San Diego Recap

Hi friends! Happy Wednesday!

I know I’ve been disappearing a lot lately, but between Sara’s visit, our San Diego race weekend, and my current business trip, my days have been jam-packed!

Since it was Sara’s first time in LA, I was really excited to show her around. We had ONE DAY before we left for San Diego, so we had to squeeze in as much as we could! Our first stop was breakfast at The Griddle. I heard that they serve the BEST pancakes, but luckily we saw someone else’s plate before ordering– they were HUGE!!!!!

Yep, that’s a NORMAL order of pancakes. Crazy. We shared some sides, and didn’t even get through HALF of those pancakes between the two of us!! We ordered the whole-wheat pancakes, and they were divine. Maybe the best pancakes I’ve ever had!

We decided to WALK OFF some of that breakfast, by hoofing it to Hollywood Blvd. It was about a mile walk, which in hind-sight might have been a silly idea in the shoes we were wearing… I definitely had some blisters by the end of it! Not good two days before a race! Oops. I showed Sara the “cool” part of Hollywood– which in my opinion, is the ONE block with the Grauman Chinese Theater, Kodak Theater, and the El Capitan (Disney’s theater). Everything else down there looks kinda sleezy… people are ALWAYS surprised the first time they visit Hollywood! It’s definitely not as glamorous as you would expect.

After walking back to our car (about a 3 mile walk in total), we were exhausted! But… we still wanted to experience some L.A. hiking. One of my favorite trails is Fryman canyon, so I took Sara there for a 4-mile hike. My bum was feeling the incline!

(forgot our cameras during the hike –> source)

We definitely had worked up our appetites again after that! I was a terrible blogger and forgot to take a picture of my lunch and dinner, but we enjoyed meals at Aroma for lunch, and Swinger’s for dinner. I was happy that Sara waited to visit me, so that I actually knew COOL places to take her to eat! It actually takes a while to find the unique restaurants out here in L.A– for the first few months we lived here, all we saw were big CHAIN restaurants! And even though we’ve lived here for 3 years, I’m sure there are still many more restaurants out here I need to try!

After eating our way through LA, we had an early morning on Saturday driving down to San Diego! We had to get down there early to pick up our race packets at the Health & Fitness Expo– which was actually very well organized! I was dreading waiting in a long line, but we were surprised to be in and out of there in less than 30 minutes! Once we had picked up our swag bag, we were excited to check-in to our hotel– the Hotel Indigo.  It was beautiful!!

Yes, I was a total nerd and took pictures of our hotel room. But it was one of the prettiest rooms I have ever stayed in!

I loved the decor– modern, but warm. And we loved all the PILLOWS they gave us on the beds!

Once we got settled, there were definitely some San Diego shenanigans:

My husband enjoyed playing with the condiments on our table.

Margaritas with the Crazy Chicken!! (actually, only my husband was BRAVE enough to drink alcohol the night before the race!) Sara and I enjoyed some iced tea, instead.

Later, we walked along the ocean and saw some of the BIGGEST yachts ever!! Is that a helicopter landing pad on your boat, sir?

Who owns a boat that big?!

We enjoyed our night in San Diego, but we definitely tried to get to bed early– since we had to wake up at 4:30 am for the race the next morning! And it was a ROUGH morning. Due to the extra 50,000 people in San Diego that day for the race that morning, there were NO CABS available to take us to the starting line. That meant we had to walk 2 miles just to start! We definitely didn’t have “fresh” legs by the time we started the race…

But, the beginning of the race was SO fun! There were lots of spectators cheering us on, fun music, and great weather! The first few miles skirted around the San Diego Zoo, so we really enjoyed the scenery, too. Shortly there after, though, the race took a turn– onto the highway!

We were on terrible running surfaces– TILTED entrance and exit ramps that began to really hurt my lower body! The more we were on the highway, the lower my spirits got… there were very few bands on the highway, and the sun really started beating down on us! It’s funny, because I remember thinking at Mile 5, “Wow, this is going to be so easy to finish– I feel great!” But, by Mile 9, I was HURTING! It’s crazy HOW MUCH my feet and knees were hurting– and I’m convinced it’s from running on those tilted surfaces. I’ve never had knee pain from running before!

We kept chugging along, but at Mile 11, my husband had some SERIOUS pain in his leg! He almost fell over!! I really thought he was done for– and that we’d have to walk to the finish line from there. I was hurting, too, so I honestly didn’t care what our finishing time was at that point. I just wanted to finish the race. He was a trooper, though! We took a 5-minute walk break, to let his muscles recover a bit, then we got right back into running. It was a painful 2 miles, but when we saw that finish line, we grabbed each other’s hands and powered through it!

There’s NOTHING like crossing a finish line. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of that feeling.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures from our race on my camera, so you’ll have to wait until I’m back in town with my husband’s camera! Don’t worry– you’re not missing much. I’m not one of those people who looks cute when I race! But, I did check out a lot of people’s running gear while waiting at the Starting Line, and now I want to go shopping!

After the race, we were EXHAUSTED. The sun + the running really took it out of us! We grabbed some post-race grub, and headed to the shuttle to get a ride home, but there was a BIG HITCH in that plan… we got on the shuttle, and the bus driver didn’t know where he was going! Seriously. He was supposed to drive us to a trolley station that was less than 5 minutes away, and we were on the bus for over 20 minutes! After two phone calls to his supervisor, and numerous times pulling over on the highway, he was STILL clueless, and all of us passengers were FRUSTRATED!  Even with local San Diego passengers on the shuttle, trying to give the driver directions, he wouldn’t listen– so his solution was to drop us all off in the middle of San Diego at a bus stop! No kidding.

We all ended up walking a mile and half to the nearest trolley station. Just what we all wanted to do after running a marathon/half marathon. Thanks, dude.

It was almost comical! There was a herd of marathoners walking down the streets of San Diego!

It actually IS funny…  now that it’s all over.

Three days later, I’m still a little sore, but feeling pretty good. It’s amazing how many muscles you use during a long run– my abs, back AND legs hurt the next day! Now, it’s really just my legs that are recovering… so I think I’ll be good to exercise again in the next few days. We’re having hot and HUMID weather here in Kansas, so I’m going to have to run in the morning if it’s going to happen at all– I don’t like getting too hot! We’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

Okay, I’ve got to get to bed! I’m sorry that the blog is getting so neglected lately, but I should be getting back on track by next week– maybe earlier, depending on how my work-week goes. I have ZERO time to blog during the day now, but it’s not a bad thing since that means my company has LOTS of work to do! It’s always nice to feel NEEDED at your job, don’t you think?

I hope you all are having a good week!

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