You may remember my Happy Places, Happy Races post from last month. I am back at it again with a “left coast” edition. I gave been checking out the SLO marathon since it started a few years ago. It is SLO for San Luis Obispo not for go SLOW (I hope!) My MIL has an AMAZING condo in Cayucos about 20 miles from the race and has retired nearby. This year, Erin is a race ambassador, so I decided to come out to meet her for the run. Since I also decided to do Phoenix, I opted for the half. Erin is six months pregnant so she is also doing the half (amazing, I know!) I convinced Meryl to come with on a little road trip, too! Bonus!
Since my company is in San Francisco and I have a client in Salinas (1/2 way from SF to Cayucos), I decided to mix work and fun. I flew in on Wednesday and spent a full day in the office getting some much needed face to face time with colleagues. I also got an amazing breakfast from my fave GF place in the Ferry Building (happy place) and went back for some nuts from G.L. Alfieri, too! Meryl came in and dropped her stuff and then stopped off at the office which was conveniently having happy hour. My friend and colleague, Sean, was in town last minute so he joined us for a delish dinner at Market Bar. We then headed out to the airport hotel I booked so we could easily rent a car and head to Salinas for my mid-day meetings.
I found an unexpected new, happy place on my morning run. The treadmill at the Best Western was in use. It is in an industrial spot in South San Francisco. I offhandedly asked the desk clerk if there was anywhere to run. He said “yeah, there is a trail by Costco one block over.” I was a bit dubious but decided, what the heck?! And… It turned out to be an amazing trail in the wetlands, The Bay Trail. File under “you never know what you are going to get!” I had a nice run and then Meryl and I located a Starbucks in walking distance. All good.
We drove to Salinas and grabbed some refreshments for my presentations at a Star Market. It had some amazing local goodies. We got some and I horsed around (ha ha). Meryl went to check out the Steinback House and I went to my meetings which were well attended and successful. Meryl picked me up and we headed to Cayucos.
I have not been to the Cayucos condo for almost 10 years. What was I thinking? It is a lovely place with a captivating view of the ocean. The town is one horse and super charming. We checked out the digs and our welcome basket (Thanks Libbie!!) and headed out to get some dinner. We wound up at Martin’s – a Mexican and Italian diner looking place. It got good Yelp reviews! And the fish tacos hit the spot.
Erin arrived and we turned in early. It was pouring rain (but still beautiful). It cleared up some and we headed over to packet pick up in SLO and did a muddy shake out with Travis and Jen. The expo was fun. I tried out some Hokas that I was wondering about from Left Lane Sports. (And I snagged them for 50% off!) I also got some new GF vegan bars from Benefit Foods. Stay tuned.
After the expo, we checked out San Luis Opisbo and Cayucos. Many thumbs up all around
Be back later to tell you about the race!
And don’t forget… Last day for the blogiversary giveaway– 5 great prizes!
I’m back! The race was pretty great! I have to say, though, for this flatlander, it was SO HARD! San Luis Opisbo is SUPER hilly. I was pretty unprepared for it truth be told.
Erin, Paulette, Kevin and I headed over before the crack of dawn to grab a shuttle to the start. We chatted with other runners that they knew and cheered on Travis at the start. Then we got ready, did a brief warm up and we were off.
The first 5K was great. Pretty fast (and later I learned that there was a tailwind). Then, the hills started. It was an out and back so I tried to remember what goes up must come down. I also tried to take in the beautiful scenery. Then at the half way, we turned back into a 10 mph headwind. Shit! When Erin saw me, she said I looked like I was “riding the pain train.” I stopped looking at my watch and just did the best I could. At mile 10 we turned onto a bike path and it got a little easier. There were 2 bridges that almost killed me. Finally I was in the downhill homestretch. Meryl snapped the photo of me above (getting air).
It was my slowest half this year, but on this course, I will take it! I ran 1:40.34 (7:41 pace) and placed 2nd in women’s 40-44. Erin and I also met Picky Bars founder Stephanie Bruce. She was beyond lovely and chatted with Erin about pregnant running. Stephanie is ~20 weeks pregnant and won the race in 1:23. Erin is 24 weeks and finished in under 1:50. Just AMAZING!