Running the beaches.

My kids had fall break last week so we decided to take a trip to San Diego to visit my brother’s family in their new home. I was really looking forward to running at the beach and finding a race to run.

We arrived Tuesday afternoon and after picking up my niece headed straight to Del Mar beach. I was feeling stiff and tight from the airplane ride. My sister in-law Carren and I started doing yoga poses on the beach while we watched the kids boogie board. Before long we had several people joining in our yoga. It felt so good to stretch out and view the ocean.

Wednesday I headed down to Del Mar beach for my run. I had 8 miles with 4 at 620 pace. A big storm was moving into San Diego that day. Possible rain and wind. I headed north running towards Enicintas, the tide was too far in to run on the beach so I ran on HWY 101.  My pickup miles ended up being uphill straight into a huge headwind on the way back. I gritted my teeth and charged on, hey you never know what will happen on race day. I was around 640 pace for all of them but the effort was there. Took the kids to the Birch Aquarium since it was indoors. Then we had gluten-free crepes in downtown Del mar. Josh had never had a crepe so he got a meal and dessert crepe. We visited the cute little library and bought some books. Finally it was off to Mesa Rim Climbing gym, my niece Claire is on the rock climbing team. My kids got to climb for a few hours while she practiced.

view from Birch Aquarium

Thursday Carren and I headed to her gym Pacific sports Resort http://www.pacsandiego.com/. This place is awesome. We attended 545am spin class then headed to the cafe for some free tea/coffee. Upstairs we played with TRX, foam rollers, slide boards and much more. 3 hours later we finally left. It was  a great workout and a fun day. Carren has embraced many fitness and health changes since moving to San Diego she has lost a ton of weight but more importantly looks and feels really healthy. I could not be more proud of her.

I took the kids to Torrey Pines State Beach and we had a beautiful hike along the coast. We capped it off with more boogie boarding. The waves were fast and furious from the storm we had the ocean to ourselves. I was happy to borrow my brothers wetsuit to keep warm in the ocean.

Josh found this large kelp at Torrey Pines State Beach. Dinner?

Friday I got a short run in at the beach before taking Katherine to the airport. She had to return home early for gymnastics. Josh and I were excited to stay through until Sunday. We stopped by Old Town after the airport and toured the Whaley House (America’s Most Haunted House). Friday afternoon we were running errands and driving about town when I started feeling some painful twinges in my left hamstring. Yikes I hate when that happens. dilemma we are supposed to run a 5k tmrw. Well I just decided to stretch, roll on tennis ball and see how it felt.

Carren and I at Whaley House. She is rockin’ her new jeans!

Saturday was  a perfect morning for a 5k. Moonlight Beach Fest would be held in Encinitas just a short drive north. There was no sign of the hamstring twinge but I kept it in the back of my mind.. Josh and I lined up at the start and chatted up some other boys. We asked one young man if he had done the race before, his “reply yes no hills totally flat”. Next announcer greets us with “Welcome to the 1st annual Moonlight Beach fest”. When we started there were definitely some rolling hills. I saw a few ponytails up ahead but reminded myself to run my own race and that I am not in my fastest shape at the moment. In other words dialing back the competitive juices. There were 3 full u-turns so good to check how close I was getting to the other ladies and check on Josh (he was just a short bit behind me). I could see the gap closing between the 2nd place girl and me so decided to give it a little extra the last mile to try to catch her. The lead women was quite a ways ahead. I ran down the last hill to the finish line happy to still see 19 on the clock. My time was 1950, 2nd female and won my age group.  I was happy with that but ecstatic the hamstring was absolutely fine. Josh came in next at 2041 and the 2nd kid under 15 to finish.

We took some pictures enjoying the view while we waited for awards to start. I was dissapointed to hear the awards would only be for ages 15 and up. Josh ran a PR and was 2nd in the 12 and under. Great reminder about how we race not for awards/prizes but for fun and our own personal goals.

getting my award at Moonlight Beach Fest 5k

Josh running hard to the finish line.

Strolling down the street we found a Whole Foods and got some lunch before heading to the San Diego Wildlife Zoo. We spent the rest of the day seeing animals at the zoo. My favorite was the Lemur exhibit that you could walk right in with the lemurs.

up close and personal with the lemurs

On our final morning I had a 12 mile run to do. I decided to start at the north edge of Del Mar by the race track and see how far north I could go and how many beaches I would pass.

Beaches: Del Mar, Solano Beach, Cardiff by the Sea, San Elijo State Beach, Encinitas, Moonlight State Beach

Almost made it to Carlsbad. I think next time I will take money and run north, grab some food and take the Coaster train back down. It was a pretty run along HWY 101 the tide was in so sand was too dry to run on.

Do you have a favorite beach to run on?? Know any great places to run in San Diego (for my next trip)?