Saturday 8/19
I took a morning Amtrak train ride from the Irvine Station down to San Diego. The train was scheduled for a 7:11 am departure. However I was surprised that it took off about 4 minutes early. It was a pretty uneventful train ride and it was nice to be able to close my eyes and relax instead of being behind the wheel.
Amtrak
I arrived in San Diego at about 9 am. From the Santa Fe Train Depot, I hoofed it over to the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. I guess I could've gotten a Lyft ride, but the expo didn't open until 10 am. It was a warm walk and I got there at about 15 minutes before it opened. Before getting in line for the expo, I used one of the convention hall restrooms. The layout of the expo was just as it has been before. I picked up my bib and headed over to the tables for the race shirt. I got my shirt from my friend who was volunteering at the expo.
Expo at Sheraton Bayside Pavilion
Dexter at the expo
After I was done with the expo, I hoofed it over to the United Artists movie theatre over at Horton Plaza to catch a movie. I reached the box office at about 10 minutes after the start of the 11:10 am showing of The Hitman's Bodyguard. I would've been fine with missing the majority of the previews, but the 1 employee that was there was busy on the phone. It didn't seem like she was in a hurry to finish the call or to put the other party on hold, so I left to go find lunch. Before leaving Horton Plaza, I stopped in at the CVS to buy some snacks and water. Lately I've opted for something like pistachios instead of the usual tube of Pringles.
Pistachios and water
At first I thought about checking out Richard Walker's Pancake House, but it was several blocks away and based on the reviews, there was sure to be a long line to be seated. Instead I decided on getting a burger at the nearby Hodad's. Since it had just opened, the place was quite empty. I had my choice of sitting just about anywhere, so I took a seat at the bar. I ordered an iced tea and a single cheeseburger.
Single cheeseburger at Hodad's
After finishing my lunch, I made my way back to Horton Plaza and bought a ticket for the movie. The employee told me to come back 30 minutes before the start of the movie. So I then found a seat near the food court and just waited until it was time to go into the movie theatre. The theatre was quite empty and I pretty much had a row all to myself. Near the end of the movie, two people decided to come sit in my row. I thought that was odd. The movie was pretty dang funny. Samuel L. Jackson and Selma Hayek were both quite vulgar with their language. Ryan Reynolds was funny, did a great job, and was a good combo with Jackson.
The Hitman's Bodyguard
Once the movie was over, I walked over to my hotel for the weekend, the WorldMark San Diego - Balboa Park. This was my second time staying here since becoming a WorldMark owner. I really like how well they treat their guests especially the owners. However I feel like they do that to butter you up for another sales pitch. During check-in they gave me a gift bag which contained a bottle of water, crackers, and a lotion sample. They also invited me to a 1 hour owners education workshop. By now I know that it will be closer to 2 hrs or more as they will always try to sell me more credits.
Check-in bag for owners
After getting settled in and relaxing a bit, I left my room and walked across the street to pick up dinner from McDonald's. I used their app to get a free 10 pc McNuggets to go with my Quarter Pounder with cheese meal. I got the new Sriracha Mac sauce for the McNuggets. On this particular visit, the food was slow coming out because the employees were arguing with each other about an order that was messed up. Each person was assigning the blame to the other person. Just hurry up and give us our damn food! :) Unfortunately when I finally got back to my room, I found the fries to be a bit stale. Oh well, at least the rest of my meal was okay.
Quarter Pounder with cheese and 10 pc McNuggets
After dinner, I went through my expo haul and laid out my flat runner. I like the design of this year's race shirt, but I wished that the shirt was cotton. Instead it was made out of the usual cheap polyester.
Shirt front
Shirt back
Expo stuff
Flat runner
Sunday 8/20
The buses at the pick-up spot started running at 4 am. I was staying pretty close by, so I got ready and headed out a little after 4 am. I took my time walking over and was on a bus no later than 4:30 am. It was pretty dark at the Cabrillo National Monument when I arrived, but I still managed to fine a few of my friends. I hung out with them until it was closer to the start of the race and everybody had their own pre-race routines. One of my good San Diegan friend, who was running a bit late, texted me that she had made it and arrived at the starting area at about 6 am. It's always great to meet up with a good friend.
Cabrillo National Monument
Start area with Theresa
After the last bus had arrived, we were finally released to the starting line. Not knowing this, many first timers tend to get stressed out and push their way to the very front. I hung back a bit since I've been dealing with tendinitis in the left ankle.
The first 4 miles were rollers and it went pretty well for me as most of it was downhill. I make sure not to go too crazy on the climbs. Unfortunately even though the weather was still pretty cool, I still developed a headache from the humidity. So I shut down the hard running and went into survival mode. I tried to run here and there, but I had to include a lot of walk breaks. I went from running 8 min miles to 10 - 11 min miles. I ended up running through all of the water sprayers and kept pouring water on my head at every aid station. The final climb up 6th Ave wasn't too bad. Unfortunately my left foot did cramp up when I reached El Prado, so I had to walk it off.
Finish line
I would have to say that this medal was probably the best that I've received at AFC. The design was nice and simple with a good color scheme for the lanyard. After getting the medal, we were given a bunch of drinks and snacks in a paper bag. As I was starting to head out and go back to my hotel, I bumped into my friends near gear check. We talked a bit before I had to excuse myself since I had a WorldMark owner workshop to attend.
Finisher medal
Post race drinks and snacks
Finish area with Lorina
Even though it was one of those rough races. It still wasn't my slowest time in the past 10 times that I've run this race. I guess it helps to set the bar really low back in 2005. :) Now if I can get this tendinitis in the left ankle to go away, I can start working on my endurance and speed again!
2005 - 2:13:52
2006 - 2:07:33
2007 - 2:13:46
2008 - 1:57:46
2009 - 1:57:25
2010 - 1:54:17
2011 - 1:58:11
2012 - 2:11:24
2013 - skipped, ran ET Full Moon Midnight Marathon
2014 - 2:04:25
2015 - skipped, ran Moose's Tooth Marathon
2016 - skipped, ran Moose's Tooth Marathon
2017 - 2:11:13
On the way back to my room, I stopped by the lobby to see if I could change my workshop time to an earlier time. It would be starting soon, so I went upstairs to take a shower and get cleaned up. They got me a ride over to the Wyndam Habour Lights over on 5th Ave just South of Broadway. Now I'm not sure if it's a sneaky way of selling me more credits, but they had driven me to a 50th anniversary party for Wyndham Resorts. I never received such invitation or even knew about it. The invitation included a complimentary Kindle Fire among other freebies. Long story short, I ended up purchasing more credits which got me on the Golden Tree for the next 10 years so I could hold on to the preferred pricing for buying more credits.
When I finally got back to my hotel, I was finally able to meet up with an old friend from college. We tried to find a Starbucks or any coffee shop that was open nearby, but actually most of them were closed. Eventually we ended up at the Starbucks at Horton Plaza. It was good catching up with an old friend.
Since I spent a good bit of money on more vacation credits for the future, I decided to just go cheap and eat dinner at good 'ol McDonald's. The app was giving me problems, so I filled out an online survey with my last receipt to get a buy 1 sandwich, get 1 free deal. It used it to get 2 of my favorites, a quarter pounder with cheese and a Big Mac.
Quarter Pounder with cheese and Big Mac
Monday 8/21
The next day, I woke up super early. Got ready, packed up, checked-out, and headed over to the train station to catch my train back up to Irvine for work. The train left San Diego on time, but it was about 15 minutes late rolling into Irvine. So undependable! I guess that's why they're adding in a third track.
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