San Diego Rock N Roll Recon

Last Thursday while I was in San Diego on business, I decided to drive my leg (leg #2  7 miles) of the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon Relay.  For those running the full marathon, this will be miles 7.5-14.5  I based this on the most recent course map that was available.

 I started at the transition point down near the Sante Fe railroad station and proceeded to drive up Broadway. There is a slight incline all the way up Broadway, but it is not too bad. I made a left onto 11th and proceeded to get onto the 163 freeway. I am not sure if the course runs north on the northbound lanes or north on the southbound lanes, but in any case the incline is the same. As Glenn pointed out in a comment, the road does have a fair amount of camber and the shoulders are the most flat spot to run. The incline is about 250 feet over 2.5 miles and there is a 1.5 mile downhill into Fashion Valley. Once on Friar's Road it is a fairly flat 2 miles with some small rollers into the transition area.

I noticed that there are some sections of Broadway and 10/11th, the road is a bit rough, but once you are on Hwy 163 and Friar's Road, the pavement is pretty smooth.

San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon Course Map

Here is the video I shot, sorry for the poor quality, I was the driver, navigator and cameraman using a Flip video camera. There is a condensed version (1:14)  and the full length version (4:48).



Long Version




As far as training, I was able to get a 5.3 mile run in on Thursday afternoon after spending 9 hours in the car to and from San Diego. Needless to say, that run was crappy...should have gone to the pool to swim instead. I set out on Saturday with my running partner Melissa for a 12 mile run that we ended up cutting short at 7.25 miles because neither of us were feeling it and old injuries were acting up. Sunday is usually a bike day for me, but since I have had a reoccurring knee issue on the bike, I decided to run 6.2 miles instead. That was actually the best run of the week.