I was supposed to meet up with my friend at Broken Yolk Cafe in Costa Mesa for brunch at 11:15 am before heading over to the race expo. However, I ran into a bunch of unexpected traffic on the freeway. I didn't get there until 11:30 am. The parking lot was huge, but it was a zoo. I gave up trying to find a spot nearby and drove over to the Harbor Blvd end where there were plenty of vacant spots. The wait for a table was about 30 minutes. Not too bad. I ordered their New York Steak & Eggs. I got it with my steak cooked medium and the eggs sunny side up. For my sides, I got fresh fruit and sourdough bread. For my drink, I got an iced tea. The drink was served in a huge tumbler. It was big enough that I never had to get a refill. Overall the food was okay. However unfortunately, the steak wasn't very good. If I come back here, I would be ordering something else on the menu.
Iced tea
New York Steak & Eggs with fresh fruit and toast
Since we drove separately, we went our separate ways over to the OC Fair & Event Center for the race expo. I drove over to TeWinkle Park for parking. Whereas, he drove over to City Hall. There's no way that I was going to pay $12 for parking at the fair grounds just to pick up my race packet. On the walk over, I bumped into a familiar face. Brent was on his way out. We just so happened to be wearing the same race shirt.
Brent
Per the usual for this race, I first picked up my bib along with bibs for a couple of my friends. Then I picked up the race shirts. In addition to the shirts, we were given a race program and a sturdy drawstring bag. On the way into the expo, I bumped into my friend, Dennis.
Picked up bibs for my friends
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Drawstring bag
Race program
Dennis!
Inside the expo building, I first had to walk past the line to purchase parking and through the official merchandise area. The only thing that I was remotely interested in were the shorts by ChicknLegs. However, I could always just order stuff off of their website. Next, I picked up my legacy gift which was a nice small duffel bag. My friend called me to see where I was at just as I was looking for my name on the participants name wall.
Legacy duffel bag
Participants name wall
Found my name
We got in line for the In-n-Out booth to spin the wheel for a prize. As we were nearing the front of the line, we bumped into my friend, Andrea. What I wanted was the cap. Since I didn't land on that, but instead got a gift card for a drink, I just gave that to my friend. After going through the rest of the expo, we went our separate ways.
Albert
In-n-Out booth
Andrea!
Expo haul
Sunday 5/4
I normally parked at Fashion Island to avoid having to pay for parking at the OC Fair Grounds. This year, instead of parking near Muldoon's Irish Pub, I opted to park at the Regal Edwards Big Newport parking lot. From there, I walked over to Starbucks. Thankfully, the place opened at 4:30 am. I met up with my friend to give him his race packet. I got my usual grande blonde vanilla latte to drink with my CLIF bar. Our other friend was undecided if he wanted to run this morning as he was suffering from a migraine headache. I ended up giving him our other friend's bib as well since he was planning to drop down to the half marathon after having bumped his knee pretty hard this morning while getting ready in the dark.
Start line area map
Starbucks order status screen
Grande blonde vanilla latte
As it approached 5 am, I headed out to the start line. I dropped off my gear bag before heading into the start corral to wait for the 5:30 start time. I bumped into a couple of familiar faces as I was positioning myself near the back of wave 1. With the fall at the Rose Bowl Half Marathon, I definitely did not want to start the race off too fast. Also while my body had stopped producing so much phlegm, it was still producing a lot of snot.
Race announcers Rudy and Fitz
Start line
Paul
Eric
I started the race off at a conservative pace. There was a little bit of climbing in the first mile, but that was probably the slowest you'll see me run in the opening mile barring an injury. Even as we turned onto MacArthur Blvd for a nice long stretch of downhill during the second mile, I did not run faster than a 9 min mile. The course would then have a bunch of rollers through about mile 5. I was maintaining around a 9:20 - 9:30 pace. That should've been easy, but my heart rate was running a bit high. Just after the 10k mark, we turned onto PCH. After running through the underpass to get onto Dover Dr, there would be the first decent climb. I felt pretty strong covering that climb, but my heart rate also continued to climb. My pace slowed down to about 10 min per mile, but the heart rate still remained at around 150 as there continued to be some steep hills. Once I reached the halfway point at about 2:07, I pulled over for my first of many walk breaks.
