Hiroko and I went out to San Diego over this last weekend to participate in the Rock 'N' Roll Marathon, 6th Annual running.

After a hot and muggy race, that had more ups and downs than we had anticipated, including one 250 foot climb over two miles, we both made it to the finish line in a slow, 5 hours and 49 minutes. Hiroko nudged me out by a nose, beating me by 0.01 seconds across the finish line, even as tired as she was, she managed to run in the last mile and one-half, we had walked a lot on the course. She had bad blisters for the last 9 miles. But the best news awaited us later that evening, when, while looking at the race results, I discovered that Hiroko had placed 3rd in her age group, meaning that she once again garners a trophy!!! She was in fact 3rd out of 13 runners in her age group, with others being from all over the USA competing, along with a few others from foreign countries. Yours truly, was a spectacularly, unremarkable 99 out of something like 150 other runners in my age group.

As we were returning to the hotel, we ran into Rich Hewitt of Reston Runners, who in fact had been staying on the same floor as us in the Marriott, but we never saw each other until that moment. Rich ran a respectable 4:40:34 for the Marathon. Others from Reston, Virginia, who ran were Chip Hulbert at 3:55:44, Cherie Jones at 5:17:54, and Nicole Rogers at 4:11:22. I do not know how many, if any, of these individuals are members of Reston Runners and likewise, other who were members of Reston Runners, from towns other than Reston, may have also ran.

Comments on the race and course, itself. Lots of Bands and Cheer Leaders, but medical tents did not seem as well organized as other Elite Running events, they were out of Vaseline at many of their aide stations and did not have much sun tan lotion, I got burned for just the brief time at the end that we were still running, as the sun started to break through the fog layer. The race was very disappointing, as far as being scenic or memorable, especially since it was located in San Diego. Running through Balboa Park and Zoo turned out to be, only, going along the side of the Park and then being down in a valley through the Park, so we did not, really, get to see and appreciate any of the Zoo or Park. The city part of the race was through what appeared to be, at least for half of the city part, through the "Flop House" part of town. One runner was sitting beside a bunch of wineos, as he was tying his shoe. The rest of the course was generally boring and uninspiring; even around Mission Bay, itself, it was not very picturesque. Fortunately, the fog cover stayed around to until about 5:30 hours into the race, i.e., until a little after noon. Temperatures started off at about 60, when to 70, very humid, and then went into the upper 70's as the sun started heating up and breaking through the fog cover. There was plenty of water and Gatorade at about half the water stops, about every 1.5 miles; fortunately no Ultima!!

So if you are a victim of marketing hype and are doing all the Elite Running events, you need to go to San Diego, but not for the Marathon itself. The Marathon Expo was bigger and better than most, better than New York, but not as large as Chicago. The city attractions are great: outstanding Zoo (this is a must), great Sea Food, and Coronado Island and the Hotel del Coronado, as well as the San Diego Marina are all great places to visit. We stayed at the Marriott Marina, which has a spectacular view of the San Diego Bay -- it is almost a resort hotel in and of itself -- and we got to see the USS Constellation and its support ships return from the Gulf War II, as well as their jet airplanes land at the NAS on Coronado Island. That all more than made up for the uninspiring Marathon course.

Norm