San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon Relay Weekend and Food Fest

Back in January when the RnR San Diego Marathon Relay was announced, I became excited for several reasons. I had never done a relay before and it sounded fun, I would run this race with 4 good friends and we would make a weekend out of it. From the get go, we decided we were going to run this race in costume and since it was a Rock N Roll race, what could be better than Elvis. Over the last few months, we have been putting the final touches on our costumes and purchasing wigs. As Bob Babbit, the original Running Elvi says, No Outfit, No Wig, No Glasses...No Running Elvi! So with the costumes set, the focus turned to food...when and where were we going to eat for the weekend. With that all set and reservations made...it was time to get the weekend started.

Thursday
I was able to score 4 tickets to the Dodger game and myself, Melissa(@xoxo_meme) Linda (@msv1959) and Mike (@mikedotta) met at Dodger stadium. Once we found our great seats, we went up and got Candy (@cowhateration) and Nadim (Hawaiianbound) and brought them down to sit with us...kind of a mini "tweetup".

During the game, the banter between Linda, a rabid Dodger fan, and Melissa, an anything but Dodger fan, grew more humorous. All of us were tweeting from the game. In the end, the Dodger's lost and the "rub it in your nose" tweets started in full force. After the game, we spent some time taking pictures. We had an interesting moment, Linda was taking a picture of the empty stadium, I was taking a picture of her, Mike took a picture of me and Melissa took a picture of all of us. We capped the night off with a picture of all of us in the Official Merchandise Booth. What a great night and it was a pleasure to meet several tweeps in person.

Saturday

I left early in the morning and made my way to San Diego. I got checked in and met up with Melissa and Francesca. We had 11:30am reservations for lunch and proceeded to drive downtown. On our way, I tried to run a red light and make a wrong turn onto a one way street...I don't seem to remember any of that happening! :) Lunch was at the Karl Strauss Brewery and all of our meals and beers were pretty good. After lunch we made our way to the Health and Fitness Expo at the convention center. After we got our bibs, t shirts and swag bags, we (means Melissa) proceeded to do some shopping for a sweatshirt, t-shirt, sweatshirt, t-shirt, sweatshirt, t-shirt...in the end...she got both. I wandered out to the lobby and met up with Linda, Glenn, Mike, and Lori and chatted with them for a while. I made my way back into the expo and ran into Mike and Melissa G. at the Ecco booth and Melissa and I made our way to the MGD 64 beer garden. We met up with everyone and had a beer...cant beat a beer for a $1.  Since it was getting late and we were tired, we decided to make our way out of the expo and head back to the car.

Back at the hotel we were making last minute arrangements for getting our team members to the start line and the various relay points. Time for dinner...we headed to Little Italy and Bencotta for a great meal with Melissa, Ann, Francesca, Marcia, Marina and myself. It was nice to relax and enjoy a meal amongst friends.

Sunday

I was wide awake at 3am but decided to lay in bed until the alarm went off at 4:30am. I got dressed in costume and waited until 5:30am and met Melissa. We walked over to the trolley station and went our separate ways. I talked with several other relay people on the trolley and we made our way to the transition point. As I stood there waiting, I had several people come over and ask if I would take a picture with them...of course I said OK. It was my first foray into stardom...I felt like one of today's celebrities that people want to take a picture with.
I met up with Josh (@speedysasquatch) and we talked for a bit as the Elites came by. I got ready for my team mate to arrive at the transition zone. When I saw her, I stepped out into the zone and waited for the hand off of the baton (a Drum stick). I took off heading up Broadway, the support of the crowd was incredible, especially dressed as Elvis. I made the turn at 10th street and headed up the 163 freeway. Leg #2 had about a 300 foot elevation climb in about 2.5 miles. I was laboring getting up the hill, but the support from the spectators and the other runners pushed me to the top. I made my way down to Friars Road and was tossing a cup of water on my chest and back at every water stop. The full rig (polyester jumpsuit, wig, etc) was taxing my body and the sun was peeking out from the clouds. I made it to mile 14 and ran into Penny (@southbaygirl) and @tiayas who setup a cheering section.

I stopped by and said Hi, and continued on. On the way to the relay transition, I ran into Glenn and got a high five from him. I handed off the baton to Melissa and headed back to Penny's cheering station. I hung out there for a few minutes and headed off to the relay transition zone #3.  I made the 1+mile walk to the relay transition zone, I found Melissa, Linda and Josh.

Melissa and I headed off to the finish to meet up with Francesca and wait for Ann. When we saw Ann, we jumped into the finish chute and ran the last 200 yards with her. We all crossed the finish line together and took pictures. Melissa and I grabbed a "free beer" and that's when the "clusterfuck"started. The line for the shuttles back to the trolley stop were terribly long...we heard 1-1/2 hour wait to get on the shuttle. We decided to walk back to the trolley stop, which added an additional 1.5 miles to our day. We made it back to the hotel for a quick shower and then off to brunch at the Tractor Room. We had a great brunch with lots of food and then headed over to Baby Cakes for a cupcake and coffee. All in all it was a fantastic weekend, spent with some great friends. Thank you to Melissa, Ann and Francesca for being a part of Team "Need 4 Speed" and to Melissa for putting so much effort into making sure things came together. As "Hannibal" Smith (A-Team) would say..."I love it when a plan comes together!"  This weekend will definitely make my "Highlight Reel" of my life. We rocked it! Official finish: 4:09:28 #57 place out of 187.

Update: Last night we found out our finish line picture made it into the San Diego Union Tribune's Photo Gallery from the race.

Here are a few pics from the food fest....