With the walk breaks that I was taking, my pace per mile had dropped down to 12 minutes in the next 3 miles as we approached Segerstrom Center and South Coast Plaza. We entered at the roundabout along Avenue of the Arts. They had stationed someone there to warn runners about the high curb. Yet, one of my fellow runners that was just ahead of me, tripped and fell pretty hard. Bro, I know the feeling. Other runners quickly went to check on him, so I continued on. My legs were cramping pretty badly during mile 18 as I made my way past Segerstrom High School. At about mile 20, we hopped onto the Santa Ana River Trail. It started to drizzle a bit. I tried to focus on taking deeper breaths to try and get over the leg cramps. During mile 22, I started to feel better as I approached the aid station at Moon Park after going through the 405 underpass tunnel. The next 2 miles were slow again as there were some decent short climbs. However with about 2 miles to go, thankfully I was able to run each successive mile faster. The cramps subsided just long enough for me to have a decent run to the finish line.
Finish: 4:57:43
Click here for my Garmin data.
I thought that I would be able to finish in about 4:30, but my body just wasn't ready. I was still not 100% recovered from the cold that I had brought home from Japan. Also the fall that I had at last weekend's race didn't help. Sometimes I have to remind myself that just finishing a marathon is a big feat in itself. I did learn that I need to trust my heart rate. If I let it go over 140, I will most definitely cramp up during the second half of the race.
Finish line
After receiving my finisher medal, I continued down the chute. I picked up a bunch of snacks and drinks. Just as I had reached the exit of the chute, I saw Rudy. I grabbed a quick selfie with him before I exited. Since I had not run Carlsbad, I no longer qualified for the Beach Cities Challenge medal and didn't need to head over to pick up an extra medal. I went over to the UPS trucks to pick up my gear bag. I drank the chocolate milk and used a restroom before I started heading over to the amphitheater for a bus ride back to my car.
Finisher medal
Post race goodies
Bumped into Rudy on the way out
Bumped into the Mandalorian
We were dropped off at Santa Barbara Dr. Another runner and I were headed to about the same place and we both decided to cut through the mall. We chatted a bit along the way. It turned out that we had finished the marathon around the same time.
Nice customized Tesla
On the way home, I swung by Pho Super Bowl to get some lunch. Since it had rain a little bit during the race, I was craving a bowl of pho. Per the usual, I ordered their #32 Phở Dặc Biệt. While paying my bill, I chatted with the owner. She told me that business never quite returned after COVID.
Phở Dặc Biệt
I love tripe
I love tendon
Monday 5/5
After putting in a half day of work, I hopped in the car and drove down to Anaheim for a half day at Disneyland. I pulled into the Toy Story Parking Lot at about 1:30 pm. As with my last visit, I parked over at the Bullseye section of the lot.
Toy Story Parking Lot
Disneyland Park
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
- Star Wars Launch Bay
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Recycle droid
Jawa
Finisher medal castle selfie
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters photo
Star Tours
Jawa
Disney VISA Cardmember Exclusive Photo Experience
Darth Vader
Rise of the Resistance selfie
Grogu candy
Disney California Adventure Park
- Disney VISA Cardmember Exclusive Photo Experience, Heroic Encounters. It was my first time meeting someone other than Captain America.
- Toy Story Midway Mania
Star Lord
Toy Story Midway Mania
Tired AF
I was pretty pooped after Toy Story Midway Mania. After stopping by the restroom to wash my hands, it was time to head for the exit. I walked across the street over to Tony Roma's for dinner. Since the iced tea tasted weird last time, I decided to go with ginger ale this time. For my meal, I ordered the sirloin steak. It was actually not bad. For restaurants of similar tier, the steaks here were much better than Outback Steakhouse.
Sourdough dinner rolls and ginger ale
Sirloin steak
Sirloin steak, medium
No comments:
Post a Comment