Missoula Marathon 2014

Saturday 7/12
I took a morning direct Delta flight out of LAX  to the MSO Johnson-Bell Field airport in Missoula, Montana. It was pretty stinking hot when I landed and went outside to wait for my ride to the car rental office. I reserved a car with Thrifty and their office was a short ride from the airport. I had to call on the courtesy phone for them to come pick me up. After filling out the usual paperwork, I got a nice silver Nissan Sentra and was ready to roll. Per the rental agreement, the first 150 miles were included and anything over would be charged at 18 cents a mile. I normally would've taken the bus, but I goofed on booking a place to stay for the weekend. So I ended up in a fleabag motel in the next town over which required that I have a car. Anyways it was off to the expo I go at Caras Park. I had no luck finding a spot in the parking lot next to the park, so I drove over a couple of blocks and found street parking on N Pattee St between E Main St and E Front St. Fortunately meter parking was free on weekends.

I walked over to the expo, picked up my race packet, and ran into the usual suspects near the Marathon Manics booth. I keep bumping into the same Marathon Maniacs at all of these out of state marathons. They didn't have lunch plans but told me that they would text me about dinner. Since I was pretty hungry, I decided to just walk up N Higgins Ave to The Iron Horse Brew Pub.

I found a seat the bar and started with a Big Sky IPA. With the warm weather, this beer really hit the spot. For food I ordered their Iron Horse Burger. It was actually a pretty disappointing burger. The patty was just too plain and tasteless. Oh well, at least they had good beer. I had a Big Sky Moose Drool to help finish off the burger.

Big Sky IPA

Iron Horse Burger

Big Sky Moose Drool

I then walked over to my car and started driving over to my motel, Redwood Lodge, in a small city called Wye. Along the way I stopped by a Safeway to buy water, Powerade, coconut water, and a banana. The motel was pretty easy to find. The lady at the front desk was pretty nice. Unfortunately that was pretty much the only good thing about this place. All they had left when I booked was a smoking room. Beggars can't be choosers, right? The room smelled like an ashtray. I haven't smelled a room this bad since back in the days when Vegas pretty much had nothing but smoking rooms. It was next to a truck stop and Fred's Lounge, where there was exotic dancers and gambling.

I relaxed a bit going through the expo stuff and watching some TV before going back out to meet up with my friends for dinner at an Italian restaurant called Ciao Mambo. Nearby parking was somewhat hard to find. I had to drive a few blocks to find some street parking. I'm thinking the lack of parking was because they had a weekend block party in that area. The place was packed! Thank goodness my friend had made a reservation and we didn't have to wait too long to be seated. I ordered the small version of their Santo Pietro pizza with shrimp. I had a couple glasses of the Shooting Star Syrah to go with the pizza. The pizza was a bit on the salty side but all in all the food was great and the service was excellent! There was a good number of us and they were able to split the check for everybody. We took a picture before going our separate ways.

Shooting Star Syrah

Small sized Santo Pietro pizza with shrimp

Pre-race MM dinner photo from Michael Hammonds

After getting back to my room, it was time to lay out my race gear, GU, and handheld bottle before hitting the hay.

Race gear

Sunday 7/13
I got ready very early in the morning and drove over to the Adams Center parking lot at the University of Montana. A line of cars backed up to S Madison St just at the crossing of the Clark Fork River, but it was steadily moving along. Once I got to the parking lot, it was pretty easy to find a parking spot. I bumped into a fellow Marathon Maniac while walking over to the bus pick up spot, so we rode on the same bus over to the starting line.

At the starting area, it would appear that there was quite a turnout for the Marathon Maniacs. I got in line for the portapotties to take care of the last minute tinkle. Most of us gathered near the starting line and took a group photo before lining up in the corral.

