Race pick up was a breeze. I drove downtown, parked in a 20 minute zone, grabbed my gear, looped around the HUGE expo, and made it back before the 20 minute mark. If this is your first Rock N Roll expo, I suggest you give yourself at least 1.5 hours to walk around and explore everything. There is a lot of advertising for anything running related and if you're anything like me, you'd be Oooooohing and Ahhinngg all the way through. The Brooksrunning station is my favorite part since they have all these little cheesy games that you can do and get free stuff from and who doesn't love free stuff?

Pre-race

The organizers recommended locals to park at Qualcomm stadium and take the trolley down. BEST DECISION EVER. We avoided the crazy traffic headed to downtown and we didn't have to pay $10 for parking nor the $6 for the shuttle to the start from the parking lot. We left at 4 am and arrived at 6 am leaving us with 15-20 minutes of time to stretch and get pumped up for the race.

Race time!

And we were off! There was music at every mile or so, adequate water/sport drink stations, and my favorite part of any race - a lot of neighborhood support. Neighbors will wake up at the crack of dawn to watch you run and cheer for you. They'll hold up signs that make you laugh, inspire you, and just make you keep going. Some people will even be crazy enough to offer you shots of whiskey or tequila to make your run a little more interesting. (This has happened both times I've run the race). It's amazing how much support you get at these races and when you're pounding the pavement for 13.1 or 26.2 miles, you're going to need it.

Post-race

Freebies galore. There are bananas, pretzels, sports drinks, water, photographers, and of course, that fancy medal you worked so hard for. There's also music and a beer garden that awaits you. The festival area is fairly well organized and there are reunion areas for your friends and family to meet you at. I bypassed all the post-race festivities this year as my post-race ritual included a date with AYCE Korean BBQ. Nom nom nom.

This race will always be near and dear to my heart as this was my 1st and 10th half marathon. I will continue to try and run it until my legs can't run no more. :)

Link to this review