I ate at my favorite ramen shop, What's Up Men, before driving down to Carlsbad for the expo. I tried out their chuka soba ramen and beef bowl for the first time. The beef bowl was just like what you can get at Yoshinoya. The ramen was a bit too plain. But that was good since I don't want any GI issues for the marathon.
Chuka soba ramen and beef bowl
I brought a bag of about 6 pairs of shoes to donate at expo. That should make my room look like less of a shoe store. The expo was at the usual spot as always underneath a big white tent. The parking lot traffic controllers were a bit overzealous and definitely power-tripping. Once inside the tent, you pick up your bib first then you go to the back to pick up your race shirt, race jacket, and a drawstring bag. I went through the rest of the expo and thankfully found nothing to buy. I did see Meb selling his book, taking pictures with people, and signing autographs.
Meb!
After leaving the expo, I drove a couple of exits north on the 5 freeway to get to the McDonald's near my hotel. My spider sense was definitely tingling went I ate here. It was located in a not-so-nice area. The nearby Ocean's Eleven casino might have something to do with it being a seedy area. I quickly ate my Big Mac combo and left to check into my hotel just a few short blocks away.
Big Mac combo!
I stayed at the Ramada Oceanside. The parking lot was a little tight at this location. If you have a big car, you might have a hard time parking in some of their spaces. The room was pretty decent for the price. As I've mentioned earlier, it's a seedy area, so it's probably best to stay in your room.
Ramada Oceanside
I drove down to Kaito Sushi in Encinitas to eat an early dinner with my coworker. He was held up in a little bit of traffic so I stopped by the Ralph's across the street to pick up some drinks before heading over to the restaurant. In Southern California where it's inundated with fusion "sushi" restaurants, I prefer to eat at a traditional Japanese sushi restaurant. If you are looking for fancy rolls drizzled with a bunch of various sauces, go elsewhere. We stuck to mostly sashimi.
Needle fish
Orange clam
Chu toro
Tako
Soft shell crab
Conch
After getting back to my hotel room, I went through the expo haul and laid out my race gear. I brought along my waterproof gloves, arm sleeves, and calf sleeves just in case it would rain during the race. I only wear sleeves to keep warm when the weather forecast calls for low temperatures or rain. I'm not sure if the calf sleeves help at all with my cramping issues. As I was relaxing while watching TV, I felt under the weather. I knew I had caught something and was just feeling tired and lethargic.
Race swag
Race gear
Sunday
The first thing I did when I woke up was to check the weather. It looked like we would luck out and not be rained upon for the race. The race did start with a little drizzle but it would clear up quickly. I checked out of my hotel and drove down to the starting area before 5am. I tried to park at my usual spot, but ran into weirdo parking attendants. They forced us early birds to park in a lot so far from the starting line. But for some reason they all left to control traffic at the closer lot that I had originally wanted to park in. So I fired up the car and moved it over to my usual spot.
Starting line
I wanted to try and keep my miles around 8:50 - 9:10 for the first half. This was a course full of rollers so I ran based on effort. Things were going pretty well for the first 8 miles. I tried to follow up the hill at mile 9 with some faster downhill miles, but my left calf started aching more than I would like so I slowed the pace a little to try and alleviate the ache. It was a little disappointing to be going slower on the downhills, but with my achy lower legs I didn't have much of a choice. I got to the halfway point at a little past 2 hours.
1: 8:57
2: 8:18
3: 8:54
4: 9:07
5: 9:12
6: 8:50
7: 9:26
8: 9:12
9: 9:50
10: 9:31
11: 9:13
12: 9:25
13: 9:24
Rocco the pacer
Mile 23
For the second half, I targeted to keep my miles between 11:30 and 12:30. Except for mile 19 where I took a potty break, I was right on target. For most of the miles, I just took a one or two minute walk break when I reach a mile marker. Then I would run as comfortably as I could to the next mile marker. Rinse and repeat. It was a bit hectic when we merged with the half marathoners. Out of the thousands of runners, somehow I was able to bump into one of my friends running in the half. A little after mile 16, we were by ourselves again as the half marathoners had reached their turnaround point. Having run this race multiple times, I knew that we would be heading back to the finish line once we reach mile 18. For me, this was the hardest part of the course as it was a decent climb up to turnaround. Miles 23 and 24 had some gentle steady climbs. As I was headed to finish line and rounding the final corner, I could not run very fast as I was cramping up.
14: 11:58
15: 11:42
16: 11:44
17: 11:57
18: 11:36
19: 13:47
20: 11:44
21: 12:08
22: 11:54
23: 12:09
24: 12:23
25: 11:28
26: 11:32
26.2: 2:05
Finish: 4:37:29
If you run enough, eventually you can pace yourself without a GPS watch. This was one of my better paced races.
I picked up my finisher medal which I liked since I always prefer a classic circular medal. I was feeling pretty nauseated and dizzy as I was exiting the finishing chute after picking up a banana, a bag of snacks, and a bottle of water. I walked over to find a seat to sit down for a bit. I'm sure it was not very wise to run a marathon when the immune system has been compromised. After feeling better, I went over to the expo souvenir area to pick up one of those Triple Crown stickers.
Finisher's medal
Triple Crown sticker
I then had to hoof it down South to Casa de Bandini to meet up with my friends from San Diego. They all ran the half marathon, but they usually will wait for me. Just like every year, the traffic heading towards the 5 freeway was horrible. Once I finally got to the restaurant, I still had no appetite to eat a meal, so all I had was a Stone IPA. We accompanied the girls to check out the Lululemon store in the same Forum plaza. On my way back home, I stopped at the same favorite ramen shop to eat a bowl of ramen. This time I tried their Aka spicy miso ramen and chashu bowl for the first time. It was good, but spicy food doesn't really agree with my stomach these days.
Stone IPA
Aka spicy miso ramen with egg and chashu bowl
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