In preparation for my trip to Honolulu, I got registered online for a Holo card account and ordered a card so that I could ride the bus to and from the airport without having to carry cash. I received the card in the mail on 12/6. It included a letter telling me that I needed to call in to activate the card. I took care of that and was ready to go.
Thursday 12/9
In hindsight, I don't think it was a good idea to be going to the Disney parks the day before an early flight the next morning. With the Imagine Magic Key, I don't get to select from a list of ideal dates. However, I've committed to going to Disneyland at least once a month. Today, I wanted to check out the Festival of Holidays. They usually showcase some pretty decent food.
I skipped my usual morning walk, since I'll be doing plenty of walking inside the parks. I left the house at about 6:30 am. Along the way, I stopped at the Chick-fil-A in Fullerton to pick up breakfast. I got the usual hash brown scramble bowl, Greek yogurt parfait, and a cup of coffee. I used my reward points to pay for my entire meal. I arrived at the Pixar Pals parking structure at about 7:30 am. After I parked, I ate my food in the car before heading over to the park.
Hash brown scramble bowl
Greek yogurt parfait with granola
Coffee
I miss my Mini Cooper
My reservation for today was for Disney California Adventure. After going on a few rides, I went and bought the Sip & Savor pass for $52 which was good for 8 items. Here were the rides that I went on and the food that I ate for the Festival of Holidays.
- Toy Story Midway Mania!
- Incredicoaster, the ride broke down just as I was up next to board.
- Toy Story Midway Mania!
- Mater's Junkyard Jamboree
- Festival of Holidays
- A Twist on Tradition: Reimagined Beef Brisket Wellington
- Brew & Bites: Impossible Chorizo Queso Fundido
- Winter Sliderland: Beef Pot Roast on Potato Roll
- Holiday Duets: Shrimp and Grits
- Grandma's Recipes: Impossible Arepa Encantada
- Making Spirits Bright: "Hot Cocoa" Marshmallow
- Favorite Things: Chana Masala with Grilled Garlic Naan
- Incredicoaster
Disney California Adventure, Festival of Holidays
Buena Vista St
Captain Marvel
The Eternals: Sersi and Phastos
Toy Story Midway Mania game #1
Toy Story Midway Mania game #2
Sip & Savor pass
Magic Key Holder area
Reimagined Beef Brisket Wellington
Impossible Chorizo Queso Fundido
Beef Pot Roast on Potato Roll with Horseradish Cream
Shrimp and Grits with Andouille Sausage
Impossible Arepa Encantada
"Hot Cocoa" Marshmallow Macaron
Chana Masala with Grilled Garlic Naan
Incredicoaster
I'll see you next month!
I hopped over to Disneyland at exactly 1 pm. They were actually turning away some people who tried to jump the gun by a few minutes! At the entrance they had a sign informing park guests that Disneyland Park will close at 7 pm for their Merriest Nites special event. Here were the rides and attractions that I went on.
- Star Tours
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- Space Mountain
- Disney Visa cardmember exclusive photo experience in the Star Wars Launch Bay area
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Haunted Mansion
Hopped over to Disneyland
Star Tours
These blasters are getting really bad!
Space Mountain
Disney Visa cardmember exclusive photo experience
You'll shoot your eye out!
Sleeping Beauty Castle
Rise of the Resistance
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
First time that I've seen Sally and Jack Skellington greeting guests!
Sleeping Beauty Castle at night
Main St at night
At about 5:30 pm, I hopped back to DCA to finish off my Sip & Savor pass. Here's the list of the remaining food that I ate and the final ride that I went on before calling it a night. Before getting in line at Guardians of the Galaxy for one final ride, I stopped by the table in front of The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Undersea Adventure ride to get my stamp of completion. The girl originally didn't want to give me the stamp until I told her that Treats for Santa wasn't even open.
- Festival of Holidays
- Merry Mashups: Holiday Spiced Wings
- Paradise Garden Grill: House-made Pozole
- Treats for Santa was closed
- Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout!
Holiday Spiced Wings with Citrus Cranberries
House Made Pozole
Goofy!
The Treats for Santa cart was not open
The Millennium Tree
Stamp of Completion
While waiting in line for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride, I got to know Travis, his wife and their 3 young sons from Utah. It took nearly 150 minutes before we got to the front of the line. During that lengthy wait, we were informed several times over the PA system that only 2 of the 6 gantries were operating.
As soon as I got off of the ride, I made a beeline for the park exit. The trams weren't running yet, so I had to hoof it back to my car. I don't mind putting in the extra steps.
In the days leading up to my Hawaiian trip, I had gone on Hawaii's Safe Travels website to apply for a COVID-19 vaccination exemption from having to quarantine upon arrival to the island of Oahu. Before going to bed, I logged on the website and filled out a survey to get a QR code that I would need to show at the airport tomorrow morning.