Pre-race MM photo from Stephanie Puckett

Happy early in the race

The weather was going to be hot, so I decided that I would bank some faster miles in the beginning. The legs felt pretty fresh during the first 5k. I got the chance to run a little bit with a fellow Marathon Maniac who is such a speedster. It was only her "slow" pace. As planned, I slowed down the pace once I reached the 5k mark and wished my friend a great race. I got through 10k still feeling good, but then I started having GI issues between miles 7 and 8. It felt a little bit better once I slowed down, but I felt like I was going to crap my pants. So eventually when I saw the portapotties near the mile 12 marker, I had to pull over. Thank goodness one was not occupied. Then came a nice climb. It was pretty much the only significant climb of the race. I decided to just walk the steeper section because my tummy was still not feeling too good. As advertised, we were treated to some nice views to our left. Once we've reached the more residential area, the weather really heated up and I was just running from one sprinkler to another. Thank you Missoula residents for cooling us down! Unfortunately my legs eventually cramped up pretty good and I had to walk a good majority of the next several miles. I was fortunate enough to get the legs loosened up enough to make the run up Higgins Ave to the finish line.
1: 7:49
2: 8:01
3: 8:02
4: 8:20
5: 8:24
6: 8:24
7: 8:43
8: 9:27
9: 9:12
10: 9:14
11: 9:23
12: 11:45
13: 9:29
14: 12:00
15: 10:30
16: 10:36
17: 11:30
18: 11:47
19: 12:42
20: 12:52
21: 13:09
22: 13:28
23: 12:46
24: 13:35
25: 14:10
26: 14:01
26.2: 1:24
Finish: 4:40:42

After grabbing my medal, I bumped into a fellow Marathon Maniac that I had just met yesterday at dinner. It was fun to chat a bit about our difficult races while we waited for friends to finish. After I saw my good friend finish, she went to go get a massage. We picked up some Popsicles and then headed over to Caras Park to get our free beers. The weather may have been hot for a marathon, but it was nice to hang out for a bit in the park.

This race was well organized and the course was enjoyable. Missoula, Montana was definitely as beautiful as advertised and reported by fellow runners that have run this race before. If you decide to run this race, book your room early because I wasn't the only one that was stuck in a fleabag motel!

Scape Goat Pale Ale

I made the beautiful walk along the Riverwalk Trail and Kim Williams Trail back to my car. Along the way I talked with a couple from Florida about running races in warm weather. They were triathletes and were used to training in warm and humid weather. One thing I like about running marathons is being able to talk to a lot of nice people from all over the world.

I drove over to my friend's hotel to shower up and to go have lunch nearby. We decided to eat at The Iron Horse Brew Pub since it was near the pick-up spot for the Tap Room Tour. The place was busy and it took us a short wait to get a small table. We shared a pitcher of Dump Truck. My friend really loved this beer. It was not bad, but I prefer a darker heavier beer or a hoppier beer. This time around I ordered The Griz. This was a much better burger than the Iron Horse Burger that I had yesterday. It was a burger with ham, Jack cheese, fried onions, and a hard fried egg. It was a more substantial burger with a lot more flavor going on here! Make sure you have a nice healthy appetite if you decide to order it.

Pitcher of Dump Truck

The Griz

We walked down the block to the four large red X's in front of the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot at the north end of Higgins Ave. That was where we caught the shuttle for the Tap Room Tour. It was $40 per person and they drove us out to 3 different local breweries to check out their beers. It was pretty fun but the shuttle's air conditioning was not working properly so by the end of the tour I was having none of that heat. I can get a bit cranky when it gets too hot. I'm just not built for warm climates.

Our first stop was at the Kettle House Brewery. We sampled four of their beers on taps: Nitro Cold Smoke, Nitro Cream Ale, Pineapple Lemon Fresh, Double Haul IPA. I liked their Double Haul IPA. I believe it is their most popular beer.

Nitro Cold Smoke, Nitro Cream Ale, Pineapple Lemon Fresh, Double Haul IPA

Our second stop was at the Draught Works Brewery. I had a pint of their Vanilla Bean Gwin Du Oatmeal Stout and I believe my friend had the That's What She Said Cream Ale. I really love vanilla stouts.

That's What She Said!

Our third and final stop was at Bayern Brewing. According to their website, they specialize in authentic Bavarian beer offering traditional German beer styles, using traditional German brewing techniques, using German equipment, with oversight from two German Master Brewers, and in strict accordance with the 1516 German Law of Purity (Reinheitsgebot). I had their Schwarzbier and bought a souvenir t-shirt because I liked their logo.

