I might have driven my husband a little crazy, picking out
my flights for this weekend’s trip. I
wanted to make sure that since I was taking the time off work, I would get the
most out of my time in San Diego. Of course this meant that he had to drive me
to the airport at 5am Friday morning.
After I got dropped off I went through security, grabbed
some coffee at Caribou, and waited. And waited. And waited. That’s always hard;
waiting in anticipation of the trip to come. I’d been looking forward to this
trip since I committed to running the race, and I was ready for a little mini
getaway. We boarded and took off a little late, but the flight was pretty
uneventful – just the way I like it! We had hardly any turbulence, and a nice
smooth landing. Unloading the plane was probably the quickest and most
organized I’ve seen, maybe ever. The passengers got up row by row rather than
everyone jumping into the aisles to grab their stuff from the overhead bins. I
was kinda surprised, and grateful that it sped up getting off the plane.
My mom flew out Wednesday so she picked me up at the
airport. It wasn’t even 10am in San Diego, yet, so we had a little time to
kill. We were planning to hit the Health and Fitness Expo at the Convention
Center first thing so we could get our race packets picked up but it didn’t
open until 11am. We decided to wander around Seaport Village and have an early
lunch first, instead. When we did get to the expo, I was pretty impressed with
the packet pick up organization. It was quick and easy to get our stuff, and
then we were able to wander through the Rock ‘n’ Roll Merchandise and vendor
booths as we pleased rather than it being set up in a way that you were forced
to go through, even if you didn’t want to. There were tons of vendors with some
pretty fun stuff but I didn’t really want to buy anything. I did get a Rock ‘n’
Roll T-shirt, and I did decide to try the KT Tape and see if it would help my
rib and knee pain I’ve been having. FYI – it did nothing for my rib, but it did
help my knee and ankle which also started to bug me the night before the race.
After the Expo, we went to Nana and Grandpa’s house to visit and drop off my
stuff. We had dinner plans for 5 – La Posta, baby! Best Mexican food in
Lakeside! Mmm. Good stuff!
Saturday, we had a nice relaxing day with a drive out to
Santa Ysbel for the best Dutch apple
pie and cinnamon ice cream from Julian Apple Pie, Co. On our drive we saw the
San Diego County 107 mile bike race participants climbing their way into
Ramona. I was tired just watching them! After pie, we went and hung out with my
aunt, 2 uncles and a cousin for the rest of the day. We did call it a night,
early though, so we could get back to Lakeside and get our run stuff together.
We set up text notifications so that mom and grandpa would get alerts when we
crossed pre-determined race points on the course, sent a photo of our race
clothes to our spectators so they could spot us, and laid out everything we
needed for our early start so we didn’t have to get up any earlier than
absolutely necessary. 3:30am was going to come early enough!
We lucked out on the weather, Sunday morning. It was already
60 when we got to the race parking garage at 4:30am, but it didn’t warm up much
more than that, and it stayed overcast for the whole race. The race went really
well for both of us. My mom got a PR, and {I finished} with way more energy and
strength than I expected. I probably should have pushed harder. Best part about
the finish line? My best friend was there waiting for me to finish! Awesome
motivation! After the race, we went back to Lakeside to shower and change. Then
I headed up to visit with my friend for the rest of the day. It was the perfect
ending for an awesome day.
I expected to sleep in later than I did on Monday, but I was
up and dressed and ready to leave for breakfast before 8am. Nana’s caregiver
arrived, helped us get Nana ready, and we took her with us to the Omelet House.
After breakfast, I packed all my stuff and put it in mom’s car. At 12:30pm we
met up with all my grandparents, minus nana, plus an aunt, uncle, and cousin
for lunch and a nice long visit which we continued at my aunt’s house until it
was time for me to go to the airport. I got a text notification that my flight
was delayed so we took our time leaving, but when I got to the airport, they
had made up some time and weren’t as late as originally expected. Security was
a short line, but the power bars in my suitcase were showing up on the Xray as
liquid, so they had to open my luggage and check it out. Of course then the security lady saw all my running
stuff and proceeded to chat with me for over 10 minutes about the half marathon
and running, in general. I couldn’t just excuse myself from the conversation
for fear of making myself look suspicious, so as soon as she seemed done enough
with our conversation, I hurried to my gate. I got there just as they were
starting load passengers, which meant I barely had time for a quick bathroom
trip before it was my turn to load. Good thing I didn’t need coffee… talk about
cutting it close! My flight home was another uneventful trip, and even with the
slight delay, we made up significant time and landed ahead of schedule. Jerry
and the kids were there to pick me up and we made it home just after midnight.
It was a great trip; exactly what I needed. I got to relax,
visit with friends and family, and I got to kick butt in the race I spent the
last 12+ weeks training for. Well worth it, but as always, it was nice to be
home, too.
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