California

El Cajon, California

State #8

​Location: El Cajon, California
Half: St. Patty’s Day Half
Date: March 5th, 2017
Finish Time: 1:38
Pace/Mile: 7:35/mile
Pre-run meal? ​Spicy chicken sandwich, sweet potato fries, and popcorn (healthy, I know).

First Plane Ride!!!

My first state to require a plane ride!!! CALI BABY! Originally, state #8 was going to be completed in West Virginia, but since it was my Spring Break (I teach preschool), I decided to expand my horizons a little bit (or a lot a bit). I flew out to California with my mom to spend a week visiting my sister and also conquer my eighth half marathon & state.

We flew into LA late Saturday morning (there was a mishap or two, or three, with our flights… and we ended up staying overnight in Minnesota or something). But finally we made it to Cali! We picked up my sister in our rental car and drove down to San Diego. My half marathon was in El Cajon which is somewhat near San Diego. Close enough to give us an excuse to stay there for a few days after the half marathon. For lunch we ate at a bar/grill type of place, I had recently learned that eating a big dinner the night before isn’t the best (see my tips section), so I was determined to have a good lunch. I had a chicken sandwich and some sweet potato fries (not the best, but not the worst).

That night we went to a movie and then relaxed. It was amazing to finally see my sister and spend time with her and my mom. That morning everyone got up, got ready, and we drove to downtown El Cajon for the race. It was a decently sized race, not HUGE but also not small by any means. It was a down and back, but it truly didn’t matter because the entire run was BEAUTIFUL.

It was 13 miles of wide-stretching California hills (but sadly yes, that also meant there were a fair number of hills in this race). Around mile 3 there was a HUGE hill, that was fine and dandy since it was just my third mile, but in my head I was thinking, “Hm… if it’s mile three on the way there then it’s still going to be there at mile 10 on the way back.” Not the best news. I basically started to plan my run around the fact that I needed enough left in the tank to make it up that hill and run three more miles afterwards. It worked too, I finished with a great time and was actually still feeling great afterwards. The race was perfect. I finished with my two best friends cheering me on and looking forward to an entire week of vacation in California.

For the next few days we ate TONS of food. We went to Little Italy and ate at pretty much every place possible. We had dessert at this place called iDessert twice (IF YOU GO TO SAN DIEGO YOU MUST GO HERE). We went to the beach, took a trip to Coronado Island, went to the San Diego zoo, and literally got frozen out of our hotel room. Evidently the heat wasn’t working because it was literally sub-50 degrees when we finally called the front desk for the 3rd time in a row and reiterated the fact that something was wrong with our thermostat. They moved us to a new room and the maintenance man brought us hot chocolate (no joke, the best maintenance man ever). The trip was amazing. State #8 was an adventure that I will NEVER forget.