Friday 12/10
Just before 6 am, I got a ride over to Ontario International Airport to catch a morning Hawaiian Airline flight to Honolulu. After getting through the TSA checkpoint, I decided to get coffee at the Dunkin' before heading over to my gate. A lot of people had the same idea as the line was long. I skipped the line by placing my order on the mobile app. In no time, I got my coffee and headed over to my gate.
Dunkin' at Ontario Airport
Coffee
My plane awaits
While waiting at the gate, I noticed that a bunch of people had started gathering at the window looking at something that was taking place on the tarmac. Unfortunately, a fallen marine was being loaded into a Southwest plane for his or her flight home. :(
Fallen marine on a flight next to mine
At about an hour before the flight, they made an announcement to come up to the table for the distribution of the bracelet to skip mandatory quarantine upon arrival in Hawaii. The lady scanned my QR code and verified my ID before attaching the bracelet around my wrist.
Pre-Clear State of Hawaii Quarantine
Exemption bracelet
During the flight over I watched the movie, Snake Eyes. Although they made the character of Snake Eyes a bit shady, I thought overall it was a decent movie. I liked how Storm Shadow was portrayed in this movie. The theme of the movie was about honor and loyalty.
The plane landed at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport at about 12:30 pm local time. We were let off of the plane at the newly expanded terminal 1. Here's an article about the expansion. The terminal was really nice, big, and modern. After using the restroom, I made my way out of the terminal. Those with the quarantine exemption bracelet were allowed to proceed without any impediment. With everything looking different, it took me a moment to get my bearings straight and find the bus stop. While waiting for the next #20 bus, I noticed that there wasn't a #19 bus anymore. When the bus arrived, I tried to pay with my Holo card, but the driver told me that the system was down and waved me onboard. That was nice that I got to ride for free as I didn't have any small bills or coins on me.
Waiting for the bus
It looked like bus ridership had gone down as it wasn't as crowded as it had been in prior years. I got off of the bus at Ala Moana and Atkinson Dr. From there, I walked over to the Hawaii Convention Center. Before entrance into the convention center was granted, they wanted to verify vaccination status as well as to scan for fever. The packet pick-up this year wasn't in the usual Kamehameha exhibit halls I, II, and III. Since there weren't any outside vendor booths, everything was in a smaller exhibit hall on the 4th floor.
After picking up my bib for the marathon, I went over to the other table to pick up my bib and race shirt for the Merrie Mile. I quickly perused the official race merchandise, but didn't see anything that I needed to buy. Besides that there were some backgrounds that were set up for people to take pictures.
Kalakaua Merrie Mile shirt
Back of Kalakaua Merrie Mile shirt
Sticker
From there, I walked over to the nearby Ramada Plaza by Wyndham Waikiki to check-in. When I arrived, there were a couple of parties ahead of me also waiting to check-in. Once it was my turn, I was assigned room #1615. I used my Wyndham reward points for the entire 4 nights to be free of charge. My room was at the end of the hall. I found it to be much nicer than most of the budget hotels that I've stayed at when I've been in town for the marathon.
Complimentary water bottles
View from my room
After I got settled into my room and put down my bags, I decided to get food at the McDonald's around the corner as I was feeling a bit hungry and wanted something quick. I placed my order on the mobile app and used one of the app deals to get $1 medium fries with the purchase of a McTeri Deluxe. It was my first time having this burger. Apparently, it was a limited menu item. I didn't like it as the sauce was too sweet. While eating my meal, one of my all time favorite movies was on, You've Got Mail!
McTeri Deluxe with medium fries
You've Got Mail!
For dinner, I went back to McDonald's. This time I used a 50% my order deal. I believe it was an anniversary deal. I ordered 2 Quarter Pounders with cheese deluxe and a bowl of saimin. The deal saved me over $9! Not bad! I think this was my first time having saimin from McDonald's!
I'll have that tomorrow!
Quarter Pounder with cheese deluxe x2 and saimin
I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race, took a shower, and called it a night.
Flat runner
Saturday 12/11
I got up early enough to catch the Liverpool v. Aston Villa match that started at 5 am. I watched the first half before heading out for the race. I left the hotel a few minutes before 6 am. I took the jog over to the start line at a leisurely 10 min per mile pace. It felt pretty warm and humid which led me to doubt that I could finish the mile in under 7 minutes.
Liverpool v. Aston Villa
The start line was on Monsarrat Ave near the intersection of Kalakaua Ave. It wasn't nearly as chaotic with the absence of runners from Japan. The green wave start was scheduled for 7 am. While waiting for the start, I ended up chatting with a local runner (Bob Everson) that had positioned himself next to me. We had about the same time goal.
