After the usual morning walk around the neighborhood, I hopped in the car and headed south to go pick up my race packet for tomorrow's half marathon. This year, the expo was at the Holiday Inn Carlsbad on Palomar Airport Rd. In all the years that I've run this race, the expo has always been in the north parking lot at The Shoppes just off of the 78 freeway. The drive down took almost 1.5 hours.
Expo here
Follow the signs
In here
Bib pick-up
Shirt pick-up
Long sleeve race shirt
Back of race shirt
Jacket
Employee store pass
After picking up my race packet, I hopped in the car and drove over to the nearby Chick-fil-A on Marron Rd to pick up lunch. I hadn't placed my order on the mobile app yet, so I parked in one of the curbside spots. I placed my order for a cookies & cream milkshake, a Cobb salad with grilled nuggets, and a Greek yogurt parfait. My entire order was free using reward points.
Waiting for my food
Cookies & cream milkshake
After I got my food, I drove over to the nearby Days Inn Carlsbad. It would be my hotel for the evening. I ate my lunch in the car before going inside to see if I could get an early check-in. It was no dice to check-in as I was told that the housekeeping crew have not yet finished cleaning the rooms.
Check-in at 3 pm
Cobb salad with grilled nuggets
Greek yogurt parfait
I drove over to the Carlsbad Village Station to pass some time. I'm usually only ever here for the Carlsbad 5000 race. I walked over to Harumama Noodles & Buns. Even though I had already eaten lunch, I wanted to check out their character buns. With COVID restrictions relaxed, indoor dining was available and it was quite crowded inside. Unfortunately, I can't say that their buns were good. They're okay, but at $7.95 a pair, they're a bit pricey and pretty much only good for entertaining kids or posting a nice cute picture on social media.
Panda and cow steamed buns
After I settled the bill and used their restroom, I started heading back to my car. Along the way back, I decided to get in line and get some homemade ice cream from Handel's. The sign at the beginning of the line said, "there's never a line for bad ice cream." Sure it was a long line, but it was definitely worth the wait. When it was finally my turn at one of the windows, I ordered a single scoop of salty caramel truffle on a regular waffle cone. They were very generous with the ice cream scoop. A single was more like a double at other places!
Waiting in line
Single scoop salty caramel truffle on a regular waffle cone
After I finished my ice cream, I hopped in the car and drove back to the hotel. I got checked-in and was assigned room #306. I got settled into my room and vegged out until it was time to go back out to pick up dinner.
For dinner, I drove over to the nearby McDonald's on Vista Way near Jefferson St and the 78 freeway. Per the usual, I placed my order on the mobile app ahead of time. I used an app deal to get 1 Quarter Pounder with cheese at regular price and a second one for 29 cents. I took them back to my room to enjoy.
Quarter Pounder with cheese x2
While I ate my dinner, I ended up watching an episode of National Geographic where it was about the Italian State Police catching criminals at Rome’s busy Fiumicino Airport. After I was done with my burgers, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's half marathon.
Italian State police catching criminals at Italy's busiest airport, Fiumicino Airport
Flat runner
I took a shower before calling it a night. It's always nice when the shower has good water pressure. As I was trying to sleep, I could totally tell that the springs on the left side of the mattress were busted. They really need to swap these old mattresses out! At least the other 2/3 of the mattress was still decent.
Sunday 1/16
I caught just the beginning on the Liverpool v. Brentford match as I was getting ready to leave for the race. I checked out of my room at about 6:15 am. I arrived at The Shoppes parking lot a few minutes before 6:30 am. I stayed in the car until about 7 am before I got my stuff ready and headed over to use one of the many portapotties near the start line.
Liverpool v. Brentford... a little EPL before heading to the race
The half marathon was scheduled to start at 7:45 am. I positioned myself just behind the 1:45 pacers. I went out with that group for the first 2 miles, but then I had to pull back as I was just coming off of the Dopey Challenge last week. Having run this course many many times, I knew what to expect from the course. I kept the pace and effort about the same throughout until I ran out of gas at around mile 10. The unrelenting gradual inclines in the last few miles just wore me out. Thank goodness that last mile was a downhill mile!
1:45 pacers
Finish line
Finish: 1:54:16
Click here for my Garmin data.
I was happy with my race today, finishing in under 1:55. I still want to continue to work to where I can consistently finish a half marathon in under 1:50 even the week after completing the Dopey Challenge. After collecting my finisher medal, I received a bunch of post race goodies. On the way out of the finisher chute, I got a selfie with a guy that ran as Spider-man. He passed me at around mile 7. I then bumped into my friend as I headed over to the timing tent to check my finishing time.
Finisher medal
Back of finisher medal
Post race goodies
Spider-man passed me around mile 7
Pam!
I used one of the portapotties before going back to my car for the drive home. Along the drive home, I pulled into the Tesla Supercharger station in San Clemente to get enough charge into the car to get me all the way home.
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