I took an early morning Southwest Airlines flight out of LAX. It was a short flight into San Jose. There's not much that I like about flying with Southwest, but they do have free satellite TV via their inflight wifi and every year they send me complimentary booze coupons. Somehow I managed to doze off while watching TV that I almost didn't get to use my free booze ticket! I flagged down the flight attendant and got my coffee with Baileys. Even with a little bit of Baileys, the coffee should be good enough to keep me awake for a while.
Drink coupon
Coffee with Baileys
After landing, I made my way over to the bus stop for the VTA10 bus for a ride over to the Metro light rail station. I bought a day pass at the station and took the light rail down to the Convention Center. I got there about 10 minutes before the expo opened and there was already a line formed to get in. The line would just keep growing and growing with people eager to get inside. Most of the people in line looked to have just run the 5k earlier in the morning.
Expo
Expo entrance
After picking up my race packet and going through the very family Rock n' Roll expo, I walked over to my hotel, the Four Points by Sheraton over on First St, to see if I could check in early. They told me that were sold out last night, so I had to wait for people to check out before my room would be ready. I found a nice sofa in the lobby to sit and pulled out my iPad to help pass some time. After waiting for about an hour, the lady at the front desk was able to get me checked in. My room was on the second floor, so I decided to just take the stairs. I went through my expo haul and laid out my running gear to make sure I hadn't forgotten to pack anything.
Race shirt and expo haul
Mr. Flat Runner
I lounged around a bit in my room before meeting up with one of my running friends over at the San Pedro Square Market Bar for lunch. I had a Kalbi Burger from Konjoe Burger Bar. They only gave me a burger, so I guess they are no longer including potato wedges with their burgers. The burger was a bit smaller than I had remembered. I could've easily eaten 3 of them. Still it was a pretty delicious burger.
After we were done, we started walking back down to our hotels. We stopped in at the Walgreens along the way so I could buy my Powerade for tomorrow's race.
Kalbi Burger
Very quiet fridge
Back at my room, I watched a little bit of the Giants vs. A's. It was a high scoring game. I was hoping for the Giants to lose, but they always somehow find a way to win. The Giants were down 9-10, but ended up winning 14-10.
Giants vs. A's
Based on a friend's recommendation, I decided to go check out the Rabbit's Foot Meadery up in Sunnyvale before getting dinner. For some reason the Paseo de San Antonio light rail station right in front of my hotel was closed, so I walked a couple of blocks up to the Santa Clara station to catch the Mountain View train up to the Reamwood station. Apparently you had to use the sidewalk on the South side of the road when leaving the Reamwood station. I walked along the median on the North side which eventually came to an end. I had to run down a portion of the road to get to Birchwood Dr. Good thing there wasn't much car traffic at the time.
This tasting room was pretty dang small out in the middle of nowhere. At first I walked right past it. Once I found the place, I was able to snag a spot at the bar. I had their flight as I was not at all familiar with mead or ciders. Everything was surprisingly good, but out of all that I sampled, I really liked their sweet mead, raspberry mead, hard black cherry cider, and the chocolate raspberry love. Since I was impressed with their ciders, I had a taste of their hard blood orange cider and a pint of their hard pomegranate cider. You seriously can't tell that you're drinking something alcoholic. They were DEE-licious!
Sweet Mead
Raspberry Mead, Hard Apple Honey Cider, Hard Black Cherry Cider, Hard Lemonade
Biere de Miel, Oktoberfest, Bad Bee IBA, Chocolate Raspberry Love
Hard Pomegranate Cider
After paying my tab, I walked over to the nearby Pho Queen Noodle House to have dinner. A nice hot bowl of pho always hits the spot whenever I'm a little buzzed. I ordered the usual pho dac biet and asked for no cilantro. However it came with some cilantro. I can't stand uncooked cilantro, but I ate it anyways. It was pretty good and the portion was pretty big even for a medium sized bowl. It was a cash only establishment. After paying for dinner, I used the restroom and headed back to the Reamwood station to catch the light rail back to my hotel. This time I remembered to cross the street over to the South side of the road to use the sidewalk. I had just missed the train, so while I waited for the next train, I was treated to a view of a very beautiful sunset.
pho dac biet from Pho Queen
A beautiful sunset
Sunday 9/27
The race started at 8 am this year. That's a bit later starting time than what I'm used to for a Rock n' Roll event. I would prefer that races start at around 5 am especially during the summer months. I got to the starting line a little before 7 am. There were a small cluster of portapotties right next to my corral, so I found a spot nearby to sit down and waited until about 30 minutes before the race before I went to void my bladder.
