I drove into Irvine early in the morning to catch an Amtrak train from Irvine Station down to the Santa Fe Depot in San Diego. It was a relaxing 2 hr ride. It was great not having to deal with the drive. I arrived at about 9 am. From the train station, I hoofed it over to the San Diego Convention Center. I suppose I could've taken the trolley, but I needed to get in my steps for my work's wellness program.
The packet pick-up process was pretty standard and well organized for a Rock n' Roll race. After getting my bib, I picked up my race shirt and a gear bag that had some goodies in it. The shirt design was decent, but the quality of the shirt felt pretty cheap.
Bib pick-up
Race shirt
Expo stuff
I then walked through the official merchandise area. I only stopped to find my name on the participant name banner. Maybe if or when I reach my 20th consecutive year of running this race, I'll consider buying that shirt.
Find your name
Found it
After going through all of the vendor booths, I stopped by the Rock n Roll Series area to sign up for next year's race for $69. The pre-sale included a free t-shirt. I know people complain that Rock n' Roll races are expensive, but that's pretty much the amount that I pay each year for the marathon by registering at the expo.
Register for next year
Shirt for pre-sale registration
On my way out, I checked out the legacy banner with the names of their All Year Runners. I'm not sure why the banner said 2008 - 2019. The first one was back in 1998.
Legacy runners
After leaving the expo, I purchase a day pass on the MTS Compass Cloud app for $5 and hopped on the Green Line trolley at the Gaslamp Quarter Station to go check out the Shakespeare Pub & Grille. I got off at the Washington St Station and walked over. I was informed by the bouncer that the place was packed with no room to accommodate anymore people to watch the Champions League Final. As I was leaving to go check out my back-up location, an overly friendly and probably drunk fellow Spurs fan started talking to me as if I was his best friend. He apologized for assuming that I was Korean. I told him it wasn't a problem to which he replied that he's Salvadoran and doesn't like it when people assume he's Mexican.
Shakespeare Pub & Grille
I hopped back on the Green Line trolley heading in the opposite direction and got off at the Little Italy Station. From there, I walked over to the Princess Pub & Grille. This place was a Liverpool pub and it was a no-go as they had sold tickets to view the match. If you didn't have a ticket, you were not getting in.
Princess Pub & Grille
Event sold out :(
Once again I hopped back on the Green Line and took it over to the Mission Valley Center Station to check out my final spot, Yard House. From the trolley station, I had to cross the street at Camino de la Reina and enter the mall through the entrance next to Nordstrom Rack. To my surprise the place was practically empty! All of the other soccer fans didn't show up until later when the match had already begun. I started things off with an iced tea and ordered my usual meal, a half order of the chicken Cobb salad. I opted for the chicken to be blackened.
Blackened Chicken Cobb Salad
Less than a minute into the match, Moussa Sissoko was called for a handball inside the box when a cross hit him in the armpit. Looks like luck had run out for the Spurs as Salah converts on the penalty kick to give Liverpool the early lead. Liverpool and Spurs from that point on played pretty evenly for the game to remain 1-0 Liverpool through halftime. After I was done with my salad, there was still a lot of soccer left to watch, so I ordered their guacamole and chips. Eventually Origi would score a second goal for Liverpool which made the defeat slightly more palatable instead of losing to just that first goal via penalty kick. I was definitely in the minority as a Spurs fan.
Champions League Final: Liverpool vs. Spurs #COYS
Champions League trophy
Guacamole and chips
I left before the match was over as it was pretty much decided after that second goal with not much time remaining. I walked over to the AMC Mission Valley 20, which was conveniently next door, to catch a movie. I saw the highly touted movie, Booksmart. Sure the movie was crude, but it was pretty dang hilarious. Some parts of it did remind me of high school... many moons ago.
After the movie, I walked back to the Mission Valley Center Station and took the Green Line trolley over to the Fashion Valley Transit Center Station. There I waited for the #120 bus. I took that over to the 4th and Upas stop which was just a couple blocks from the Inn at the Park, my place for the weekend.
During the check-in process, I got my room key before seeing the concierge for a care package. The lady at the concierge desk recognized me from when I stayed at the Balboa Park location. Once again they invited me for an owner update which included a complimentary lunch. I tried to decline, but they insisted and sweetened the deal with a $75 AMEX gift card. I was pretty tired, so I didn't put up much of a fight.
Check-in care package
After getting settled into my room, I took a shower and relaxed a bit before going back out to eat dinner. I decided to eat a bowl of ramen at the nearby Hachi Ramen. I ordered the shiso edamame and the duck ramen before finding a seat at the bar. Their edamame is my favorite. The shiso makes it taste so much better.
Shiso edamame
Duck ramen
Along the way back I stopped by the 7-Eleven to pick up some water. There was a bunch of police activity just outside. I couldn't tell what was going on, but I went straight back to my room as soon as I paid for the water.
I laid out my flat runner before calling it a night.
