It’s finally here! This weekend, I’ll be Rockin and Rollin all over the streets of San Diego as I run in the Rock n Roll San Diego 5K (Saturday) and Half Marathon (Sunday)!

On Saturday, I’ll be adding to my collection of bling with this medal. Pretty cool!

The Rock n Roll San Diego 5K will be following the same course as the one I ran in 2 years ago. It was a pretty fun (if not slightly challenging) 5K course. San Diego does have rolling hills. Balboa Park is San Diego’s answer to Central Park in New York City (can you tell I’ve got the NYC Marathon on the brain?). I’m probably in one of the latter corrals for this race. It starts at 7:00am (for the first corrals). I’ll most likely start around 7:30am. I’ll have the fun of watching those first group of runners run right back by me as I wait.

Here are the leaders running by while I waited for my corral to even start 2 years ago. This scene will likely repeat itself. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the winners will finish the race before I even start. Oh, the fun of being a back of the pack runner!

On Sunday, I’ll have to be on the lookout for my fellow We Run Social Runners. No word yet on any planned pre-race pictures. But, if it happens, I’ll be there.

Here’s how we’ll line up on Sunday morning. I’m in corral 28. At least there are 9 corrals behind me!

The race (for the marathoners…who are first) starts at 6:15am. My corral won’t start until somewhere around 7am. In the graphic above, I only have the half marathon relevant parts. The map provided has both the marathon and half marathon courses.

This is what the elevation chart looks like for the half marathon. As I learned 2 years ago, it’s a little deceptive. Sure there are some nice drops along the way. However, San Diego has a lot of rolling hills. I honestly think there were hills in every mile of the entire 13.1 miles. When I ran 2 years ago, the finish line was near Petco Field (where the Padres play baseball). This time, there’s a different finish area. So, it won’t be exactly the same course. However parts of it will be. I’ll have to take it as it comes. I will not be thinking…just make it to mile 6 and it’s downhill form there.

Here’s a map of the finish area. I’m a little disappointed with this map. In previous Rock n Roll races, they had the whole finishers chute mapped out with what you’d be getting….water, Gatorade, bagels, etc. I liked this so I could plan on where I wanted to go. The folks at the Rock n Roll series do give you a lot of food when you finish. When I saw that the post race party was at the park it’s at, I wondered if they would have the whole of Ash Street closed off until we got there. Nope!

At the end of the race, I’ll add this medal to my collection for the half marathon….

and this medal for finishing the 5K on Saturday and Half Marathon on Sunday. I really like this medal a lot!

The weather looks perfect for running all weekend long! Hopefully, these numbers will hold out.

You want to know something I’m really excited about??? I’m taking the train to and from San Diego for this race weekend! I’ve never taken an Amtrak train before. So, this should be a fun new experience! Taking the train saves me the cost of gasoline that I’d spend driving. Plus, after a weekend of tackling 16.2 miles, I’ll get to kick back for a few hours and let Amtrak do the driving on Sunday!

Of course, it all begins on Friday. I’ll catch a local train to get to Union Station and then to the Amtrak train to San Diego. After dropping my baggage off at the hotel, I’ll take the San Diego Trolley in to the Convention Center for the Health and Fitness Expo. 2 years ago, Rock n Roll San Diego put on a pretty fantastic expo. I hope that it will be the same this year. After all, this is the 20th anniversary of the Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon/Half Marathon.

I’m really hoping that runDisney will have their act together and display the medals for the 2017 Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. I really want to see that Toy Story Themed Disneyland Half Marathon medal I’ll be earning Labor Day Weekend! Come on runDisney. Pull through for me.

This was the highlight of my 2015 Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon/Half Marathon Expo. It would be very cool to meet Meb again. This is his hometown race after all.

No matter what happens, I’m really happy to finally be in another race week! I’ll talk about my goals for this race and reveal my race gear on Friday. As a quick heads up…I am not going with my initial goal of finishing in 2:35:00. That is not going to happen this year. I have adjusted my goals to fit where I’m at with my training for this race and will talk more about that on Friday. For now, I’m just thrilled to have arrived in this week. It’s gong to be so much fun Rocking and Rolling down the streets of San Diego!