San Jose RnR Half Marathon Recap

This past Sunday, I ran the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll half marathon, mostly because I can walk to the race start from where I live. Nothing like rolling out of bed and wandering 20 minutes (at most) over to the start line. I can't say I love the course, although my reason for not liking it is the same reason many people love it - it's super flat. I find flat courses pretty boring and fatiguing, and I prefer some hills to break up the course and to use different muscles. Overall though, the race itself is well-organized and logistically easy.

Kevin and I headed over to the San Jose Convention Center for the expo after work on Friday to beat the Saturday crowds. Another convenient part of living near the event! Grabbing our ginormous race bibs (seriously RnR, what's with the size of your bibs?) and shirts was quick, no lines at all on Friday.

They have a nice expo with quite a few vendors, although I actually think the expo felt smaller this year than in the past two years.  There seemed to be less tables promoting other area races and less overall shopping opportunities. I spent some time trying on the new Brooks Adrenaline and talking shoes with the reps; sadly, the new version of the Adrenaline felt more narrow and didn't fit well. My shoe crisis is a story for another day though.

I admit it, I love race expos.

As you might have seen in my previous post, I was really concerned about heat for race day. Luckily, Sunday morning was nicely chilly and it didn't get too hot at all. The last few miles on exposed road still felt warm, but the higher temperatures for the day were way after we finished running. 

Chilly enough for jackets on the walk.

The race itself was mostly uneventful. I didn't go out at PR pace because I wasn't feeling at my best mentally or physically last weekend. I wanted to have a good race, feel happy, and finish with a time not too far from my PR - all of these things were a success so I'm content with my race. In fact, I haven't had such a consistently paced half marathon in quite some time. I especially impressed myself with this one as I didn't have pace on my watch and was running by feel, but somehow stayed within a 10-15 second window the whole time.

The highlights of the race were running and chatting with Tennille around mile 4 and then with my run group coach, Brigit, for a few miles in the middle. I lost both of them at water stops unfortunately, which I didn't mean to do, but I also didn't want to spend too much time looking around in the crowd so I kept going. To both Tennille and Brigit - and to Meg and Isaac who were cheering on the course - you were all great motivation, thank you! 

I finished the race in 2:07:48 with a strong kick, realizing I had a lot more left than I thought. Sometimes I don't know why I play it so safe; I need to work on my mental game a LOT. I really struggle with letting myself be in the pain place and pushing hard, so I get stuck in my comfortable paces. Don't get me wrong, that feels great, but it's not going to get me the PR or that sub-2 hour half either. 

Kevin and I hung out in the park with our free Michelob Ultra and enjoyed the Atlas Genius concert for a bit. Then we walked over to our favorite local bar, Original Gravity, for lunch and beer with our friends Natalie and Mitch who came down for the race.

 Post-race with Natalie (Kevin, what are you DOING behind us?)

 Cheers!

Atlas Genius

A few more details for anyone considering the event.

Course support. The course is well supported with tons of volunteers, and the water stops span long stretches at a time making it easy to get water without it being over-crowded. They had water and Gatorade in different cups, which is nice because it's easy to see what you are getting. They gave out Gu gels around mile 9 with flavor choices. Porta potties seemed to be a-plenty at the start and along the course, although for once I didn't use any. In addition, there were lots of cheer groups along the course and a few bands. I love seeing the high school cheer groups and volunteers along the course, and they always seem to be having fun.

Finish line. The race had great finish line food. I like liquids right after a race, so I was particularly happy with the chocolate milk, water, Gatorade, and Jamba Juice smoothies as refueling options. They also had bananas, Power Bars, Snap Pea Crisps, bagels, and maybe a few things I missed. The Jamba Juice smoothie was fantastic. I also love the set up in the park for this event because it's a comfortable place to hang out. The beer lines weren't bad, and we easily found a shaded spot on the grass to sit to watch awards and music. I don't feel like many people stay in the park after the race, although it's one of my favorite parts of this event.

Race goodies. The shirts are nice Brooks running shirts with men's and women's specific cuts. I like that the design is on both the front and back, it's a nice detail. The medals are pretty nice and very heavy, but the San Jose designs always make me laugh. Other RnR events have landmarks and you can tell they never know what to do for San Jose. I can't say I blame them; maybe a housing development or shopping center? Yeah.

That's it for this report. On to the next race!