Jennifer's Race to the Altar

It's official - I think I'm crazy. So back in January while running the Phoenix half marathon, I came up with the idea of having my good friend Jennifer's bachelorette party in San Diego during the Rock and Roll marathon (which was on June 4th). She is an avid marathon runner, so it was totally up her alley. I had signed up for the marathon but then didn't have time to train for it for various reasons (travel, Italy, procrastination, laziness), so I decided to be on the "road crew" with my friend Sara who wasn't running either. Well, when I arrived at the hotel on Friday night, they had picked up my race packet at the expo. Turns out one of the other girls couldn't make it on the trip, so we had two extra race packets. Hmmm...no sense in wasting the $70 registration fee right? Sara and I decided to go ahead and run! Neither of us had done an inkling of training but what's the worse that could have happened? Maybe we'd walk the majority of the race. Or maybe we'd get a cab and go to the beach. There's no rule that you have to finish. We got up the next morning, walked to the start just in time for the gun to go off and on our way we went! The San Diego Rock and Roll was my first marathon back in 1998. It seemed like the course was a little different this year. It wasn't all that exciting - lots of freeway running and shady neighborhoods. The best parts were running through downtown, the Gas Lamp district, University Ave and by the ballpark. There were local bands playing throughout the course to keep you preoccupied. Sara and I both finished in 6 hours. Not too shabby for zero training and deciding to do it at the last minute! After the run, we went out for some bachelorette party fun. I was pretty sore the next day, but no worse than other marathons I've done. Next up on my running agenda: San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon and Nike Women's full Marathon both in October.