were some hitches, they pulled off an amazing event.

I highly recommend San Diego as a Rock ‘n’ Roll half if you are doing one for the first time. Most people actually would probably recommend Arizona’s because of the flat terrain and the pretty straight forward course. The Arizona course certainly has less turns and hills but I was not able to enjoy it as much as San Diego. The course there began with the hills and ventured through Balboa Park for the half-marathon runners. The full marathon went through more of downtown, including the Gas Lamp District. As the half progressed, the last several miles were either down hill or on a steady grade. Nothing to terribly challenging but there was one challenging thing that I will never forget. That was running on the freeway.

Also one of the cooler parts of the race, running on the freeway posed a unique challenge. There were more imperfections on the road than you think that there would be and the sideways grade was a bit challenging to run on for a bit. I could see this part giving potential problems to ankles but it was over before you knew it. A few of the most memorable moments of the race were on the freeway. The first of which were Taiko drummers that were on the course. The sound was amazing echoing off of the road and walls and was really motivating. Another memorable moment was the Naval water station with several active duty, uniformed Naval personnel. Probably the most memorable part of the course was the portion of the freeway that was split for the half marathoners and the full marathoners. The reason why this was so memorable was that the elite runners were flying by as we were on our portion of the race which was a later portion of their race. I distinctly remember one woman in particular that was just flying. As it turns out, she was Yulia Gromova who won her third straight San Diego Marathon.

The race was awesome and I personally thank all of you who have put up with all of my excitement and related Facebook posts leading up to the race. I also thank all of you for your support. I will be taking a little break in training before getting ready for my next race in October. Until then, if you have any questions, need any motivation, or just want to talk running, feel free to drop me a line. Better yet, follow me on DailyMile, I’ll throw some motivation your way.