Valentine's Day 2010

I'm no stranger to going on vacation and signing up for races. In fact, I enjoy running around new

people in new places. This past Sunday, the 14th, I ran the San Dieguito Half Marathon with my girlfriend. Over 2,000 folks came out, mostly local. It was put on by the Hash Harrier club and they had a beer rest station just after the first mile and before the last mile. The course is hilly, but as the description says, quite beautiful.

There were many characters at the race. Of course, the usual red dresses of the Hash Harriers (Anon!), a guy in a white robe with red hearts all over it, a guy dressed as a Pacific Islander native with a headdress, and a woman at the 5k turnaround dressed as a queen with a little white 'toy' do

g and a scepter.

The registration and start/finish of the race was in San Dieguito County Park, north of San Diego. It is an out and back with a shorter section on the return. As low key as a very well organized and known run can get, there were no timing chips. As this was a training run for me for the Boston Marathon, I decided to just take it easy. Rachel signed up for the 5k but started in the wrong race! Apparently that happened to quite a few people. I was shocked when I saw her running to the turnaround as I returned to the finish. A great valentines adventure.

I came in around 1:42:00 which I was happy with, a sub-8 minute pace. I grabbed some water and headed to the final uphill to the finish to cheer on Rachel. She came in around a sub-9 which is great for her. It helps to train at 7000 feet I suppose as well (she lived in northern Arizona).

There was one issue that some people had trouble with. It was more of a

challenging cool-down, but climbing back up the hill to the beer garden and tents was difficult for some people. Anyway, it was a great race on a beautiful Sunday morning sunny California day.