San Diego -- Marathon & pre & post race pampering!

The Suzuki Rock N Roll marathon & 1/2 marathon series are great for beginners -- large marathons with lots of crowd support, water/sports drinks stations staffed by great volunteers, generous finishing times allowed (for those of us who run/walk or walk) -- and music every mile or so to get some zing back in your step. San Diego is a fun town with a lot of tourist attractions (the zoo, wild animal park, Sea World, gas lamp district, museums, beaches, more) so there's plenty to do pre & post marathon.

Quick Tips:

There is so much to potentially see and do that you should have a plan of what you want to do BEFORE getting to San Diego. The zoo is easily an entire day excursion, and if you like museums, you have a broad range of choices at Balboa Park. (Note that some have free entry days -- you can check this in advance.)

Best Way To Get Around:

A combination of walking & driving has been the best way for us to get around. Parking is plentiful (though do expect to pay) in most parts of town. (We've always driven from LA to San Diego.) For this weekend we were able to walk nearly everywhere we had to go. FYI, if you are flying, the airport is within the city and is very close to downtown.

Keating House is a 1880's Queen Anne Victorian restored and now in use as a Bed & Breakfast. It's located in the Banker's Hill residential/business area, a short walk to Balboa Park or Hillcrest.

My husband & I stayed in the Music Room on both this trip and a previous trip. The tub is great for soaking, the original gas fireplace works, towels are plentiful & thick, bathroom is roomy, bed & bedding is comfortable. The decor is Victorian but thankfully not too overdone as you can find in some B&Bs.

The hosts are very friendly and helpful in recommending restaurants, things to do, etc. Ben has a great list he's published on their website (http://www.keatinghouse.com/index.html) -- he also has this printed out & available at Keating House.

Breakfasts are very good -- banana pancakes, fruit, french toast, etc. They also have a breadmaker and fresh bread & fruit are available throughout the day.

We've always enjoyed meeting the other guests here. For this weekend most of the other guests were either there for the marathon or supporting someone doing the marathon. Keating House is a short walk (a couple small blocks) to the marathon start and a short (uphill) drive from the finish.

So let's say you burn about 100 kcal/mile. 26.2 miles of marathon. About 2600 kcals burned.

Here's the place to pack that all back on!

Extraordinary Desserts is just that -- a little cafe that has to die for desserts and the strongest coffee I've ever had, along with a selection of teas and various goodies to bring home.

Don't make the mistake we did -- i.e. eating dinner beforehand. We both had pieces of cake that were huge, rich and utterly decadent. I took some of mine back to the B&B for later. Dave (hubby) got to it before I was able to finish it.

How it works: wait in line at the counter, choose what you want, pay, then take your number to where you're going to sit (either inside or outside on the patio). The waitress brings you your dessert, coffee/beverage, rock sugar & cream. Desserts are elegantly presented with extra sauce decorating the plate and garnished with flowers.

Cakes were about $6/7 per slice, coffee a couple dollars. Not cheap but definitely worth it.

I've been tempted to go back to San Diego just to visit this place.

Visit their website for a listing of what desserts, etc they currently have: http://www.extraordinarydesserts.com/extraordinarydesserts/desserts.htm

The San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon (hereafter called RnR---website http://www.rnrmarathon.com/) was my second marathon (Los Angeles 2001 was my first). It's a big marathon -- 20,000+ participants. A large number of those are Team In Training participants (a group raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) -- as such, it is a walker friendly marathon, with a time limit of 7 hours.

The course starts next to Balboa Park, goes through Hillcrest, around the park, to the Gas Lamp District, then goes on a freeway (that actually bisects Balboa Park), the 163, for several miles. You go around the bay that includes Sea World (though you can't really see the park). The last several miles are mostly alongside a freeway. (The course map is available on the RnR website.)

There is not as much crowd support as I experienced at the Los Angeles Marathon, in large part due to the fact that much of the course is on or next to freeways. There wasn't as much music as I expected, for the same reason -- stretches of miles where they couldn't set up. (The big gimmick for the RnR races are the bands playing every mile or so.)

Water/gatorade stations were about every mile or so. There was a power gel station at 17.6 but they'd run out by the time I got there (yep, I'm slow!). The volunteers were great -- gracious, friendly, encouraging. Porta potties were cleaner than could be expected and had TP even late in the race (always bring your own just in case!).

Overall pros: walker friendly for beginners, moderate crowd support, great city to visit anyway, relatively flat course, cool/overcast weather in the a.m.

Cons: course not as scenic as I thought it would be considering where it was. Parking at the finish was really far away without any shade for the walk (a mile or two, which seems really far, anyway, after doing the marathon!).

Although I'd recommend RnR once, I probably won't choose to do this marathon again -- too many other ones out there to try.