Schwarzbier

Tap Room Tours

We decided to check out James Bar since it was recommended by the tour guide when he dropped us off. The couple that was with us on the tour had the same idea as we saw them there later on. I had a glass of wine and was pooped. My friend was still going strong. She let me hang out at her room while she stayed out a bit longer. Her hotel room didn't smell like an ashtray, but the air conditioning was not working. She was able to have the hotel management give her a fan, but it did not help much. I must have been super tired because I dozed off in that heat. It turned out that my friend was waiting outside to get in. I felt bad that she had to wait outside, but I guess it was better that I did not drive right after having a bunch of alcohol after the marathon. She also couldn't call me since my phone was on domestic roaming and I had already used up my allotted minutes and data. Keep that in mind if you have T-Mobile and visit Missoula. Luckily I had my 4G tablet so she could leave me a message on Facebook. Anyways, thank goodness my stinky motel room had very cold air conditioning.

Sign outside the James Bar

Monday 7/14
After checking out of my room I drove over to the Carmike 10 movie theater to catch a movie. I decided to watch the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. There was a 3D version showing in a few minutes when I got there, but I decided to wait about an hour to watch the cheaper 2D version. It was an interesting movie. It was definitely entertaining and kind of silly at times, but one that makes you think.

After watching the movie, I gassed up the car and drove back to the car rental office. Apparently I could drop the car off at the airport. The lady at the office told me to park in a Hertz spot and drop the keys off at the Hertz counter. If there is a next time, maybe I should just rent from Hertz. :)

As to be expected at a tiny airport, the food choices was very limited. I tried to hop on an earlier flight but the gate attendant told me that the earlier flight was full. So I hung out at the airport and it would turn out that my friend also had the same flight back home. We ate at Squatter’s on our layover in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had a glass of 4 Bears Cabernet Sauvignon to go with the Classic Burger with cheddar and salad. The burger was decent, but I think the salad was better than the burger.

4 Bears Cabernet Sauvignon

Classic Burger with cheddar and salad

Rock n Roll Seattle Marathon 2014

Friday 6/20
I used my Elevate points for a free Virgin America flight from LAX to Seattle-Tacoma Airport on an early Friday morning. This is one of my favorite airports to fly into because you can just take the Link light rail into downtown Seattle right from the airport. There's no need to rent a car. The kids sitting next to me had some sweet suitcases.

I took the light rail straight to the race expo at the CenturyLink Field Event Center. This time I got off at the International District station. I usually get off at the Stadium station. Having walk from both stations, I think it's faster from Stadium station. After picking up my race packet and race shirt, I went through the expo before stopping by the Rock n' Roll area to sign up for next year's race for $90. It actually came out to $109.49 with fees and WA taxes. I love races where they give out bags of beef jerky. I would find out later after talking to my friends that I had missed seeing the legacy runner board at the expo. Oh well, I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for it next year.

After leaving the expo, I made a bee line for Ivar's Fish Bar out on the waterfront. I got their popular fish and chips with a bowl of red clam chowder. For some reason the guy taking my order didn't believe that I wanted the red chowder. He asked if I was sure that I wanted the red. I guess not a whole lot of people like it. That really hit the spot. I then pretty much burned it all off by hiking all the way to my hotel at Lower Queen Anne. The roads were super hilly and it was quite a workout to carry my bag up the hills. I've stayed here last year as well. You just cannot beat the location. It's called Inn at Queen Anne. There are plenty of places to eat at nearby and it's right next to the start and finish area of the race. I used two free nights when I booked this hotel, so I ended up paying for just one night.

Fish and chips with a bowl of red clam chowder

I walked back down to the expo and met up with my Marathon Maniac friends. We then hiked over to eat our pre-race meal in the International District. Since we all got to the expo by different means, we met up at the nearby Uwajimaya before walking over to the restaurant. I bought some drinks for the weekend.

