Mermaid Half Marathon Recap

What an incredible girl weekend get-away. I forgot how much I LOVE San Diego. Clear blue skies, perfect weather, and hello sunshine! This past week we have had a lot of overcast weather so this weekend was just what I needed. I signed up for this race courtesy of the Mermaid Series association because it fit perfectly in my training for Boston. I had a 13 miler set and I couldn’t think of a better way to run it then with friends while wearing a sparkly skirt!!

MERMAID SERIES MISSION STATEMENT: Mermaid Series is building a welcoming community that inspires women from all backgrounds to uncover and realize their true potential.

Mermaid Series strives to serve as a catalyst for change in women’s lives as they set and discover new goals for themselves in fitness and in life. By providing training, support, motivation and eco-friendly events we are committed to the pursuit of our participants healthy lifestyle. Our events aim to provide an opportunity for positive change while making each woman regardless of their ability to feel welcome.

RACES PROVIDED: The Mermaid Series holds events in San Diego, Arizona, East Bay and San Francisco (so mostly, Callifornia) from half marathons, 10Ks, 5Ks, duathlons, triathlons and even mini races for the kids.

Picking up my BIB has never been easier. When we arrived on Friday we headed straight over to the Mission Bay park to grab our shirts and bibs. I was kinda sad there wasn’t a big expo but it was super chill and made the pick up really easy!

The shirts are so cute!

Picture courtesy of Stuftmama

After the three of us got settled in our hotel room, we found a lovely Italian Bistro in Liberty Station called Solare. OH MY GOODNESS! I cannot rave about this place enough. The bread. The wine. The lobster pasta. It was truly one of the best pre-race dinners I have ever enjoyed! I had huge pieces of lobster in my pasta that I couldn’t stop raving about. I can’t wait to bring hubby here!

After dinner we headed back to our hotel room. (We stayed at the Del Mar, which was very nice.) We laid out all our gear and then enjoyed watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

I slept ok…but I kept thinking I heard RJ crying in the other room! Needless to say I was up before the alarm went of at 5:20am. I loved that the race didn’t start until 7am. It’s my kind of race when there’s no need to wake up at 4am! I borrowed this awesome sparkly skirt from my friend Heather and it worked out perfectly! Of course I had to represent with one of my favorite Refresh Attire Fit Mom tanks. In case you didn’t know, the SHOP IS OPEN FOR PRE-ORDERS!!!!

I loved that we got to see the sunrise as we pulled up to the start line.

We didn’t realize that we would have to walk a ways from the parking lot to the start line, so needless to say we took this picture and then the GUN went off!!!!

Talk about a beautiful location!

The first 5 miles were on a flat bike/running trail a long the bay. Pretty much the whole course you could see the water and the scenery was actually really pretty.

I felt good for the first 6 miles, minus some pain I have been having in my left heel. I wasn’t trying to PR or even care about my time because I really wanted to to treat this like a training run. But, of course, I can’t just sit back because I always find myself thinking “What if this is the last half I ever do?!” It probably won’t be but that’s how my mind wanders. So I tried to keep a 7:45 pace for the first 10k and then between an 8 and 8:15 for the next half of the race.

As you can see, we couldn’t have had better weather! That’s what I love about San Diego. I am pretty sure it’s 65-70 and sunny like every day!!!! At mile 8 there was a small hill up on a bridge and then at mile 11 there was another little bitty hill as well. Other than that the course was REALLY flat! What’s up with me and flat courses these days?!

My ONLY suggestions for the race coordinators of this race is that I wish they would close the course for this event. Towards the end of the half marathon I started to share the small running path with recreational runners, walkers, stroller moms and dads, dog walkers, etc. I was constantly weaving or yelling “On your left!” or “On your right!” towards the end of the race. It was honestly really hard for me to push the last two miles as I felt like I was weaving in and out of others on the path.

But I finished head held high with a strong: 01:45:24!!! Not bad for a training run. 

I loved that instead of a metal that I will never really wear again, they gave us these really cute “Run Beautiful” necklaces!

It was also nice to see bananas,  muffins, oranges, and other fruit at the finish line!

I was happy with my time and felt really good!

I met up with my running buddies, Val and Tammy, who rocked it and even met Kristin, a blog friend I follow on IG!!! We walked around the little expo afterward and enjoyed some Naked Juice and Luna Bars and then headed back for the 2 mile walk to our car!

We quickly changed and headed out to a new favorite brunch place in La Jolla called The Cottage.

This place has such a cute ambiance. Lot’s of umbrellas outside and a cute little white porch, just like you would find on a boardwalk beach house. It was worth the 45 minute wait! When I saw that they had Crab Egg Benedicts on the menu, I knew that was exactly what I had to order!

And of course we enjoyed some fresh orange juice aka mimosas!

We walked around a bit and stopped into Lululemon and I may or may not have walked away with a pair of HOT PINK running shorts!

We left around 3 and got home around 5pm. When I walked in, I was greeted with a BBQ Chicken Pizza with Goat cheese and a glass of Red Wine! Yep. Matt get’s the husband of the year award!

I have to say, although I love getting away for a night I missed this face SOOOOO MUCH!

It felt nice not to have a long run on a Sunday and these three got in some extra sleep time while mamma wrote this post. 

Find your next Mermaid Series race at: http://www.mermaidseries.com