What an event put on this past Sunday with the Rock & Roll Marathon and the 32,000 participants running the full or the half marathon, most ever in the history of this event.

The Downtown area of San Diego had a tremendous buzz leading up to the start of the event. I know I was excited about partaking in the Half Marathon this year. As I awake at 4:30am to walk my dog before the race, I headed out the door to find hundreds of people walking the streets or setting up the water stations or putting in the barricades or runners meeting with other runners to start heading to the starting line. It almost felt like it was 4:30pm on Sunday with the amount of people and cars going each way.

The Race started at Balboa Park at 6:10am and came through the downtown area on Park Ave. One of the most unique aspects about the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon is that you get to run through Petco Park the home of the San Diego Padres. As the runners made there way through Downtown San Diego they were able to run pass some of our most exclusive condo high rises such as M2i, Fahrenheit, Icon, Diamond Terrace, The Legend and Alta. The streets were lined with East Villagers and other downtown residents taking in the sights and the sounds of the race. Some of the residents that were lucky enough to have a condo facing the street on 10th Ave or 7th Ave got a view of the runners from there private balcony.

As the runners left the downtown area they headed up through Mission Valley area and finished at Sea World. With well over 500,000 spectators watching the runners and listening to the bands as they rock out.  Local economists would say this was a huge success to help infuse money into our local business. Our downtown hotels were packed through the weekend for this event alone. Not to mention the Padres had a successful home-stand on Saturday and Sunday. Again another 30,000 people downtown both on Saturday and Sunday eating and drinking and spending money in the downtown area of San Diego.

Downtown San Diego is quickly growing as the place to be for great food, entertainment, and over good times. The Beech communities of San Diego have historically been the driving force for San Diego tourists but Downtown has grown in leaps and in bounds as the place to be and to live. With over 40,000 downtown residents in 10 years, it is clear the growth of this area is rising and another 50,000 expected to move downtown over the next 10 years now is the time to look at your next investment in the downtown San Diego area.

In case you were wondering I did good in the my run. I finished the 13.1 mile race in 1 hour and 50 minutes. I came in 1,560 place out of 17,152 runners running the half marathon. That is the top 9% of all the runners! I will take it!