Start line
Wave color start
The runners around me, including Bob, blasted off from the start line, leaving me behind like I was a stick in the mud. Unlike prior years, my legs just didn't have any zip in them. However, I was able to get them to move at a sub 7 min/mile pace. From start to finish, the pace was pretty even. It was pretty cool to hear my friend shout out my name as I was huffing and puffing to maintain my pace. As I approached the turnaround at Ka'iulani Ave, I started picking off runners that went out much faster than me. My friend got a picture of me as I was approaching the final stretch.
Finish: 6:42
Click here for my Garmin data.
I crossed the finish line just a few seconds behind the guy that I was talking to before the race. His time was 6:38. I simply ran out of real estate to catch or pass him. After collecting my finisher medal, I kept on walking until I got my Moon Pie and a Clif Bar.
Medal
Post race snacks
On the way back to my hotel, I bumped into more Marathon Maniacs along the way. We spotted Michael on the course as he was taking it easy. We got a selfie before he went on to finish his race.
Just a bunch of Marathon Maniacs
After getting back to my room and getting cleaned up, I went back down to pick up breakfast at McDonald's. I got the Local Deluxe Platter. With the mobile app deal, I got a medium cup of coffee for free. I always look forward to eating this platter every time I come back to the islands!
Local Deluxe Platter and coffee
My local friend wanted to meet up. Earlier worked better for him and it had been our old custom to go get a bowl of pho or ramen before the marathon, so I met up with him over at Pho One Vietnamese Restaurant for brunch. The waiter verified our vaccination status before seating us at a table. After looking over the menu. I got the three colored sweet bean dessert and won ton egg noodles. It was good catching up with an old running friend over a bowl of noodles.
Three colored sweet bean dessert
Won ton egg noodles
Along the way back to my hotel room, I stopped in at the ABC Superette to buy a couple of 1.5L bottles of water as I'm not accustomed to the heat and high humidity and needed to hydrate for tomorrow's marathon. I then proceeded to veg out in my room. I was mostly entertained by the Star Wars marathon that had been playing most weekends on TNT.
My precious!
Later that evening, I went back to the ABC Store to buy some drinks, including a sports drink for tomorrow's race. I got a 6-pack of Hawaiian Sun Lilikoi Lychee flavor. It was way too sweet for my taste! For some reason, I decided to try Bodyarmor instead of the Powerade that I normally drink for my races. I also picked up dinner at McDonald's. I got 2 Quarter Pounders with cheese with a buy 1, get 1 free deal on the mobile app.
Quarter Pounder with cheese x2
After finishing dinner, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's marathon. Then I took a shower before calling it a night.
Flat runner
Sunday 12/12
I got ready and left the hotel just before 4 am. The walk over to the start wasn't as crowded and hectic as with prior years. I went to the usual public restroom on the southwest end of the Ala Moana Park. However, I didn't find the usual familiar faces there. I did run into the Flying Hawaiian when I walked over to the start line on Queen St. We noticed that only the eastbound lane was open for runners at the start. It was definitely not as crowded and crazy without the full Japanese contingent at this year's race.
Start line
The race started promptly at 5 am. Having run this marathon 10 times as well as being a bit older and wiser, I went into this race wanting to take it easy from the get-go. The heat and the humidity always gives me a headache. I ran the first mile at about a 8:30 min/mile pace which was quite tame for me. Then starting with mile 2, I downshifted to running around a 9:30 min/mile pace. Even with the conservative pacing, I was feeling like I had to labor more than I should for that pace! I was also feeling a bit nauseated as I ran along Kalakaua Ave. I'm guessing that my body wasn't used to drinking Bodyarmor. Going up Diamond Head Rd slowed me down even more. The Flying Hawaiian caught me here before we turned left at Fort Ruger Park. I ran with him for a little bit, but eventually I couldn't keep up with him. It was nice to finally reach 18th Ave for a quick downhill to Kilauea Ave. That took me to almost mile 11 where I made the right turn onto the H-1 Kalaniana'ole Highway. Along the H-1, they had unmanned water stations. There were several water spigots with free flowing water attached to what was dividing the eastbound and westbound foot traffic along the marathon course. Deo caught me as we were approaching mile 15. We leapfrogged each other through the Hawaii Kai loop. Once we got back onto the H-1, he started pulling away.
It's Deo!
Even though it was a bit slow going, I maintained a relatively even pace heading westbound on the H-1. As I finally got off of the H-1 and turned left onto Kealaolu Ave at about mile 22, my legs were starting to cramp up. I knew that I just needed to get back up and over Diamond Head and that last mile should be a nice easy downhill run to the finish line.
