I took a morning flight out of LAX to Fargo with a stop in St. Paul Minneapolis. During my layover I ate at Ike's Food & Cocktails. I ordered an Ike's burger and had a flight of beers to go with it. For the flight, I picked the Horizon Red IPA, Extra Pale Ale, and Saga IPA. The burger was average, but not bad for airport food. It was pretty expensive for a burger though. All 3 beers were not bad! Maybe I should just stick to drinking if I eat here again in the future.
Flight time!
Horizon Red IPA, Extra Pale Ale, Saga IPA flight
Ike's burger
I landed in Fargo in the evening. After picking up my rental car, a blue VW Jetta, I drove out to the Motel 6 where I had booked for the weekend. The room wasn't too bad for a Motel 6, but it had a faint weird musky smell. I'm sure it was from a recent storm, a wet dog, or both.
Woo hoo Jet Setter level 3!
5/9 Expo
In the morning, I drove out to the expo at the Fargo Civic Center. Along the way, I stopped by a Walgreens to buy some drinks for the weekend. For the expo, I found free street parking a couple of blocks away on 5th St N. The expo was very well organized with lots of volunteers holding up signs ready to answer any questions. You first picked up your bib in the tent outside. Then you went inside where there was a table with people handing out free popcorn. They had footprints on the ground to help with the flow of traffic. You went through the exhibitor booths before you went downstairs to pick up your race shirt and a pretty nice Under Armour bag that they personalized for free. Since it was pretty popular and there was a big backlog, you had to wait about 30 minutes for them to heat press your initials onto the bag. While I was waiting, I had the folks at another booth laminate a personal luggage tag.
Drinks
Bag and shirt pickup
Uff da
Under Armour bag
After leaving the expo, I drove to a nearby Burger Time to pick up some lunch. On the way back to my motel, I was pulled over for running a red light. That was a very quick yellow light. He was in an unmarked police cruiser and I had noticed that he had been following for a while. Most likely he was going to get me for speeding if I had not run that light. I had been driving about 40 in a 30 zone. He was a super friendly cop and asked me if I knew why he pulled me over. I told him that I was pretty sure that I ran a red light. He asked to see my driver license and insurance before going back to his car. He came back to tell me that the good news was that tickets are ridiculously cheap in Fargo. He was right. It was only $20! But still I was hoping that the good news was that he was going to just give me a warning.
Burger Time drive through
Bacon cheeseburger with fries and a Mountain Dew
The race shirt was a half zip long sleeve tech shirt. It was pretty nice but the design on the back of the shirt was a bit too artsy fartsy for my taste. So another shirt goes into the donation bin.
Shirt
Shirt back
For an early dinner I drove across the street to eat at JL Beers. It looked like the restaurant had been newly built. It was sitting all by itself on one side of the entire block. I found a place to sit down and ordered their classic burger with two beers. I also sampled a few other local beers. The waiter had me sample two other beers that he thought I would like. They were a Southern Tier 2xone and Rush River Double Bubble. They were both good beers. I preferred the Southern Tier. The burger was good but pretty plain.
Classic burger with Junkyard Coachgun IPA
Fargo Mighty Red after a Southern Tier 2xone and Rush River Double Bubble samples
After getting back to my room, I got my race gear and gels ready before calling it a night. The forecast called for a chilly morning so I got the arm warmers and calf sleeves ready as well as one of the mylar blankets that I had saved from another race.
Race gear
5/10 Race Day
Per the race instructions, I parked at the parking structure just off of 3rd St N at the Moorhead Center Mall and met up with my friend. We waited inside the mall where it was warm. Gear check was just outside. There were portapotties next to the parking lot. As the race start approached we walked a few blocks over to the starting area at the Veterans Memorial Bridge. Once it was about time to start the race we went into the corrals and bumped into other fellow Marathon Maniacs and 50 States Marathoners.
Marathon Maniacs at the start
Starting corral
I started the race at a slower pace than what I normally go out during the first few miles. My right glute or hip had been bothering me, so I didn't want to risk a major injury. I started to slow down by mile 9 and was passed by my friends that were running with the 4 hr pace group. We ran through a lot of residential areas and the course was nice and flat as advertised. I started feeling bad at about mile 19. My legs were feeling heavy and they were starting to cramp up. It took me several miles to recover. During the late miles, I even saw a drone hovering above the course. It was pretty nice to run through Concordia College. I recovered enough to finish the race feeling pretty good and under 4:40. The course finished right in front of the Fargo Theatre on Broadway.
1: 8:42
2: 8:53
3: 8:44
4: 8:57
5: 8:40
6: 8:49
7: 8:59
8: 9:07
9: 9:31
10: 9:39
11: 10:12
12: 9:56
13: 9:45
14: 10:38
15: 11:03
16: 11:47
17: 11:23
18: 11:20
19: 12:44
20: 13:43
21: 13:19
22: 12:32
23: 12:15
24: 12:15
25: 11:30
26: 10:51
26.2: 1:56
Finish: 4:37:09
Finish 4:37:09
After crossing the finish line, I bumped into a few of my friends that had finished before me. I waited for a couple of my friends to finish as I knew that they wouldn't be too far behind.
Marathon Maniacs at the finish
After getting back to my motel, getting cleaned up, and resting a bit, I went back out with my friend to eat dinner at the nearby Famous Dave's. I got a couple of Sam Adams Seasonal Ales and the brisket and rib tips combo with vegetables and mashed potatoes. I normally would eat a burger for recovery, but this kind of food would do nicely as well! I've never really been disappointed by the food at Famous Dave's.
Sam Adams Seasonal Ale
Brisket and rib tips
5/11 Going Home
I checked out of my room, gassed up the car, and got to the airport pretty early. The rental car counter wasn't even opened yet. So I filled out a form with the mileage and dropped the keys into the drop box. For my flight home, I flew into John Wayne Airport with a stop at St. Paul Minneapolis again. But once I landed in John Wayne, I had to take a ride on a Prime Time shuttle back to my car at LAX. It might have been cheaper but it was not very convenient to fly in and out of the different airports.
Cute little chairs after going through TSA security check in Fargo
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