My friend, Ashley, invited me to go to San Diego with her this past weekend while she attended a conference. Ashley noticed there was a half-marathon on Sunday, so she thought I might enjoy relaxing for a few days while she attended her conference and then running the race with her on Sunday. (A huge THANK YOU to Ashley for letting me tag along!) Here are a few highlights:
- During our travel, Ashley and I both saw things we would like to "unsee." The Denver airport offered Ashley a viewing of an older lady in her skivvies (there was a large hole in the wall of the stall!), while at the Dallas airport, I caught a glimpse of an aircraft engulfed in flames. That is not something you want to see when you are getting ready to hop on an airplane. I read later that it was just a training exercise, but the damage had been done. (This picture is from the article I read - I was much farther away.)
- This is Ashley and I in the "Gaslamp District." The last time I was in San Diego I got all turned around here, so I wanted to conquer it. It turns out, I got all turned around this time, too. Maybe next time?
- We took a whale tour on Friday morning. I packed some Bonine for us to help with the motion sickness, but it turns out 1,000 packages wouldn't have done the trick. There was a high surf advisory...which brought with it some big swells. So while most people were able to jump up and run to the right side of the boat to see the three gray whales "snorkeling" along the surface, Ashley and I sat very, very still on our bench, staring out at the horizon. "Chins up." When at last the captain repositioned us to have the whales on the left side of the boat, two women ran over and stood right in front of us. I saw one spray of a whale and a little bit of the actual whale as it surfaced another time. I'm not sure what Ashley saw - she was more concerned that the ladies blocked her view of the horizon. Here we are with our barf bags.
- After we recovered from the whale tour, we went to pick up our race stuff at the expo. We signed the giant SD with chalk. Kinda seemed like a photo op.
- On Sunday, we raced. Here is our pre-race selfie. (Clearly I need to practice taking selfies. The double chin gives away my novice status.)
- The post-run picture with our ginormous medals.
- Here are my stats. It was a PR for me, which I am thankful for but also unsure how I accomplished this. Without Sarita running with me, I had a really hard time finding my pace. Plus, the race was very crowded so I never really got into my "grove." No matter what the time, my eighth half-marathon is on the books!