Finish line
Finish: 4:53:21
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, I got my finisher medal. However, this year we weren't also given the traditional puka shell necklace. That's quite fine... I'm just glad to be able to run this marathon again! I used the portable showers to wash some of the salt off of my face before exiting into the grassy area of Kapi'olani Park.
Finisher medal side 1
Finisher medal side 2
After getting a small bottle of water, I headed over to the table to get a malasada. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I've gotten used to looking forward to eating one after the race. I then headed over to pick up my hard earned finisher shirt. This year's shirt had a nice and simple design without any weird hyphenation of words. I found a spot to set my stuff down and eat the malasada before making the trek back to my hotel.
Small bottle of water
Malasadas!
Finisher shirt
Back of finisher shirt
After getting back to my hotel, I got cleaned up and vegged out a bit before going back out to get lunch. I decided to get lunch at Jollibee over at Ala Moana Center. Per the usual, there was a long line of people waiting to place their order. I skipped the line and used the mobile app to place my order for a palabok fiesta with 2 pcs Chickenjoy and a peach mango pie. I didn't get the usual pineapple juice as I still needed to finish my Hawaiian Sun drinks back at my room.
Palabok fiesta with 2 pcs Chickenjoy and peach mango pie
Man, I was pretty wiped out by the marathon. I was napping in my room and didn't go back out to get dinner until almost 8:30 pm! I used the mobile app deal to get a Quarter Pounder with cheese at regular price and a Filet-o-fish sandwich for free.
Quarter Pounder with cheese and Filet-o-fish
Monday 12/13
Normally, I would be going home today for most of my marathon trips. However, when I was planning this trip, I wanted to make sure that I use up all of my vacation hours and found that it was significantly cheaper to fly out on Tuesday. Win-win! I watched some news in the morning. They reported on the cyber attack that knocked out the TheBus system. Apparently the FBI was involved with the investigation, so it was pretty serious. Also the weather in Hawaii was so nice all the time. I'm guessing for a meteorologist, places like Hawaii and Southern California has got to be easy work! The weather just doesn't vary much throughout the year!
Great weather
For breakfast, I went back down to the McDonald's to get my Local Deluxe Platter and a free medium coffee. Man, I could eat this every morning... and I have! With my food, they included an insert letting me know about free daily app deals that were starting today with a Big Mac.
So it begins...
Local Deluxe Platter and coffee
I guess I could've gotten the free Big Mac for lunch, but just because I could doesn't mean that I should. Instead I hoofed it over to the McCully Zippy's. It was about a mile away. Although it was a bit warm and sunny, it was nice to stretch out the legs the day after running a marathon. I ordered their loco moco and took it back to my room to enjoy. It made for a nice recovery meal.
Loco moco
At about 4:30 pm, I walked across the street to the Hilton Hawaiian Village to pick up dinner at the Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood restaurant. It appeared to be a little walk-up restaurant tucked in a corner near where Duke's Lagoon Dr turns into Rainbow Dr. I ordered their surf and turf combo to-go and was given a pager to notify me when my food was ready. The combo consisted of sirloin steak and garlic shrimp. It came with some corn. I got it with a scoop of white rice and house green salad. I thought it was a pretty good deal at $20.
Surf and turf
Tuesday 12/14
I didn't sleep very well. I was up at about 4 am local time. I didn't know that their garbage trucks were all yellow. Eventually, I gave up and turned on the TV to watch some early morning news. At about 7 am, I went down to the McDonald's to get the Local Deluxe Platter and free coffee for one last time.
One last Local Deluxe Platter and coffee before hitting the road
After checking out of my room just before 10 am, I went to the bus stop in front of the hotel to catch the #20 bus for a ride over to the airport. As soon as I boarded the bus and showed the driver my Holo card, I was waved onboard. The bus was pretty empty for the entirety of my ride.
Riding the bus to the airport
I arrived at the airport at about 10:45 am. My flight was scheduled to depart at 1:25 pm. With no bags to check, I had plenty of time to sit back and relax after getting through the TSA checkpoint. It was nice hanging out in terminal 1.
Headed home... see you next year!
During the flight home, I finally got to watch Tenet. That was some major mind job of a movie. The movie had lots of action and was quite entertaining, but was very hard to keep track as the story was moving both forward and backwards!
The second movie that I watched was Mortal Kombat. There were 2 other Mortal Kombat movie back in 1995 and 1997. I thought that the origin stories were better in this new reboot, but the rest was pretty much same ol' same ol'. You can only take nostalgia so far. Finish him!
The flight was late getting into Ontario Airport. Thank goodness I was flying into Ontario instead of LAX. It's always much easier getting in and out of this airport compared to LAX. Can't wait for next year to roll around so that I can return to Honolulu for the 50th anniversary of the marathon!
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