Flat runner
Sunday 6/2
Since I was staying so close to the start line, it was nice to get some extra sleep. After checking out the start line, I headed over to the gear check trucks. It looked like they went away from using UPS trucks. They had separate trucks for the marathon and half marathon. Unfortunately I walked all the way to the Southern end which would have been my truck if I were running the half marathon. I turned around and eventually found my assigned truck. I mainly checked a bag, so it would be easier to carry the post race snacks and drinks.
Start line
Gear check truck
After dropping off my gear bag, I then headed over to the church steps at the corner of Nutmeg St and 6th Ave for the Marathon Maniacs/Half Fanatics pre-race photo that was scheduled for 5:45 am. After the photo was taken, my friend and I headed into the starting corral. My friend went ahead into the corrals further up. I opted to start in my assigned corral as I didn't know what to expect from ailing right foot. I had to keep in mind that I had 2 more marathons on consecutive weekends following this one.
Corral 4
Start corral
My corral was released in the second wave. I was fortunate to spot my friend, Dexter, during the first mile. I slowed down to run with him for a bit since he's a photographer and always wants to take a selfie with me. I wished him well before heading out at my usual pace. After the discomfort in my right arch from my last race, I made sure not to overdo it. I just wanted to get through the first half in about 2 hrs and cruise to the finish line in preferably under 5 hrs. It was good to bump into my friend at around mile 8 just before reaching the split between the half marathon and full marathon. I've always had good conversations with her even while running.
The second half was quite the struggle. Since I haven't been running very many marathons this year, the endurance was not there. I was dealing with leg cramps for the majority of the second half. My legs did rally for a bit as it felt pretty good running through Mission Valley leading up to the 163. However that long cambered climb up that 163 really zapped whatever was left in my legs. I was barely able to summon up a trot through the finish line. I was glad that I was able to get in just under 5 hrs as planned.
Struggling through Mission Valley nearing mile 20
Finish line
Finish: 4:55:07
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, I got my finisher medal. Further down the finisher chute, I got some snacks and a bunch of various drinks. They were giving out small single serving Pringles! I skipped taking a finisher photo and made my way over to the Waterfront Park to get my gear bag from the trucks. After packing away my stuff to free up my hands, I hung out a bit in the park drinking the Tru-Moo. Before making the walk back to my hotel, I gave away my beer ticket.Relive 'Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon'
Finisher medal
Post race goodies
Along the way back, I stopped by the Quince St Bridge. It was one of several bridges that I've noticed on Google Maps for that area. They had a small collection of books at the Eastern end of the bridge. I wonder what that's about. I'll have to look into the history behind these bridges.
Quince St Bridge
After I got back to my room and got cleaned up, I relaxed a bit before going back downstairs to go attend another owner update. They arranged an Uber ride over to the WorldMark Mission Valley location. I had a pretty good conversation with the driver. She told me all about how drivers can now drive cars owned by Uber instead of putting all of that wear and tear on their own vehicle. However as the trade-off, they were required to made a minimum number of pick-ups each week. The ride over took longer than usual as there was a bunch of road closures due to the marathon.
For some reason, this owner update was a bit different. They had assigned someone to me that appeared to be a newbie. There was no presentation. He was just there to answer questions as well as to see where I was at with my ownership. He noticed on my account that it was flagged as having no response to an invitation that they had mailed out. I vaguely remembered seeing the invitation in the mail. I think it was for some sort of celebration of their new branding and the opening of the new Portland Waterfront property. I also remembered not being interested in attending. Unfortunately they didn't have a complimentary lunch as they had promised. That was also a bit weird. It felt like a bit of a bait and switch. After I was done with that, they gave me a $75 AMEX gift card for my time and ordered an Uber ride back to the Inn at the Park.
When I got back to my hotel, the concierge asked how it went. I told her that they didn't have food for me. She felt bad, so she told me to wait as she had hotel services hook me up with some food. She told me that I could take the food back to my room and bring down the tray when I'm done. She was always very nice to everyone when I saw her over at the Balboa Park location.
Late lunch courtesy of WorldMark
I vegged out in my room for pretty much the rest of the day. Since I ate lunch kind of late, I didn't go back out for dinner until about 8 pm. I'm usually fast asleep by that time! I went back to Hachi Ramen for that late dinner. For this visit, I decided to go with something different. I ordered their tan tan ramen. I'm not sure what to think about it. It was best described as weird and I wouldn't classify it as ramen. If you don't already know, I'm really not into multi-cultural fusion type foods. It just ends up tasting weird. It was weird enough that I most likely will never order it ever again.
Tan tan ramen
Monday 6/3
I woke up super early for the trek over to the train station. Thankfully it was pretty quiet walk, but I did come across a few shady characters along the way. Most were homeless and just trying to get some sleep. I ended up startling one that was doing something around the outside of portapotty. I arrived at the Santa Fe Depot at a little after 3:30 am to catch the 4 am train up to Irvine for work. It was a nice train ride up to Irvine. Man, it felt good not having to make that drive! The train pulled into Irvine at about a quarter till 6.
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