After driving down to San Diego yesterday, I finally got a hold of my elusive black market race bib which I bought off another girl.  The dark underbelly of the running world….  Thanks Laura (and Brent, if you read girly running blogs) for helping me out!

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I layed my gear out last night and ended up with this:

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You like the faux running pose?  There’s more where that came from. 

I’m SO dang glad I wore short sleeves because it was hot.  Hot like Carrie Underwood at the CMA’s.

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Not hot like Katie Holmes in the morning pre-caffeine.

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pics from people.com

I even comtemplated taking my shirt off during the race, but making other runners puke goes against my personal running etiquette rules.  unless they’re faster than me.  Regardless, the shirt stayed on.

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My throwaway sweatshirt that actually got thrown away this time.  I pity the person who picked it up because it has a big stain on it. 

Apparently the course hasn’t changed from 2002:

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Numbers

I got up at 4am, drank 2 big cups of coffee, left my house at 5 and was parking at 6am.  The race started at 7:30.

I ate 3/4 of a Clif bar at 6:30 and stood in the world’s longest porta potty line comprised of 596,834,620 small-bladdered runners.  I thought about going in here but since it was a #2 and not just 1, I wanted toilet paper.

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(I took this while driving.  Impressive and completely unsafe, no?)

The race started in Coronado and ended up in Imperial Beach.  At the start we ran by the Hotel del Coronado.

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Another driving shot of the red-roofed Del.  I’m still amazed that I made it home without hitting something.

My game plan was to, like last race, run according to how I felt and not my garmin.  It was warm and I wished I had worn sunglasses, but other than that, I felt good.  I was really thirsty the entire race so I drank at least 1-2 cups of water or energy drink at every water station.

I took an Espresso Love gu at mile 7.5.  They were handing out Hammer gels at mile 10 so I tried one. 

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This thing was so good I would put it in a graham cracker crust, award it “The Best Apple Pie in the World”, and call myself Sara Lee.  It was that good.

The last couple miles were hard; I felt like I was working so much harder than last weekend’s race.  I don’t know if it was hotter or I was just more tired or what, but I was spent by the end.  Just done.  Done like Rosie O’Donnell’s relationship.  Done like the times Lindsey Lohan got everything for free.  Just done.

My garmin said 1:40:58.  My official time was 1:40:55, a new PR by 10 seconds.  6th out of 296 in my age group, otherwise known as the age where you start to wonder things like, Do my ovaries go bad?  Should I start botoxing the map on my forehead?  How in the world did I get my boobs tucked in my belt?!

The first 11 miles were mental and the last 2 were physical.  I felt like I gave everything the last 2 miles and couldn’t have done anymore.  My goal is to run a half under 1:40, and unless I get a Nigerian leg transplant  I don’t see how I can go any faster.

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Running quote of the day:

Run like you stole something.