Starting line
I entered and waited near the front of my corral. While I was waiting, I saw the 10 year legacy runners gather for a bunch of group photos underneath the starting banner. I then saw my friend and we hung out waiting for the start. Nearing the start of the race, some of us noticed that Deena Kastor and the 1:45 pace group had gathered just behind us.
Deena Kastor out to jog a 1:45 half marathon
Per the usual, I took off a bit fast, but I wanted to see how everything felt. I didn't go all out, but it felt nice to run a couple of sub 8 min miles. I started to slow things down during the third mile. Shortly after the 5k mark, I was passed by Deena Kastor and the 1:45 pace group. Even after backing off on the pace, I still felt exhausted. At about mile 4.5 as we were running down San Pedro St approaching Santa Clara St, I noticed a small table in front of O'Flaherty's Irish Pub with what looked to be cups of Guinness. I took a cup and took an unscheduled walk break to drink the beer. Around mile 7 I was passed by Roger Craig. The next 6 miles or so was such a grind. The weather was getting warmer by the minute and I struggled to keep my miles under 10 minutes per mile. I also poured water on my head at every aid station. As always I tried to speed up during the last mile to try and sneak in under 2 hrs, but I couldn't muster up a whole lot and fell a little short.
Finish line
Click here for my Garmin data.
This was my first race running with a Garmin. After reviewing the map and data, I can't say that I really liked it. The distance was all screwed up once I ran underneath trees, near tall buildings, or ran through an underpass or a tunnel. No matter how well you run the tangents, it will measure the distance longer than actual. Sure it collects a lot of data, but none of it is very accurate. However I did like that I didn't have to worry about looking for the mile markers and having to press the lap button.
After crossing the finish line, I got my medal, grabbed a bunch of post race food and drinks and headed back to my hotel which was right next to the finish line. I didn't even bother going to the beer garden for my free beer. I was feeling pretty cooked running in the warm weather. It was not very smart of me to wear all dark colors. I just wanted to get back to my room and take a shower.
Half marathon done
Time to retire these shorts!
After getting cleaned up and packed up, I went downstairs and checked out. I walked over a couple of blocks to watch some of the NFL games and to eat some wings for lunch at Smoke Eaters over on 3rd St. The place was packed with rowdy Raiders and Niners fans. There was a lot of trash talking especially since the Raiders are finally doing better than the Niners in the early part of this season. I ordered 15 of their fiery garlic wings. You know that they're pretty spicy when they sting your eyes. These were not your typical anorexic chicken wings, they were super meaty. It felt more like eating 2 dozen regular chicken wings. Most of the napkins that I used were to wipe up head sweat!
15 very meaty fiery garlic wings
Done!
Afterwards, I walked over to the Santa Clara station and caught the light rail up to the Metro/Airport station. While waiting for the VTA10 bus to the airport, I talked to a girl from Vancouver, BC and a guy from Seattle. She had just run her 16th Rock n' Roll event this year and he had run his 10th. This was only my 4th Rock n' Roll event even though I have the North America Tour Pass. I guess you could call it medal fatigue. After several years of getting their heavy medals, I just don't see the point anymore to obtain extra medals despite the recent nice re-designs. The finisher medal is good enough for me.
After getting to the airport and getting past the TSA checkpoint, I went searching for a good spot to get a pre-flight beer. During my search I saw a girl up ahead wearing a funny shirt. Since I was a bit sore, I slowly stalked her. I finally caught up to her and asked to take a picture. I eventually stopped in at The Brit to have a beer and watch some more football. Their beer selection was pretty lacking, but a Stella will do.
It's pho king good!
20 oz of Stella
After a short flight, it was time to go get my car in parking lot C. I had parked in a spot that I knew was a little bit too good to be true. It was in section A, which was very close to the bus depot. When I got to my car, I found a cone behind my car and sign that said temporary no parking in front of my car. They were definitely not there when I parked. I was just glad that my car was not towed or anything.
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