It’s been a very long time since I ran a Rock ‘n’ Roll race, Sunday that all changed when I toed the line in San Jose. As part of the Bib Rave Pro team at BibRave.com, I was fortunate enough to be provided a free entry into the race in exchange of using my social media outlets to promote the race, even sharing a discount code with my followers. I am also posting my review on BibRave.com, so if you don’t have an account there you should check it out and read the reviews before joining in on a race.

So my original intention for this race was to “race it”, but with last week’s news of not getting into the 2015 Boston Marathon, I opted to take this course as a training run, preparing for both New York City Marathon and the California International Marathon. Skipping forward about this course, with many of the streets in neighborhood areas and Downtown San Jose, this course has some wide streets and only a hand full of changes with ascends and descends, if you want to really hammer this race, this could be an “A” target half marathon for those of you looking for a fall half marathon.
My race weekend started on Saturday with a 2 hour drive to San Jose with my wife and son to pick-up my bib, D-tag, and swag at the race expo held at the San Jose Convention Center. Getting in and out of the expo was pretty quick and painless, no long lines to deal with, and nothing to outrageous that caused me wishing things were a bit different. My son had a blast running around with all the sounds and sights of the expo. In the expo, I only had one booth that I was determined to find and say hello to the friendly folks at Skechers Performance Division. After making our way through the expo it was time for lunch before heading back to Sacramento to hangout for the rest of the day.

Sunday morning came around pretty quickly and it was time to hit the road. I jumped into my car just before 5:00AM knowing that the ride would take close to 2 hours to get there, with little traffic, I was there in 1:45.

Once I got into San Jose, the parking was pretty simple though some of the exits were a bit congested due to the large number of runners running in the event. The weekend offered a 5k on Saturday and 10k and 13.1 on Sunday morning. This race also had 19 corrals or wave starts, so this could provide you an idea of how many people were ready to run the streets of San Jose.

After finding some FREE street parking, I got myself together and headed to the start line area where I started my long run of 16 miles for the day, knowing that 13.1 of them would be in the race. At the start line area I found fellow Bib Rave Pro and friend Erin. She was also in for a long run weekend as she ran 4-miles to the start.

With some quick pre-race needs, like using the porto, it was time to toe-the line. The count down was on and it was time to run this race, as a training run. I was in corral 1 just behind the elites. This group would provide me a good pace to keep me at training, in fact I started at the back of the corral as to make sure I didn’t get out and run too fast to start the race.

Along the course I would keep the 1:30 pace group around me, sometimes in front, sometimes even and sometimes behind me. The course as I mentioned offered some pretty wide areas to run as well as some pretty fast paved roads. Not to mention the awesome support and music along the course. After mile 5, the course brought us back near the start area, where I could see some of the later corrals still awaiting their starts.

All I could think of during this run was, man I wish I would have raced this because the course is really really fast! It’s fast and comfortable to keep a steady pace as well. After the 13.1 miles was all said and done, I crossed the finish line at a finishing time of 1:29:11. about 50 seconds under my training goal of 1:30:00. Not too bad for a Sunday stroll around San Jose.

With medal in hand, I continued my run to get my total distance in for the day.