I took an early flight with US Airways out of LAX. During the cross country flight, I was able to watch Kingsman for free via their inflight entertainment. I've seen the movie before, but it was entertaining, so I watched it again instead of trying to sleep. There was even a scene in the movie where they were eating McDonald's! :)
Kingsman
I had a long layover in Philadelphia airport so I ate at Jet Rock Bar and Grill. I had their Bacon & Cheese Burger along with a couple of local stouts. The flight into Manchester was delayed about an hour because the flight crew had not yet arrived from another inbound flight. Once they arrived, it was just a quick short flight into Manchester, New Hampshire.
Yards Love Stout on nitro
Bacon & Cheese Burger with french fries
Lancaster Milk Stout
When I went to the rental car counter to pick up my car with Hertz, there was a sign that said to go to the booth inside the parking garage. After signing a bunch of paperwork, I was off in my silver Chevy Cruze. Just after leaving the airport, I pulled into the first gas station that I saw to buy some drinks. I didn't think that any stores would be open by the time I had arrived in Tilton. I had Google Maps guide me there avoiding tolls so it had me exiting the highway and taking some dark two lane roads. When I arrived in Tilton, there was a McDonald's next to the Super 8, so I went through their drive thru to pick up dinner before checking into my room.
Super 8
Late dinner
Saturday 10/3
The next morning I got ready and arrived at the Newfound Memorial Middle School at about 7:30 am and was directed to park at the grass field near the finish line. I walked over to the cafeteria to pick up my race packet. I bumped into a few familiar Maniacs inside. It was somewhat chilly outside so they were waiting inside. After using the restroom, I went back to my car to change. Inside our race packet I found a fortune cookie! That was a first! I headed back to the cafeteria where a bunch of Marathon Maniacs gathered and took about a million group photos.
Maniacs!
Fortune cookie
Right before we all started heading to the starting area, I went back to my car to ditch my arm sleeves. It was started to feel warmish. At the starting line, they made a couple of last minute announcements and a band was playing an instrumental version of our National Anthem. There happened to be a Marathon Maniac in the crowd that sung the anthem quite well. She had a strong enough voice to not need a mic!
The course was pretty much all on the roads where we ran on the left hand side of the road. It was not a closed course. There was still a lot of beautiful scenery to look at as we circumnavigated around the Newfound Lake. As with most of my marathons, I was dealing with leg cramps in the later miles. Thanks goes out to a few Marathon Maniacs out on the course that provided the beer support!
Beautiful course
Taking a beer break
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, I hung out a bit with a couple of the Marathon Maniacs and ended up shooting the breeze with race volunteers and fellow marathoners. I then made the drive back down to my hotel in Tilton where I got cleaned up and relaxed a bit.
Marathon #160
I then went back out for an early dinner over at the Tilt'n Diner. I could've walked, but instead I drove the car over. Since I was by myself, I grabbed a seat at the counter. After looking over the menu, I went with their chicken fried steak. It came with a dinner roll, mashed pumpkin, and mashed potatoes with gravy. This was good stuff. One of my favorite diner foods. It definitely hit the spot after running today's marathon.
Chicken fried steak
Sunday 10/4
I got ready, checked out of my hotel room at about 3 am, and headed down to Manchester airport. I gassed up the rental car about a mile away from the airport. The Hertz rental booth wasn't open that early, so I used their express return by noting the mileage and dropping the car key in their box. Then I had to get in a long line just to print my boarding pass. Usually they have separate machines for people with no bags to check. It would turn out that getting there that early really didn't matter as there were several delays ahead of us. First we were told that there was a "glitch" with the plane's computer which was fixed after they rebooted. Then the wings had frost on them which needed to be sprayed off. The truck with the sprayer appeared to have a dying battery. By the time they got the truck revived and the wings sprayed, the delay was at least an hour. My original itinerary had only 45 minutes for my connecting flight. So needless to say, I missed my connecting flight in Philly. I saw the plane pulling away from the gate as I briskly walked over to the gate all the way over at A11. This airport was too big especially after running a marathon the day before. I then went to the customer assistance counter back in terminal C to get a new boarding pass on a later flight leaving at 9:45 am. I was able to get a window seat in the very last row. It was a pretty unpleasant flight as the couple next to me appeared to have run through the terminal just to catch the flight. They were both wearing a couple layers of clothing and still covered themselves with blankets as they tried to sleep. They didn't look like people that cared a whole lot about their hygiene and smelled pretty ripe which reminded me of farm animals. Oh the joys of air travel! :)
After arriving in LAX, it was time to head home. Getting out of parking lot C took a while. There were about 3-4 long line of cars waiting to get out. They had just recently switched out their ticket and credit card machines, so I'm guessing that they're either having issues or the people working in the booths are still getting used to it. The lady even had me back up the car and move up the car because my car was too small. She then got out of the booth to look at the rear of my car. After finally getting out, I decided to swing by the old ramen shop and have a late lunch. There was still a wait even though I had gotten there at about 2 pm. I ordered their Cha ramen with a half order fried rice combo as well as their edamame and Asahi beer.
"Cha" miso ramen
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