Rock ‘N’ Roll San Antonio Race Weekend

30 Replies

Are you ready for some pictures??!!  Because you know me… my race weekend recaps usually contain more pictures than words, sooo… here we go!

James, AJ and I left a cold, wet Seattle on the morning of Friday, Dec 1, and touched down in warm, muggy San Antonio around 6 p.m.  There is a two-hour time difference between Texas and Washington, which is kind of a big deal come race day.  Getting up at 5 a.m. Texas time is equivalent to getting up at 3 our time.  Painful.

Anyhoo…

Our first night there we left AJ to enjoy some peace and quiet in the hotel room (which is what he wanted) while James and I started to explore downtown San Antonio.  Mostly, we walked the famous River Walk looking for someplace to eat.  If you’re visiting S.A., definitely try to stay close to, if not on, the River Walk path.  They have absolutely everything you need.  We were mesmerized.  With it being the holiday season, there were lights hanging from practically every tree, and the city was lit up in red and green (is this year ’round?).  There were even carolers riding in the boats singing away.

The next day was reserved for the race expo and a river boat tour.  Have you ever been to a Rock ‘N’ Roll race expo?  They’re huge and so much fun.  Here’s a bird’s eye view:

A couple of hours later, and after spending a small fortune at the expo, it was time to round up the child for lunch and the river boat tour (we don’t drag AJ through expos anymore; they’re quite boring for him).  We settled on Mexican food for lunch.  Okay… being born and raised in Arizona and eating Southwest Mexican food my entire life, I miss it greatly living in the Pacific Northwest.  Needless to say, my taste buds were squealing with delight when the plate of rice and beans were placed in front of me!  And I know what you’re thinking… Mexican food the day before a race!?  Yeah baby!  The key is to eat early.

Race Day

As I mentioned before, it was an early start.  We were meeting up with another Bib Rave Pro before the race for photos.  Ta-Da!  Meet Kolbe from Dallas.

I was in corral 16, and the following is what the start line looked like from way back there.  If you notice, it was quite misty and overcast, for which I was thankful as it had been hot-hot-hot that weekend (80s) and I was slightly concerned.  At least the clouds hid the intense sun.

I was about a mile into the race when the heavens decided to open up and bring forth a monsoonal type of rain.  I’m used to the rain, so no big deal.  I wear a visor to keep the rain out of my eyes, and I was thankful to be comfortable and not hot.  The Streets of San Antonio, however, were not so forgiving.  It poured down solid for at least 1/2-hour, hard and fast, which was just enough to flood the streets.  I was jumping through puddles where the water came to my shins.  Enter the reason why I lost two toenails.  My socks never dried out, so my feet remained wet until I reached the finish line.  My two little toes blistered so severely that it lifted the nails right off the nail bed.  Funny enough, this has happened once before… both times I was wearing Balega socks.  Is it the socks?  Maybe.  Or is it operator error as I know I have sensitive toes and forgot to tape them beforehand?  Most likely.  C’est la vie.  I finished.

I loved this course.  It was flat!  What a great way to end the year… with a flat course!!  Okay, there was one hill that stretched from mile 10 to mile 11, but what goes up, must come down, so it made for a fast finish.  I also had zero fueling issues and zero GI issues.  I ate 2 quick dissolve glucose tablets every 20 to 30 minutes to keep me going.  I even had a shot of coffee out on the course at mile 7.  Minus the painful feet, it was a fantastic time.

After a nice long nap, we had dinner with my high school friend, Mindy, whom I wrote a little bit about here.  She just recently moved to San Antonio from Arizona to be with her boyfriend and loves it.  We met them at Margaritaville down on the river (yes! more Mexican food!).

Monday was spent touring the Alamo and flying home.

When we left San Antonio, it was 85 deg F.  When we landed in Seattle, it was around 36 deg F.  Apparently two days later, it snowed in San Antonio.  A fabulous weekend, but there’s no place like home.

If you haven’t already, go check out James’s post on the race itself and for all the finite details that I tend to miss.  After being injured and flat on his back for a few months, he somehow managed to complete the half marathon.  Muscle memory is a beautiful thing.  Don’t ever get down on yourself for being injured because, if you have the drive within you, you WILL come back.  In spades.

Happy running y’all!

30 thoughts on “Rock ‘N’ Roll San Antonio Race Weekend”

  3. mawil1

    Sounds like fun! I’ve been to San Antonio a couple of times- there’s a big breast cancer conference there at aboutvthis time of year. It is strange to be warm (and usually dry in my experience) at this time of year! I think you got lucky with the rain! SA was where I had my fist experience of the frozen margarita. I’ve never had one as good since! It sounds like you sailed through this half, well done! Can’t believe your poor toenails though!😬

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      Thanks Julie! Yes, San Antonio was a lot of fun! A great place to visit… and flat! Woo hoo! 😂 But I opted out of the margaritas, although James had one and enjoyed it, but it looked fab! Toes are healing nicely now and I’ve learned my lesson… gotta tape them. Every. Single. Time. 😉

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  5. lynne hoareau

    Oh those poor little toes and toe nails of yours…those conditions did not sound great at all…but you did it !!!
    Apart from that it seems like you had a fun time and it sounds like it was nice and festive !!!
    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Paula. 🙂 x

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      I think you’d love it Fallon! One thing to keep in mind though, 2016 also had monsoon rains during the race, so I can’t help but wonder if race day is just cursed in that respect, hehe!! But yes, a fabulous city from what I saw! 😁 We will definitely go back!

      Like

      Reply ↓
  11. My Kind of Fit

    What a great weekend, running and meeting up with friends!! Water up to your shins, that doesn’t seem right out on the road?? That’s a lot of water with nowhere to go. I’m so excited you and James were both out there, Congrats on a great finish!!

    Merry Christmas to you, James and AJ!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Paula Post author

      Lol, you’re right about that water thing! But you know how those sudden heavy rains are! The drains can’t keep up, lol!

      Thank you so much Jodi! Merry Christmas!! Xoxo

      Like

      Reply ↓
  14. Chocolaterunsjudy

    Oh, we totally miss Tex-Mex too! And the riverwalk. Sigh. Don’t miss the summers, though. And rain in TX — it’s basically always in a drought, so either it’s not raining or you get a monsoon & flash flooding.

    Ouch on the toenails! Balegas are my favorites, but we’re all different, as you know, and while I’ve done a few rainy halfs, I’ve been lucky that it’s never been the whole half or a deluge. So far.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s