I arrived at the Renaissance LAX Airport Hotel right about 5 am. I pulled a parking ticket and entered the garage. It was packed pretty full with cars until I reached the roof on the 4th floor where there were plenty of spaces. I found an empty space near the elevator. I took the elevator down to the lobby floor and went outside to catch a shuttle ride over to LAX. My flight was out of terminal 4.
Parked at Renaissance Hotel
After getting through the TSA security screening, I was planning to get breakfast at the Dunkin' right next to my gate, but the mobile app informed me that they were not taking any mobile orders. Oh well, I'll eat when I get into DC.
Dunkin' next to gate
During the flight, I watched Memory starring Liam Neeson. He's really good at those roles where he is an unstoppable killer or assassin. In this one, he was beginning to develop Alzheimer's disease. It was quite entertaining.
Cranberry
Ginger ale
I landed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at about 4 pm. It's one of my favorite airports because it's connected to the Metro rail system. Unfortunately, all of the stations south of the airport were out of commission. They were in the middle of construction for the new Potomac Yard station. They had free shuttles running to take us to those stations. While they were free, it took over twice as long to get where I needed to go.
After getting dropped off at the King Street station, I walked over to the Wyndham Old Town Alexandria timeshare property to get checked into my room. The lady at the front desk at first seemed confused with my booking and mentioned something about me owing $500+? I told her that I had booked the stay with my Wyndham Reward points. Eventually, she figured it out and gave me key cards for room #212. Before heading up to my room, I had to stop by the concierge table to pick up some info material and was "invited" to an owner update. She really didn't give me a choice and I was too tired to put up any resistance. It would be for 8:30 am tomorrow and I was promised a $100 AMEX gift card for my time. She had asked what brought me in town. I said that I was running in the Marine Corps Marathon. To which she assumed that I was a marine. Again, I was a bit too tired to correct her.
I was feeling pretty worn out after checking into my room, so I decided to eat dinner at the diner next door. It was called, Bob and Edith's Diner. I got their ribeye steak and eggs with grits. I also got a cup of coffee. It was pretty dang pricey, but I guess that's to be expected with the out of control inflation! I would later find out that they were participating in the American Airlines AAdvantage Dining program. I earned some mileage for my meal. After getting back to my room. I took and shower and caught game one of the World Series. It would end up going into the 10th inning with the Phillies winning 6-5.
Ribeye steak and eggs, coffee
World Series Game 1 PHI vs. HOU
Saturday 10/29
The owner update was an interesting one. It might have been the first time where the majority of the attendees were Wyndham owners instead of WorldMark owners. They took us over to the building across the way from the lobby entrance. The place looked to be under construction. They had us hop on the elevator which took us up to the sales or presentation floor. I got some hot water for tea as we waited for our assigned representative to come get us. The guy that came to get me first called me, Emily. Then he made a strange comment about liking my glasses. Uh, nice try, but they're a little known el cheapo brand. Not sure what happened, but once we went through the introductions and videos were shown, I was reassigned to someone else. The new guy was more of a generalist for those that weren't the typical Wyndham owner. These salespeople are such conniving people! Eventually, they had me speak to the head sales manager where he was attempting to sell me Wyndham points as he stated that I had plenty of WorldMark credits. I resisted, but he reassured me that I would not lose my "protected" credit price by him showing me an offer of Wyndham points. All of them using such untruthful tactics just to close the deal. It's so very slimy and off-putting!
I finally left for the race expo at about 10 am. I took the shuttle over to the airport where I hopped on the blue line to head for the Stadium-Armory Metro station. While connecting to the shuttle WiFi, I noticed some funny ones. Prior to the trip, I had purchased a 3 day unlimited pass. I also downloaded the Metro SmarTrip app to convert my card into a digital card so I could just scan it via my Google Pay Wallet to pay for my ride on the Metro rail.
Nice WiFi names
Bus service alternative to Metro rail
I probably should've sucked it up and picked up my race packet yesterday evening. I arrived at Stadium-Armory Metro station at just after 11 am thinking that I would've avoided the early rush. Such was not the case. The line to get inside the Armory was insanely long! The line snaked back and forth a couple of times as soon as I got outside of the Metro station. It took roughly an hour for me to get to the front of the line. Once inside, everyone was checked for metal objects and bags were searched before we were allowed entrance.
