• April 4th, 2015
• San Diego, California
• Peace-Love-Run Half Marathon
• Sharon: 2:53:04
• Tim: 2:19:29

36 down only 16 to go.

This race should have been called the Peace-Love-Chaos-Run. After last weeks poor, poor, pitiful me report, I was hoping to write a peace, love, great race report, this week, but alas, it was not to be. The website made it look so groovy, There was a long line at packet pickup. They mailed out the first 300 bibs but we still needed to get our shirts. Someone walked up and asked if they could pick up their shirt because they already had their bib. Yep – no need to stand in line if you already had your bib. We weren’t the only ones who got out of line. Thanks for telling us. The next problem was that they were completely out of tech shirts and only had cotton. This was not a problem for me because, at this point in my race shirt collection, I prefer a cotton shirt that I can wear in real life. However, I overheard a couple people (who had checked the tech shirt box on the registration form) who were pretty upset. I saw a lot of people wearing the shirt for the run. Oh dear – cotton shirt + heat = chafing. Someone who doesn’t know not to wear a cotton shirt for a HM is probably a new runner and a bad case of hamburger arms could turn someone off running forever. That said it was a great shirt with no sponsor logos all over the back. I will actually wear this shirt. In many ways this race reminded me of the St. Patrick’s Day Half Marathon. Both races had a theme and the runners who dressed up were the most interesting thing about the race.

Damn hippies

The MC was doing his best to keep the crowd in the corrals entertained while waiting for the race to start. It wore thin quickly. The race started late. The MS’s forced enthusiasm took on a desperate edge as he tried to engage the crowd in banter, “Any Birthdays? No, any anniversaries?”. It was painful. Then when the race was ready to start he sent the HM out in 2 or 3 waves (it was too confusing to tell) but people had stopped listening to him for the most part and were so confused by the waves that some 10K people went out with the second wave of the HM. Like I said, peace, love and chaos. We tried to tell a woman who was in the 10k that she was in the HM crowd but she was sure that she was right because she had seen the first wave go and thought that was the HM. She told us so in tones suggesting how stupid we were. We tried.

He tried so hard

This race had no port-o-pots (that I saw) at the start and instead relied on the park bathrooms. The bathroom had 2 stalls, one being a handicapped stall. It was not enough. They also ran out of toilet paper. They did have port-o-pots on the course and there were lines at all of them.

I wish I would lose or forget this green shirt

The course itself was ok. THe harbor had a mild fishy smell but was pretty. The run was on a crowded bike path. Bikers are always a problem on these paths but this was much more of a family path so there were a lot of distracted kids on bikes and skates.

I found the, “Backpack full of snacks” girl

Although this course was blissfully flat I had the same problems with heat as I did last week. After the first 2 hours every time I tried to run I got nauseous and had to walk (it didn’t help that they started late). I’m glad I had my own water because the turnaround aid station, at mile 11, was out of water. Out of water! I think this was the worse fuck up out of all the fuck ups that happened during this race because it was actually dangerous. Not everyone was running with a Camelback full of water. Did I mention how hot it was. There were almost 70 people who came in after me in a race of 420 (really!). That is a lot of people who needed water. It they get nothing else right a race needs to have enough water.

Just look at that RUN smiley face

This race had some great volunteers but it also had the most amount of sullen teenage volunteers out of all the races we have done. And that is a lot of sullen teenagers. Even the aid stations that had water weren’t filling the cups fast enough so runners had to wait for water. At one aid station (the one without water) I overheard volunteers complaining about the heat. They were sitting in the shade. Did I mention this race had no shade but the overhangs at the aid stations? I should have sat on them to get a couple of seconds out of the sun.

At least it was flat

Cons

• Long disorganized line at packet pickup
• Ran out of tech shirts
• Not enough bathrooms or toilet paper
• Started late
• MC so unclear that some 10K people went out with the HM
• Course was crowded with families and distracted kids
• Confused volunteers sent some people around the loop twice (thankfully not us)
• Aid station ran out of water

Pros

• Nice shirt
• Nice Medal
• Fun hippy costumes
• Good varity of after race food
• Emailed results the same day

Awesome!

This race was a mess. Really – get it together before someone collapses from dehydration. I didn’t write about volunteers sending peole around the course twice because I only heard about it afterwards. We ate at Woodstocks (my favorite SD pizza place) and I talked to a guy who ended up running more than 14 miles. He said that he was not the only one that volunteers misdirected. So unless you have a desperate need for a hippy shirt and medal, I would not recommend this race for anyone. I think the hippy theme was appropriate because the race appears to have been organized by the highest people in California.

Motivation???

Please leave a comment, I’ll leave a response.