It was the earliest I'd ever gotten up for a photo shoot. Down to Balboa park at 6:15 am on a Sunday, to catch the start of the Rock N Roll Marathon at 6:30. There were masses of fans, but thousands of runners! The throng of runners backed up several blocks behind the starting line, and it took quite a while before everyone passed through.

A bike proved to be very useful in the spectating and photographing of this marathon. Lots of streets were closed to cars, so armed with camera and bike I sped downhill from Balboa park to down town to photograph in the Gas Lamp district. Then crawled back up Park and over to the Prado bridge, where I got the photo above. Next, put the bike back in the car and drove over to Rosecrans near Sports Arena, and biked to the San Diego river, where the runners had already gone around Mission Bay, and were already at the 20 mile mark. I was very impressed.

I never caught up with the elite runners. The fastest man finished at 2:10, and woman and 2:28. That's 26.2 miles in less than 2.5 hours?? I can't even do one mile in less than 6 minutes!

Photographing was very fun. A chance to capture some San Diego scenery at the same time as lots of people. Biking was also very fun. Got a kick out of biking on closed major roads and freeways. But it was just amazing to see so many people with their hearts set on such an ambitious goal.