Normally, this race takes place on Super Bowl Sunday. However with COVID, nothing has been normal as of late. The race finally was scheduled for 9/11, a Saturday. With the vaccine readily available and COVID cases on the decline, the race was finally a go. I took an extended lunch break to go pick up my race packet. The layout of the expo was relatively the same as with prior years. While getting my bib, I ran into Sally B. Our conversation was brief as we both had to go back to work.
After getting my race shirt, I stopped by the Longboard legacy club booth to pick up my item. This year was another long sleeve shirt. Unfortunately, they gave me a women's medium instead of men's. Normally, I would check, but I didn't notice until I got home. Oh well, to the donation bin it goes. As for expo giveaways, I got a sample can of Super Coffee and a bottle of QURE alkaline water.
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Longboard legacy club
Longboard legacy shirt
Back of Longboard legacy shirt
Expo haul
On the way out and back to my car, I saw the booth where they were taking registrations for next year.
It would appear that they're going to have it on 2/6/22, one week before Super Bowl Sunday. That means, I could run both Surf City and the Mesa Marathon next year. When I had signed up for Mesa back in June, I figured that I would have to skip Surf City in 2022. Even without the date conflict, I held off on signing up for next year's race. I'll give myself until after the race to decide.
Registration for next year
On the way home, I stopped at Zankou Chicken for Yelp Elite Week. The parking lot was tight, crowded and was quite the zoo! It seemed like everyone was in that little plaza for lunch! Fortunately, I was able to find a parking spot. I checked in with the guy at the counter letting him know that I was there for the Yelp Elite Week. Once he located my name on the list, he informed me that they were out of glasses and t-shirt. Bummer! But hey, the important part was their food! I went with their Tri-Tip Shawerma plate, falafels for my side, and the cucumber lemonade for my drink. I also bought 2 additional plates for my family... a Quarter Dark plate and Chicken Tarna plate. I have not had their food in at least a decade! I used to go to their location out in Pasadena near Pasadena City College. It was good to eat their delicious food again! The falafel was very flavorful. The cucumber lemonade was a bit too sweet for my taste. My family was having Zankou for the first time and they were quite impressed with how tasty it was!
Tri tip shawerma plate
Quarter dark plate
Chicken tarna plate
Falafel
Later that evening, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race. Thankfully, I received the new Team RWB 9/11 shirt in time for this race.
Flat runner
Saturday 9/11
I left the house pretty early so that I wouldn't have to park about a mile away from the start. Even though I had arrived pretty early, they weren't allowing left turns off of PCH into the beach parking lot at Beach Blvd. As I drove by, I saw that the back-up on Beach Blvd was just as gnarly as ever, so I just drove over to the next parking entrance over on Newland St. My plan didn't work out as I ended up parking about a mile away... again. That turned out cool, since coincidentally when I had gotten out of my car, I heard someone call out my name. My friend, Willie, was parked just a few cars over! What are the odds?
After I gathered my stuff, I started walking over to the starting area. Along the way, I texted my friends that were running in the marathon to check on their location. I wanted to see them before their race started. Fortunately, I was able to locate them in the corrals.
Deo
Met him at the inaugural Rock n' Rock Seattle Marathon
Marathon Maniacs
Albert
Per the usual, I was planning to use the restroom in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency for a last minute toilet time, but it was pretty busy in there. I went back outside to use one of the portapotties. As I was getting there, I had to stop as they were singing the nation anthem for the start of the 5k at 7 am.
After I was done taking care of my pre-race business, I texted my friend Patti to see where she wanted to meet. Turned out that I didn't need to since she showed up to the same spot. Shortly, Mike also showed up. As the 7:45 am start of the half marathon approached, we made our way into the starting corral.
Mike and Patti
Starting corral
While waiting for the start, the shirt on the guy in front of me caught my eye. It had a lot of f-bombs, but it's still an encouraging message nonetheless. Here's what it read:
Fuck excuses. Fuck complaining. Fuck naysayers. Fuck negativity. Fuck impossible. Fuck "I can't." Fuck "it hurts." Fuck roadblocks. Fuck anything and everything that is trying to stop you. Never fucking quit.
Nice shirt
Start line
I thought that I started the race with a decent pace for the first 5k. It was a very gentle climb until that right turn onto Garfield Ave where it would be the only significant climb of the race. I decided to walk most of that climb. I resumed running as I approached the left turn onto Edwards St. Shortly after that turn was the mile 4 marker. I decided to take another walk break as I felt like I was a bit overheating. The climbing was mostly over once I made the left turn onto Overlook Dr. While I did enjoy running down Seapoint St, I noticed that I was starting to struggle even though it was a downhill stretch. With the right turn onto PCH, I was approaching mile marker 6. This roughly 4 mile out-and-back stretch on PCH is always enjoyable for me as I get to see my friends that are both ahead and behind me. I bumped into a couple of my friends that were pacing the 5:20 marathon group. It was also around here where I started having GI issues. The anus was feeling a bit on fire, so I would guess that it was from some of the peppers that I had eaten yesterday. Whenever I tried to run a decent pace, the urge would return. I ended up having to take a bunch of unscheduled walk breaks just so I wouldn't run the chance of soiling myself. Thankfully, I was able to run the entirety of that final mile.
Finish line
Finish: 2:12:53
Click here for my Garmin data.
After getting my medal, I continued on through the finish chute where I got a banana and a bottle of QURE water. Then on the way out, I got a TruMoo chocolate milk and a small towel. I also stopped by the booth to register for next year's race before heading over to the Hyatt Regency to get cleaned up a little before my drive home. Once again, I registered for the half marathon with a 10% Longboard legacy club discount. I just don't have the urge anymore to run the marathon at this event.
Finisher medal
Post race goodies and towel
Along the way home, I swung by the Chick-fil-A in Brea to get a frosted lemonade... my favorite post race treat!
Frosted lemonade
No comments:
Post a Comment