It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

February was a heavy travel month, New Orleans for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon, followed by a trip to Texas for the Livestrong Austin Marathon, and finally a day trip up North to test my spear-throwing skills at the Spartan Race in Temecula.  Don’t get me wrong, I love living like a jetsetter but I also love San Diego!  It’s always a great feeling when I step outside of the airport just to be welcomed home by the smell of the Pacific sea breeze.  This is why I’m stoked to be here in San Diego for the entire month of March!

Staying true to tradition, March came in like a lion!  After a week of heavy training sessions, crazy deadlines and numerous “bumps” in the road, I was ready for a much-needed Saturday here in San Diego.  I woke up, bright and early (just how I like to) for Chelsea’s 5k in Balboa Park.  Over 5,000 runners and walkers came out for the event.  It was refreshing to see so many people rallying to raise awareness and honor the memory of Chelsea King.  The front-end of the course was flat and fast, so fast that my first mile split was a 5:16.  That’s much less impressive once you know that I finished in 19:12.   While it was a good follow-up to the 19:08 that I ran at the Paramount Break-A-Leg 5k in Austin, it still left me hovering over the 19:00 mark.  One of these days I’ll breakdown and either start running with a watch or start doing pace work.  18:59 is so close that I can practically taste it!

The San Diego sunshine showed her face at the finish line festival in Balboa Park, making for an awesome morning!   After re-hydrating and moaning about the killer hill at the end of the course with some co-workers, my roommate Hunter and I headed back to North County for our afternoon ride.  Unfortunately, Ironman 70.3 Oceanside is only 28 days away, and we couldn’t join the rest of the crew for brunch.

The 4-hour ride inland was great!  I’m feeling more and more confident that I’m going to deliver a solid performance at Oceanside in 4 weeks (knock on wood.)  We followed-up the ride with a 1 mile swim-down, then cruised by Seaside Market for some food.  It was a very “San Diego” Saturday, exactly what I needed!