Stadium-Armory station
DC Armory
Almost to the entrance
DC Armory entry point conduct & information
After getting my QR code scanned and receiving my bib, I headed over to the table to get my long sleeve race shirt. It was the Marathon Maniacs original colors: gold, red, and black. The lady giving me my shirt saw my Spurs hat and said, "Tottenham, eh?" I thought maybe she was yet another Arsenal fan, but she told me that she was a Liverpool fan. We commiserated a bit with the current state of our teams. My Spurs barely beat the Cherries. Her Liverpool team just recently lost to last place Forest after managing to beat City. Later today, they would go on to lose to Leeds, another team practically destined for relegation at the end of this season. Oh, such is the beauty of the game of football aka soccer.
Bib pick-up
Long sleeve race shirt
Back of shirt
Patch
I then went through the section with the official merchandise. I liked the jacket and a grey t-shirt, but I refrained from purchasing either one. While they looked nice, I just don't have any more storage room back home! I visited all of the vendor booths, but didn't bother getting in line for anything. I did get a sample bag of LesserEvil popcorn before finding the exit.
Expo giveaway
Frank Shorter
After getting outside, I waded through the long ass line to get back to the Metro station. From there, I took the Metro over to Pentagon City to get lunch at Chick-fil-A. They finished building the station entrance/exit, so the escalator took me right up to Chick-fil-A. I tried to use my rewards on the app, but for some reason it wouldn't work. To make things worse, not only did the app charge me for my food, it also burned through my reward! I contacted support via the app to try and get that resolved. Normally, I would just let it slide, but a salad reward is 1800 points. At the Signature level, that's about $139 worth of Chick-fil-A food that I had to eat to earn those points!
Cobb salad with grilled nuggets and medium Sunjoy
After finishing my lunch, I went to the CVS next door to buy some water and a bottle of Gatorade for tomorrow's marathon before heading back to my timeshare. I used one of the self-checkout kiosks to pay for my drinks.
Drinks
Shortly after 4 pm, I started heading out to meet up with my friends for dinner over in Crystal City. Now if the Metro were running, that would've been plenty of time. In hindsight, I probably should've waited for the shuttle that would take me directly to the Crystal City station. Instead, I hopped on the first shuttle which took me over to the airport. Then from there I took the Metro over to Crystal City. I then walked down to the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel. My friends had made a 5 pm reservation at the SOCCi Italian restaurant inside that hotel. I got to preview the little out and back portion that we would be running through tomorrow. There was a ton of construction so I had to zig-zag my way down the sidewalk on each side of the road. I arrived about 10 minutes late.
Bus Service
Blue line service only at DCA
After looking over the menu, I decided on ordering a small house salad and their sausage pizza. Both items tasted good, but were pretty dang salty. The pizza was okay, but boy was it paper thin! It wasn't even strong enough to hold the ground sausage. I got to meet a few people that were fellow Disney fanatics. One thing that detracted from the dining experience was that the ceiling lights kept changing between red, white, and blue. For some reason, that was bothering all of us.
Small house salad
Sausage pizza
After getting back to my room, I laid out my flat runner, took a shower, and put on the Astros vs. Phillies World Series game 2. I was pretty tired and was fading near the late innings. The Phillies were unable to get their offense going and ended up losing 5-2 to even up the series.
Flat runner
Sunday 10/30
I got ready and walked over to the King St station to catch a shuttle to the start of the race. It was a pretty chilly morning, but I had gloves, arm sleeves, and a mylar blanket. I got on the first shuttle that showed up at about 5 am. It dropped me and a few other runners off at Crystal City station. From there I took the subway up to Pentagon City. Since it was still early, I decided to wait inside the station before going outside.
After waiting for a bit, I finally sucked it up and headed up the escalator to go outside. Once I got outside, I wrapped myself in the mylar blanket and started walking north along S Hayes St. I then turned right at Army Navy Dr. Bag inspection was just east of the intersection of Army Navy Dr and Fern St. Per the usual after that, all of the participants continued to walk onto the 110 Richmond Highway and head towards the start line. I stopped at the second cache of portapotties to take care of the usual morning business. After that, I met up with my friends at the UPS gear check trucks.
