I left the house at about 7 am to go catch a morning Amtrak train ride from the Fullerton Station down to San Diego. The train was almost 10 minutes late rolling into the station, but I still arrived at the Santa Fe Depot at about the original scheduled time. From the train station, I walked over to the San Diego Convention Center to pick up my race packet. I walked past the Kansas City Barbeque restaurant along the way there. It's been coming up a lot with the recent release of the new Top Gun movie.
I liked that they pretty much arranged the expo so that foot traffic would flow in one direction. I'm sure that ongoing issues with COVID was a factor in that design. After picking up my race bib and shirt, I headed into the official merchandise area. After visiting the vendor booths, I received a sample bottle of Electrolit, a One protein bar, and a box of Lypo-Spheric vitamin C. I signed up for next year's marathon for $79 (plus $14.99 for processing fees) and got the usual free cotton t-shirt.
Pick up bib
Race shirt
Participants name shirt
Free t-shirt
Expo giveaway
After exiting the convention center, I crossed the street to wait for a green line trolley at the Convention Center Station. I took that over to the Santa Fe Depot to wait for a blue line trolley that would take me north up towards UTC. It's nice that they had finally finished this section of the blue line. I got off at the Nobel Drive Station to visit the La Jolla Village Square. I had not been in this area since the early 2000's when I last visited a few of my younger friends that were attending UCSD. The place had changed quite a bit since I was doing my undergraduate studies at UCSD. It was nice to be able to revisit some old familiar sites. Now whenever I'm staying in downtown San Diego without a car, I can take the trolley to visit other places in the La Jolla area instead of just Mission Valley or National City.
Convention Center Station
I decided on catching the 12:30 pm matinee showing of Top Gun: Maverick. However, before that I wanted to eat a quick lunch at Chipotle. I placed my order on the app and then went inside to wait for my food. Even though there were signs directing customers to pick up mobile orders at the shelf, apparently I needed to ask an employee at the counter for my food. I'm going to guess that they've had people stealing other people's orders from the shelf. After getting my food, I found an open table to eat my food.
Pollo asado bowl
I purchased my movie ticket on the AMC mobile app and after I finished my meal, I walked over to the AMC La Jolla 12 which was at the southern end of the building and one floor down. In addition to the ticket, I also ordered a regular sized bag of popcorn with my reward points. I thought that I should use them before they expired. I finished the popcorn before the previews were over!
I thought that the movie was pretty exciting and entertaining to watch, but the story was so basic, predictable, and incredibly cheesy. Even with the newer planes, newer technology, and new faces, it really wasn't better than the original film. It didn't add much to the story, but did show that Tom Cruise aged really well, much better than Val Kilmer. It was done better than that new Matrix movie.
Before heading back to the Nobel Drive Station to catch the trolley back to downtown San Diego, I stopped in at the Starbucks to get a drink. I'm not sure if I've gotten hooked on caffeine or getting rewards points on the mobile app. I wasn't much of a coffee drinker until I installed the app on my phone.
Starbucks
Grande salted caramel cream cold brew
The trolley station was on the 4th floor of the parking structure. It goes without saying that it was much easier going down than up. I hopped on the blue line for a ride down to the City College Station in Downtown San Diego. This UC San Diego blue line would've been super convenient back when I was going to school at UCSD!
From there I walked a couple of blocks north to check in at my timeshare property, Worldmark San Diego Balboa Park. I was assigned unit #215. I was given a welcome bag full of candy, junk food, and a couple of small bottles of water. In a moment of weakness, the concierge got me to commit to attending an owner update in exchange for a $100 gift card. I had him schedule me for the latest time slot just in case I had a really bad race. One of the first things that I noticed when I was settling into my room was that the toilet tank wasn't refilling after each flush. It would only refill if I took the lid off and then engaged the lever.
Check-in care package full of junk food
Claws out!
Pound it!
For dinner, I went across the street to McDonald's to pick up my usual pre-race dinner. I used the "buy 1, get 1 free" mobile app deal to get 2 Quarter pounders with cheese. I also ordered a hamburger Happy Meal because I wanted one of those Walt Disney World 50th anniversary toys.
Dinner
I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's marathon. I felt a bit overdressed, but it really didn't matter since both of my Achilles were still giving me problems. Also I didn't want the sun to burn my shoulders. I took a shower before calling it a night. Man, the shower had good water pressure. They might have fixed the plumbing or something because I remembered this property having weak water pressure.
Flat runner
Sunday 6/5
As I was up to take a piss before I started getting ready for the race, I decided to just fix the toilet tank. I shortened the chain a bit and that did the job. The tank then started to refill after each flush. I left my room a few minutes before 5 am. Man, that walk up to the start line seemed to get farther each year! I barely made it to the Inn at the Park when I was having my second bowel movement. Thankfully, that single toilet stall wasn't occupied in that basement restroom! It doesn't seem to be a best kept secret anymore as there was a guy waiting to use it shortly after I had just sat down! After I was done, I went upstairs and waited for my friends in the room just adjacent to the lobby.
Start line
After I met up with my friends and we were done using the restroom at the timeshare, we headed towards the starting line corrals. We grabbed a quick picture before going our separate ways. Us, runners, all have different pre-race routines. They wanted to get in line for the portapotties one last time. I'm good as long as I pee about 30 - 45 minutes before the start of the race.
