As a last minute decision, I signed up for this race on Friday, just the day before the race. During registration I was only allowed to select between XL and XXL for my shirt size. Since I don't need yet another race shirt, this shirt will go into the donation pile if my younger brother doesn't want it.
The race was scheduled to start at 8 am with race packet beginning at 6:30 am. Parking was across the street from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library on Mountain View Ave near Friends Church. I arrived just shortly after 6:30 am and that parking lot was already starting to get a bit full. After parking, I walked across to pick up my race packet. After being assigned a bib number, I was given a nice navy tote bag and the race shirt. Included inside the bag was a non-refundable ticket for free admission to the Library & Museum for one day. This worked out perfectly as I had been wanting to visit this Library for a long time. Before heading back to my car, I checked out the vendor booths.
5k parking
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Tote bag
Free admission
As it got closer to about 7:30 am, I headed back over to the starting area. Since there weren't any portapotties outside, a few of us went inside the building to ask if we could use the restroom. The security guard asked us if we were carrying any weapons without searching us or using a medal wand. He probably figured that it was hard to conceal weapons underneath our running clothes. It was nice using their restroom which sure beats using a portapotty. The opening ceremony was scheduled for 7:45 am. The color guards presented the colors and the national anthem was sung. The singer did a really good job, but I was standing too close to one of the speakers. Then US Representative Young Kim came up to say a few words. It was pretty cool to see her again at another event. It would appear that she's very active in making appearances in her district. Good to see her at an event supporting Title IX. Everything was running a few minutes late, so the race didn't start until 8:05 am.
National anthem
US Representative CA District 40, Young Kim
My race almost turned disastrous from the get go! A young girl about up to my waist high, sprinted and darted diagonally across my path nearly taking out my legs. She would only fade to a walk in less than 100 yards later. Oh, I know that all too well. Pony happens. Going out way too fast is never a good strategy. Boy was I woefully out of shape to be racing a 5k! I was hoping to keep each mile under 8 minutes, but I was only able to do so for that first mile. I wasn't able to fight off the urge to take walk breaks near the middle of the race. I knew that I had to since I still had a half marathon to run tomorrow. To make things worse, the course was about .2 miles long which I was not expecting.
Course map
Finish: 27:27
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, I received a finisher medal and a bottle of water. Before heading back to my car, I spun the wheel at the Polly's Pies booth. I won a free 2 pack of cinnamon rolls. I'll have to find time to cash in my coupon. At my car, I dropped off stuff that I didn't need and put on my jacket just in case the air conditioning inside was too strong. I grabbed my Library ticket to go start my tour.
Finisher medal
Post race
Free cinnamon roll 2 pack
I only live about 15 - 20 minutes away and I finally came here this past weekend to visit this Presidential Library. It's one of my life goals to visit all of the Presidential Libraries. I believe there are currently 13 of them.
This was my 4th Library. I probably would've kept pushing it off if they weren't hosting this 5k race. Normally the Library would open at 10 am, but they opened at 9:30 am today. As soon as it was time, I cashed that in that free ticket to start my tour. Although it was the smallest library out of the 4 that I had visited, there was a lot to see. They packed a lot in there! There were volunteer guides stationed throughout the Library to share interesting facts and answer any questions. Sure, most people only know of the Watergate scandal whenever Nixon is mentioned, but he was much more than that! Nixon was known as a peacemaker. He was the first US President to visit China. Besides signing Title IX into law, he helped created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Egypt's Anwar al-Sadat and Israel's Golda Meir
Besides the Library, there's also a beautiful Pat Nixon's Garden to check out. Then there's the house built by his father that was his birthplace. They took small groups inside to tour that house. There were benches nearby for you to sit down and wait for the next group. Nearby, there was a path that led you over to the Marine One helicopter. After checking that out, I headed back inside. Before checking out their special exhibit, I browsed their selection of merchandise in the gift shop. While I'm not as big a fan of The Big Lebowski as my friend, I just had to buy the t-shirt of Nixon bowling!
Birthplace
CA native
Abraham Lincoln
The Andrew Jackson Magnolia Tree
The Endangered Species Act
T-shirt
Panda souvenir
Their current special exhibit was called, Captured: Shot Down in Vietnam. I personally thought that that war was one where the US should've never had gotten involved. I'm sure there are plenty of people that felt the same way. In total, I was there for about 3 hours and I was moving at a fairly decent pace. If you're remotely a history buff, you should definitely visit this place if you haven't already!
Hanoi Hilton
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