Marathon Maniacs pacers
4:45 pacers
Group of runners waiting in the corral
Nearing mile 5 on Wisconsin Ave NW
Nearing mile 9 at Q St NW Bridge
Gandalf! They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!
Start of the blue mile
Halfway
Mile 20 for those running the 50k
Around mile 17 at Washington Monument
US Capitol
Nearing mile 19 at US Capitol
Nearing mile 20 on Jefferson Dr SW passing the Smithsonian Castle
Yes, it is!
Beat the bridge!
Trying to run that last mile along the Richmond Highway
That final climb up to the finish line
Finish: 5:27:41
Click here for my Garmin data.
It was another rough marathon for me, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I started with the 4:45 group, but I'm still not in shape to keep up with them. I kept all of my miles under 10 minutes, but even that was beyond my current level of fitness. I got to share a bunch of miles with my friend who totally blew by me in the final miles.
Crossed the finish line
After crossing the finish line, I received a bottle of water and continued down the finisher chute. I received my coveted finisher medal and was saluted by a marine. I then got in line to get a photo in front of the Marine Corps War Memorial.
Finisher medal
Finished
Marine Corps War Memorial
After that I started making my way out of the finisher area. Along the way, I picked up post race goodies and a throwaway jacket. That jacket always comes in handy at a future race where you're having to wait in less than ideal weather.
Post race goodies
Contents of box
Throwaway jacket
I met up with my friends at the exit of the fenced runners-only secured zone. They were sitting at the curb along Meade St waiting for my slow butt to show up. We then headed down Lynn St towards the UPS trucks to get their gear bags. We then made our way over to the Rosslyn Metro station to catch a ride. It was pretty packed inside, but not as crowded as some other years pre-pandemic. We all got off at Crystal City where my friends walked back to their hotel and I waited for my shuttle back to King St.
Found my friends waiting for me
After getting showered and cleaned up, I rested for a bit. Not too long later, I headed back out to meet up with my friends for dinner. My friends had made a dinner reservation over at the Founding Farmers restaurant near the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro station. I got on the shuttle that took me over to Crystal City where I just so happened to bump into my friends as they were waiting to catch a blue line train. The restaurant seemed like a pretty happening place! There were plenty of fellow marathon finishers. After being seated and having the chance to look over the menu, I got an Arnold Palmer and their 10 oz herb-encrusted prime rib with cauliflower rice & peas and green beans. Three of us got the prime rib, however they all came out pretty overcooked. We ordered them between medium rare and medium, but they came out medium-well at best. It was also seared on the outside which I've never seen before for prime rib unless it's being cooked well done. I didn't really care as I was pretty hungry. I could tell that my friends weren't too happy, but at the same time, we all didn't want to send the food back.
Arnold Palmer
Breads, chips, crisps
Herb-crusted prime rib with cauliflower rice & peas and green beans
After settling the bill, we walked back to the Foggy Bottom Metro station to head back to Crystal City. Once we got there, we went our separate ways. I went to go wait at the pick-up spot for the shuttle back to King St. We all had relatively early flights to catch tomorrow.
Monday 10/31
I ate my orange and banana for breakfast. I washed it down with the bottle of Gatorade. I then got my stuff ready and checked out pretty early. I made one last walk over to the King St station to catch a shuttle over to DCA for my morning flight home. After getting through TSA security check, I stopped at the Starbucks in the National Hall across the D gates to get breakfast. I got a bacon, gouda & egg sandwich with my usual salted caramel cream cold brew.
Starbucks in the National Hall
My usual salted caramel cream cold brew
On the flight home, I caught some of the First Take with Stephen A. Smith, but that pompous obnoxious guy was not on the show as he was out due to COVID. Michael Irvin wasn't easy to stomach as well, so eventually, I opted for a nap instead.
Cranberry
Tomato juice
After landing at LAX at about 11 am, I went to wait for a shuttle back to the Renaissance Hotel to get my car. I showed the guy at the valet booth my proof of prepaid parking to get my parking ticket validated. I then took the elevator up to the 4th floor where I bumped into a long line of people waiting to get a rental car.
No comments:
Post a Comment