I'm The Map!

I've just found out the new San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon route. It's almost making me want to switch to the half. Almost. I have mixed feelings about the new route. Miles 1 through 18 are just about the same, with some minor tweaks to fit in the mileage. It's miles 18 through 26.2 that have changed the most. We all knew the route was going to change, but I really didn't think they were going to divert the route through parts of Mission Bay Park, Fiesta Island, and finishing at Sea world. Although this makes for a much flatter finish (no going over the Ingraham Street Bridges, which seem like mountains if/when you've just hit the wall at mile 20), there's a couple of miles of running on concrete (ouch) at Mission Bay Park (but scenic), and Fiesta Island -- although asphalt -- doesn't make for a pretty run when you're trying to dig down deep to get in those last miles. There's not a lot of scenery on Fiesta Island, just a lot of sand, dirt, an asphalt road, a Boy Scouts facility, and some bushes. I'm not sure, but it looks like part of the last mile into Sea World for the marathoners will be on concrete. Ouch. The route also overlaps a few times between the marathon and half marathon, which I HOPE isn't confusing.

*sigh*

Maybe this new route will be a good thing? I hope so.

Thursday's Song:
Walkin' on the Sun - Smash Mouth

PEACE

I Get Around

Activity: Run
Date: 07/16/09 11:42 AM
Distance: 3.41 miles
Time: 0:34:13
Speed: 6.0 mph
Pace: 10' 03 min/mile
Calories: 327



Today I decided to change things up and did an out and back run at Mission Beach. I had to laugh a bit at the elevation graph because I usually have no choice but to run hills where I live. Here's how flat it was:



OK, so there's a little blip. That was just going up a slight incline towards the pier where I turned around. Knowing I would be at the beach, I brought some swim wear, a towel, sunscreen and my camera.



I'm still trying to figure out the self portrait thing. (Penny, how do you always take such cute self portrait pictures? Do I need to bring my dog along?) It's an odd angle, but, for whatever it's worth, that's me at the beach. Yes, I did go in the water, and it felt wonderful, especially on my tired legs.

I need to run at the beach during the week more often.

I had my session at RU yesterday. Even with DOMS it was more of the same. I was spent when I was done, but it was good. Eventually I'll have the body to go with the workouts. I'm still working on the fluff.

Tuesday's song:
Generous Return - Bruce Myers

PEACE

Map of the Problematique

Activity: Run
Date: 01/19/08 07:22 AM
Distance: 5.20 miles
Time: 0:47:52
Speed: 6.5 mph
Pace: 9' 12 min/mile
Calories: 496



Before today's run I was soooooo going to run with the B group, but I felt sort of sick to my stomach first thing this morning, so I opted for the C group. Today they decided to divide up the B and C group into a couple time ranges with in the groups. Had I known that prior to the run today I would have gone with the B group in the 8 to 9 minute mile ranges. I started my run with the C group in the 10:00 to 11:00 minute mile range.

C group always starts a few minutes after B group. Once we got into the run and found our comfortable pace, couple of us caught up to the back end of B group within the first mile. After this first mile I started chatting with a woman who runs my pace. HOORAY! Turns out she is my age and we're exactly on month apart on our birth-dates. We ran pretty much the whole way together, either slightly ahead or behind each other, but we were never that far away from the other. As it turns out she was having the same mini dilemma as I was, about being in that gray area of being between the B and C groups. As soon as we finished the run there was another woman who finished just about a few seconds behind me and she was in the same predicament about group placement as well. We collectively decided to start running with the B group. We were all concerned about being the slow pokes of B group, but we actually ran right with them. My time splits showed that I ran in the high 8 minute mile range towards the end, giving me negative splits.

One little flub, though, is that we followed the wrong people some place at the first half mile or so ~ which made the route slightly longer, then f0llowed people who were taking a slightly shorter route on the way back. Perhaps that little flub at the beginning made up for the slightly shorter route on the way back. (Yeah, that's it!) You can see on the map above, which is supposed to be one continuous purple line for an out and back run, but it divides in the middle. On the way out I/we ran the extra distance right around where we curve near the bay at Dana Landing. We were supposed to run through a parking lot but we ran around it. On the way back we didn't run right along the bay. I guess I shouldn't rely on others in front of me for directions, but to learn the route map!

Once the guys are done with finishing up our plumbing project today, I can take a shower!

Yesterday's Song - The Rivals - Jerry Goldsmith

Peace