So, I got up early to head down for the Rock n Roll San Diego 5K. This day would be a test for how long it took to walk to the starting area. Both the 5K and the Half Marathon/Marathon start at Balboa Park. My hotel was round 2 miles from the start line. So, it’s not ideal to get to the start line. I picked this hotel because it was only about a quarter-mile from the finish area of the half marathon. Still, it was great to see the Midway all lit up as I got ready.

After sharing a fun walk with other runners to the start area, I made it with plenty of time to spare! So, I headed out for a quick pic with the start line before everyone started lining up.

Then, I headed off to my corral. For the 5K, I had no goal time. Since my training fell apart, all I wanted to do was finish and have some fun. I planned to use a run/walk ratio of 30 seconds/90 seconds and see how it went.

While we waited for our corral to go, I saw this guy again…

Two years ago, he was dressed as Tom Brady. This year, it was Forrest Gump. For those wondering, he does juggle the footballs the entire race.

The 5K starts off with an out and back. So, since my corral was later to start, I figured, I’d see the race leader before I even got to start. Guess what? I was correct.

Eventually, we did get going and here I am with the fun out and back. From the looks of it, this is on the way back. For the first few run intervals, I was going with a run 1 minute/walk 1 minute. The course was quite crowded at the start. So, I was running slower than normal. So, the 1 minute/1 minute worked pretty well.

I finished mile 1 in 12:10. So, it was pretty much on par with my training mile 1’s! As I made my way through mile 2, I could see the quarter mile times were not improving that much. Even with the downhill parts. So, at 1.50 miles, I decided to switch to the 60 seconds walk breaks and wanted to do this the rest of the way. As you can see, switching put me close to the 12 minute per mile pace, I would have liked. However, I was really close (15 seconds off). So, I kept the 60 second walk breaks going into mile 3. Mile 3 is a really tricky on this course. There’s a pretty amazing downhill portion of the mile followed by a really hard uphill. On each of my 2 years running this race, that last uphill has killed my times. If I do this race again, I’ll have to remember that. Mile 3 was easily the slowest. This goes to show that your run/walk intervals don’t tell the entire story of your pacing. I was using shorter walk breaks in mile 3, but had my slowest mile.

I did run as hard as I could to the finish because I wanted to beat 39 minutes. Given where I was at 2.5 miles, beating 39 minutes felt really good. I ran this race faster two years ago. However, my training was better back then as well. So, it wasn’t that surprising that I didn’t come close to matching my time. I was happy to be finished, however. Look at that suite piece of bling!

My overall thoughts about the Rock n Roll San Diego 5K are as follows…This course is rather boring. Sorry to say that, but it’s true. The only reason for me to run this race is for the Remix Challenge Medal. Even though the course is boring, it is a pretty well organized race. They even had a band playing in the park after the race! There was no Meb for pics like I got two years ago. Lastly, if you want an easy 5K race, this is not the race for you. As you can see in the elevation gain/loss of my splits, this course is hilly for a 5k with the hardest hill in the last half mile. So, if you do this race yourself, be prepared for that. Can you tell I’m not a big fan of this 5K? Oh well, you won’t like them all. I did have fun, however and loved the finishers medal. So, there’s that.

Part 1 of the Remix Challenge was complete! Up next? The Rock n Roll San Diego Half Marathon!