Starting corral
The race started at 6:15 am. Per the recent norm with Rock n Roll races, they were letting one row of runners cross the start line for each green light. It moved fairly quickly. I crossed the start line a few minutes later. I was moving at a decent pace from the get-go, but the Achilles was tight and burning. I probably should've jogged a bit to warm up prior to the race. My friend caught up to me. I told her that I would try and catch up to her once my Achilles had warmed up a bit. Shortly after making the right turn onto University Ave, we caught up to our friends, Karen and Dan. They had just recently recovered from a bout of COVID, so they were taking it nice and slow. I was tempted to join them, but my friend beckoned me to keep running with her. Eventually, the pace was just too much for me, so I bailed out to the side of the road and took a walk break just after reaching mile 2. I eventually settled on about a 10 minute per mile pace. Prior to reaching the half marathon split, I was overtaken by my friend that regularly paces the marathon at Orange County and Long Beach. He was struggling a bit today since he had recently been injured from a fall. He was still doing better than me! Shortly after reaching mile 8 and making a right turn onto University Ave, the half marathon runners broke off to head towards the finish line. The course became quite empty as the marathoners headed west towards the halfway point in Old Town Park.
We ran into Karen and Dan
Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone at about mile 4.5
Chris at about mile 5.7
Fast Eddie caught me
Ron Burgundy at about mile 6.25
Half marathon split
I reached the halfway point in about 2:17. I was hoping to maintain that pace as I headed down to the San Diego River Bikeway. I ran a little bit with a lady in a pink Marathon Maniac jersey. From what she told me, she used to be a much faster runner. Unfortunately for me, I started really struggling during mile 15. My friend caught me at around mile 17 as we were heading east along Sea World Dr. At about mile 19.35, I made a left turn onto Friars Rd. This section has always been rough for me as it's pretty exposed to the sun. Most of the runners moved as close as they could to the golf course to catch some shade instead of running the tangent. I caught my friend at about mile 21.5 as we were taking the loop onto the dreaded 163 freeway. We walked, jogged, and chatted for a bit. Once we reached mile 22.5, I couldn't keep up with him during that 1 mile stretch of climbing. Once I had reached the top, I was hoping to take advantage of the downhill into the downtown area. Unfortunately, the legs were beginning to cramp up. Shortly after turning right at B St, there was a coach that I've seen at many races reminding runners to relax their shoulders. I tried my best to recover a bit for the short climb up 5th Ave. After making the last turn onto Ash St, I finally reached the mile 26 marker with 6 short blocks to the finish line.
Luis caught me at around mile 17
The 163
Finish line
Finish: 5:18:10
Click here for my Garmin data.
After collecting my finisher medal, I continued down the finisher chute. After I got some drinks, I received a cold towel from Miss Poway. I also got some snacks before heading for the exit. Before heading back to my timeshare unit, I looked for someone to give my beer ticket. On the way back, I walked along the course route, cheering on my fellow runners. I even came across a guy dressed up as SpongeBob SquarePants!
Finisher medal
Miss Poway and her 2nd princess was handing out cold wet towels
Post race snacks and drinks
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Back in my room, I lounged around for a bit, watching Star Wars Episode 2. I'm guessing that they had the Star Wars Prequels running due to the Obi-wan Kenobi series having just recently started. I eventually took a shower. I went across the street to pick up a large iced coffee before waiting for my Uber ride over to the Mission Valley property for my owner update. It turned out that my ride was about 10 minutes late. At least it was a nice Tesla. Per the usual, I struck up a conversation with the driver. I asked if he was stuck in any of the downtown traffic due to the marathon street closures. He said that he was delayed with the completion of the last rider not related to any road closures. We got to talking about Tesla vehicles and it turned out that he runs a car rental service that only rents out Teslas.
Large iced coffee for $1
Waiting for my Uber ride in the lobby
Per the usual, after a quick overview of my ownership with an employee that was assigned to me, it then shifted into a double team effort in getting me to purchase more credits. They tried really hard with making me feel stupid if I didn't purchase those credits right there and then. Their most recent tactic has been trying to get me to purchase more credits and then use my new available credits to pay for everything including the maintenance fees via Owner Rental Program by Extra Holidays. They must really think that I'm stupid because the company is never obligated to have anything available for me to sell back to them. It's all great if it works, but that program was completely shut down when COVID put a kibosh to everyone's travel plans. All of the financial burden and risk is on my side. They were pretty darn friendly at first, but man, were they cold once they realized that I was not going to buy. I'll be sure to note that in the survey that they always send me at the end of my trip. I used the restroom before going back to the front desk to get an Uber ride back.
Once again the car that picked me up was another Tesla. I guess that makes sense with the price of gas being so high these days! I had a brief conversation with this driver as well. I asked him the same question as I did with the other driver. He had just started driving for the day so he was not caught up in any of the marathon street closures. It would turn out that he was a former track runner back before he settled down and had a kid. He told me that his boy was now his form of exercise. :)
After getting back to my room, I resumed watching the Star Wars Prequels with Episode 3. Once again for dinner, I went across the street to get some food from McDonald's. I used the same "buy 1, get 1 free" mobile app deal to get 2 Quarter pounders with cheese. Later that evening, I watched some WWE Hell in a Cell on the Peacock app. However, I must have dozed off as when I woke up, all of the lights were still on.
Dinner
Monday 6/6
I woke up around 5 am and turned on the TV for some morning news. I took my time getting ready as I had planned to check out at around 9 am to go catch my train ride back home. It was much nicer walking to the train station at this time of the day than at around 3 am to catch a 4 am train! I still had time when I arrived at the Santa Fe Depot, so I stopped in at the Starbucks across the station to get some breakfast. On the mobile app, I ordered a grande salted caramel cream cold brew and a bacon, gouda & egg sandwich.
Breakfast
Bacon, gouda and egg sandwich
After I was done with my breakfast, I used the restroom at the train station before getting in line to wait for the boarding call for my train. The train left the station on time and rolled into the Fullerton Station right on time as well.
Santa Fe Depot
UC San Diego blue line trolley running alongside the Amtrak
Ocean view
Fisherman's Restaurant and Bar in San Clemente
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