One Down, Six to go

The San Jose RocknRoll Half marathon is over!  I finished in 3:14:24, with an overall place of 8750 out of 14,000 runners.  I accomplished both goals that I had for this race: to stay with my momma and to get her a Personal Record (PR).  She beat her former PR by 10 minutes!  She now has an very unflattering nickname for me (rhymes with yahtzee witch) for pushing her, but I know she's also very grateful for that PR!

20 hours to go!

I went into this race weekend with one question: WHY SAN JOSE??  I understand the appeal of most of the RocknRoll cities.  San Diego is a vacation destination, Portland is full of culture, Los Angeles has tons to do . . . but San Jose???  Once on the course, my question was fully answered.  It's FLAT, and I mean FLAT.  It's definitely a course you can PR on.  It's also shady.  I did sunburn a bit, but who wouldn't after being in the sun for 3 hours?  The weather was a perfect 60 degrees at race start and stayed cool all morning.  The city is beautiful and clean and they shut down ALL the streets for us.  I'd recommend the San Jose RocknRoll to anyone who wants to run a half marathon.

The Brooks mirror of awesomeness

There were some negatives to this race and the location.  It is a big convention city, however there seemed to be a lack of accessible restaurants that WEREN'T pricey.  And it was difficult to stay Paleo in San Jose.  They definitely do not cater to "alternative dietary lifestyles".  You definitely need to speak up and ask for your food to be altered.  The bunless burger was my staple this weekend.  Another negative was the gear check for this race.  It consisted of our bags being left in a gated off area, on the street.  I definitely didn't feel comfortable leaving my gear check bag, even thought it only contained my post-race flip flops and my fruit snacks (my non-paleo post-race indulgence).

Watching the preview of the
completely flat course

But overall I'd give this race an "A".  The sponsored hotels were a 10 minute walk from the start and a 5 minute walk from the finish.  The post-race beer garden poured HUGE cups of beer, the post-race party had a great concert and the secure area had great post-race fuel (bananas, oranges, chocolate milk, Marathon Bars, bagels, pretzels, water and Gatorade).

As for how I feel?  I feel great.  My feet are sore and I'm tired but my muscles already feel pretty recovered.  I'm attributing it to my 60 days on the Paleo diet.  Loads of protein to help with recovery, and my use of fat to fuel over carbs allows my body to do less damage to itself on an endurance run.




For my Paleo followers, my next post will be on how I stayed Paleo all race weekend.  

If you're interested in running my next half with me, that'll be the Silver Strand Half marathon on November 11, 2012.

Thanks for the fun run San Jose!