San Diego Half Marathon at Petco Park

I was sucked in to sign up for this event long before I knew much about it. It was one of those emails or Facebook posts that advertised a half marathon in San Diego for a very reasonable price. The addict in me couldn’t pass it up. Being an inaugural event that had not posted the course information, it was a shot in the dark.

9 months later, it was finally race day. By this point I was excited, but still hadn’t taken very much time to learn about the event. We arrived at the expo and the race advertised an epic finish in Petco park. I have always been a baseball fan, so this was somewhat intriguing. By the time I had left the expo the word epic was tattooed on my brain and had become a word we were repeating as often as possible in jest.



Race morning was a little tough due to daylight savings. We lost an hour of sleep on what was already an early morning. We met for the Marathon Maniac/Half Fanatic picture at the stadium. It is always so fun to meet up with friends, old and new, at the races. The pictures were tough to capture, as it was still very dark.



We took advantage of the real bathrooms in Petco and made our way to the corrals.

There were 10 corrals with a rolling start. Everything was very well organized and people were in high spirits. Our favorite race announcer, Rudy Novotny, and US Olympian Meb Keflezighi got the race and the party started.

The first mile went well. I went out a little fast at an 8:59 pace for mile 1. I slowed a bit and had a 9:20 average for the next few. The course was beautiful. We wound through downtown San Diego, by the bay, and around Marine Recruit Depot, San Diego. It was almost completely flat for most of the course up to mile 9. My speed and enjoyment of the course was going well, but my stomach had other things in mind. I had several episodes of dry heaving and stomach cramping. I pressed on and tried to ignore it or run it out. I was finally forced to make a port-o-potty stop at mile 8. I was disappointed to all but throw out hopes of a sub-two finish. Up to that point it was looking close.

I decided it was not the day, but all was not lost. I trudged along until we made our way to Washington Street. At this point was the challenging hill we had heard so much about at the expo. It was 3/4 of a mile long, pretty steep and slanted. I was doing ok about 1/2 way through it, but then I just could not get my stride comfortable, so I walked the rest. Miles 8 and 9 were over 11 minutes. I was frustrated that I had fought through the stomach aches to let a stupid hill defeat me.

When we got to the top it really was all downhill from there. We made our way past Balboa Park at a slight decline that felt great on my legs. With a 5k to go, I was able to get back into a comfortable pace again at 9:00 flat for mile 10. At some point I came to an intersection to have a San Diego Police Officer wave us to a stop and let traffic move through the intersection. I was beyond frustrated and had not experienced this before. After about a minute and 20 cars through, he let us keep going.

At around mile 11.5 there was a man running near me that was groaning with every step. Even though I was wearing headphones, I could hear what sounded like misery. I looked up at him several times and he looked fine. I have to admit I tried to run faster to get away from him, but he seemed to match me stride for stride. Maybe it was meant to be, because we came to a point while on 7th Street that we were in the middle of the road with moving traffic on both sides. The groaner was on my left. He tripped and rolled into a moving car. I saw it (the whole thing seemed to be in slow motion) and banged my hand on the lady’s car to make her stop. The man was ok and insisted that he could get up and continue on. We both started running and he kept groaning. Maybe that’s his mantra? Who knows. I am glad he is ok, but hope to not ever run near him again!

As we got closer to mile 13 you could hear the crowds and Rudy calling in runners for their epic finish. I was very proud that the last 5k had been strong and even through everything I still had a slight chance at a PR. I ran through the tunnel and into the stadium for what was, truly, and EPIC finish. It was so cool to be on the field and have people cheering for the runners. Brady, Colby, and Mimi were waiting for me were proud too. I wasn’t sure if I had PR’d. My phone reported a time of 2:07:14, which was 15 seconds off my best time.



Colby was proud to tell me that he had a huge PR and had done really well in the race. It was a great moment for Team Wentlandt. The official results confirmed a new half marathon PR of 2:06:40. Maybe someday that sub two will come? We’ll have to wait another day to find out.




Eventually we made our way out to the 13 mile marker to help Ed the Jester cheer for runners. I wasn’t there long when a lady came staggering down the street. A race official spoke to her and shockingly let her keep walking. She was obviously in trouble. Just as she started to go down I made the decision to run over to her. Another guy and I caught her as she collapsed. She was laying on him on the sidewalk as a man with 2 kids in a jogging stroller came over yelling, “I am her husband! I am her husband!” My thought was, “then freaking do something! Don’t just stand there!”

The race official came over and called for a medic. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, and It honestly scared the hell out of me. The man she was lying on had some Gatoraid. I tried to give her some, but she really just let it run back out of her mouth. We found water and did the same. It seemed like hours went by as we waited for the medical staff to arrive.

Ed gave us ideas to help her (elevate her legs, ask her questions, sugar). We tried everything and she did seem to get better as time went on. She kept telling me she wanted to finish. I promised I would make that happen. (A promise that was ultimately broken).

She finally responded to the water and began to drink it as I poured it in her mouth. Her son gave up his gummy bears and she let me feed them to her. She seemed to respond well to them. The man under her was able to move out of the way and get on with his day. Where the hell were the medics? I couldn’t believe it was taking them so long. The race official asked her questions and she did really well responding. She knew her name, the date, and where she was. Good signs.

The ambulance finally arrived and the medics took over. They determined very quickly she was not going to be allowed to finish. I was so sad. I asked if I could hold her up and help her and they refused. You have to understand that she was steps from the finish. Less than .1 to go. The runner in me knew it was a huge disappointment for her, but obviously knew best. I said my goodbyes and prayed as I walked away that she would be ok. I honestly had to give myself a minute to recover. Scary moment, to say the least.

The postscript of this story is that I found out she had not taken one drink of water during her race and she came in feeling sick. She was severely dehydrated and ultimately, that was her undoing. The lesson here is that even on a cool day, your body cannot travel 13.1 miles without being hydrated!

We had to pull Colby away from his mini-Jester duties to go to the stadium for the Lifehouse concert and other festivities. He was not happy with us, but a promise of exciting events dulled the frustration a little.

As if a double PR and a wonderful day was not enough, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to meet Meb Keflezighi and Ken Blanchard. I will save the details of those encounters for another day, but trust me when I tell you it was awesome!

To sum up this novel, the San Diego Half Marathon at Petco Park lived up to the EPIC event they promised. Team Wentlandt will return in 2013!