{"id":1217,"date":"2025-05-29T23:42:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T23:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racereportblog.com\/?p=1217"},"modified":"2025-05-30T00:01:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T00:01:33","slug":"la-jolla-half-marathon-may-17-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racereportblog.com\/?p=1217","title":{"rendered":"La Jolla Half Marathon – May 17, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s taken me over two weeks to get to writing this, because this beautiful race was the first morning of the INTA (International Trademark Association) annual conference in San Diego, which kept me very busy meeting some of the 10,000 attendees for five days, and then visiting my college roommate before returning to NY just in time for my anniversary, and then catching up with WORK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culled from the INTA participants were 99 of us who ran the HM and around 35 more who ran the 5k.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
 (I missed the photo op, along with other INTA runners who were dedicated to their pre-race routines\u2026)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stayed in hotels near the starting line, and INTA\u2019s local impresario and lifetime runner Larry Binderow (who had bragged about running this race countless times), with tremendous logistics by Jackie Stelling and Chris Bennett (whose name will pop up again) organized a big pasta dinner for us.  And Larry rented a bus to take us the morning of the race from the Courtyard by Marriot to the race \u2014- and then back again after the race!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Chris and Larry (1st Place among mensches)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Loose self-seeding put me behind the 1:55 hour pacer, but I was hoping to break 1:50. (My 25k winter race pace would result in 1:48, but my Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon was 1:55\u2026). Weather is perfect: 59 Degrees and cloudy (so I wore my hat backwards, despite knowing it\u2019s not a great look on me\u2026) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A joyful group start!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Though it would be nice to  run with the INTA folks, I knew that I had to settle into my own  pace and initially dropped my friends \u2014 except for Santosh Singh, who passed me around Mile 2, flying past in  in his yellow visor never to be seen again\u2026 (finishing in 1:44). I keep checking in:  is my effort a 4 or 5 out of 10? Everything is pretty flat and beautiful until the long descent before The Hill starting at Mile 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ah, the scene of the crime. Enjoy this final descent before hitting The Hill at the end of the road! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m panting, and slow down on The Hill to 12 min\/mile before getting my groove, and about halfway up I\u2019m joined by Matt  Allen (UK) from INTA (whom I didn\u2019t know, but who is wearing the same shirt, which served its purpose of team recognition). Matt and I get each other up and over the series of crests (\u201cthe hill just wouldn\u2019t stop!\u201d) without slowing and we average a stunning 8:59 min\/mile. Starting the flatter\/downhill section, I take a gel, and realize that young Matt is no longer panting and I say \u201cI\u2019ll let you go\u201d, because I\u2019m running MY race, and he goes off into the sunrise, as it were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The downhills keep on coming, and it is thrilling and I realize I\u2019m having  fun but still worried:  will pounding downhill lead to calf cramps I had at my last HM in March? Will the aching quads give out in some way? So I go as fast as comfortable rather than pushing as fast as possible\u2026 And yes, it\u2019s beautiful, until we get to the Second Hill, another mile or so of up up up, and now I\u2019m painfully going as fast as I can, and I manage to pass Chris Bennett. And then another downhill stretch towards the park by the shore and the Finish LIne is finally here!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
If I\u2019m enjoying the last two miles, I\u2019m not doing my job\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And I didn\u2019t even see that Chris passed me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bottom line: 1:49:56, just over two minutes faster than Coach Steve predicted (which is my litmus test of success, because he\u2019s awfully good with numbers) and I\u2019m honored to lose to Chris by only 8 seconds.  7\/74 AG, 539\/4,458 OA. And stunning results by other INTA runners, especially Viviana Erejomovich of Argentina (1:44, 1st in AG), Jerry Walder (UK, 1:34), Eduardo Miravete (Mexico, 1:28, 1st in AG) and Paul Ward-Hutton (Australia, 1:27, 3rd for AG). A beautiful, brutal experience – but for all the complaints about those uphills, the downhills were glorious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now\u2026 onto the Western Massachusetts 70.3 (that is, a Half Ironman) — on June 8!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s taken me over two weeks to get to writing this, because this beautiful race was the first morning of the INTA (International Trademark Association) annual conference in San Diego, which kept me very busy meeting some of the 10,000 attendees for five days, and then visiting my college roommate before returning to NY just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-race-reports"],"yoast_head":"\nLa Jolla Half Marathon - May 17, 2025 - Race Report Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/racereportblog.com\/?p=1217\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"La Jolla Half Marathon - 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