I've been eating with Mr. Shoe for the last couple of years and this year he picked Tsukushinbo to eat some sushi and sashimi. Most of us, including me, ordered their Sashimi Dinner. It came with a bowl of rice and bowl of miso soup. They also gave us some edamame to share. The presentation of the sashimi was nice, makes you not want to eat it because it's been laid out so beautifully. The important part was that all of it was fresh and tasted delicious with a little bit of wasabi and soy sauce. It's a pretty small restaurant with minimal wait staff, but our waitress and even one of the sushi chef made sure to check up on everybody and every table. It turned out to be a great restaurant for some authentic traditional sushi and sashimi. Remember to make a reservation or show up right before they open because they only have one table open for people that didn't make a reservation. It's also located in the hilly part of the International District so bring your comfortable walking shoes. This place actually can be missed pretty easily as they do not have a restaurant sign outside. From what we could tell, everybody that wanted to eat there knew where it was located. I guess that they're popular enough whether through word of mouth or Yelp that they do not need a neon sign outside.

Sashimi Dinner

Dinner with some high profile Marathon Maniacs!

After the delicious dinner, I got a ride from Mr. Shoe back to my hotel. I went through the expo haul and set out my race gear before calling it a night. This year's race shirt had a nice design. I also got a shirt for signing for next year's race.

Expo haul

Saturday 6/21
I got ready and walked across the street to the starting area at the Seattle Center. I stopped by the Space Needle to wait for the Marathon Maniacs. There was quite a large group. I talked to the few that I knew. As the start of the race grew closer, the MM pre-race photo wasn't taking place yet, so I bailed to take care of important pre-race necessities. I hit the portpotties and checked my gear bag before heading into my corral.

The first half went pretty well. Sometimes people don't realize just how hilly it is in Downtown Seattle. It would flatten out once we got out of the Downtown area. I went through the halfway point right behind the 3:40 pace group at 1:50:10. I started having trouble during mile 14, but things still felt relatively okay. As with most years, the weather was just too nice. During the section on the exposed 90 freeway, I was slowed to a walk by mile 16. The legs were cramping up and it would just keep getting worse. The cambered tunnel roads and nonstop rollers in the second half made it tough. It was also getting warmer as the day went on. It was a rough finish, but it was my fastest time for this race and good enough to keep the 6 year legacy streak going.
1: 8:24
2-3: 16:04 (8:02)
4: 8:17
5: 8:17
6: 8:05
7: 8:14
8: 8:29
9: 8:35
10: 8:14
11: 9:30
12: 8:50
13: 8:44
14: 9:29
15: 9:46
16: 9:58
17: 12:51
18: 11:53
19: 13:08
20: 12:18
21: 14:02
22: 14:28
23: 14:54
24: 13:13
25: 13:44
26: 14:58
26.2: 2:09
Finish: 4:36:37

After getting my medal and the usual post-race goodies in the finisher chute, I bumped into a few of my Maniac friends. We shared our race experiences and took a few pictures. I then made my way over to the UPS trucks to get my gear bag before heading over to the stage area to get my free Michelob Ultra.

Seattle Maniacs!

Post race beer

At around 4pm I was hungry for my usual post race burger and thirsty for some beers. I decided to check out Buckley's On Queen Anne. It was close to my hotel, so I didn't have to walk too far. I started off with their featured IPA on tap while watching the soccer match on one of their several TV's. Then I ordered their Juicy Lucy burger with tater tots. It was a good burger and I love any place that serves tater tots. I prefer tater tots over fries any day. I then ordered their featured IPA on nitro to finish off my recovery meal. I didn't catch the name of the beers, but they were both good beers.

Featured IPA on tap

Juicy Lucy and tater tots

Featured IPA on nitro

Sunday 6/22
I love fresh delicious Pacific Northwest seafood even for breakfast! After checking out of my hotel, I walked over to Taylor Shellfish Oyster Bar right about when they opened at 11am and they were all ready to go. I ordered a Space Needle Golden IPA for my drink. I then ordered 3 Shigoku and 3 Kumamoto oysters as well as their geoduck sashimi. Everything was very fresh and awesome. It's starting to be hard to find places that will serve geoduck, but I can always count on finding some whenever I'm in Seattle. It was just eaten with wasabi and soy sauce, so you can really taste the freshness of the geoduck. As for the oysters, it's hard to beat the taste of those Kumamotos! The Shigokus were very good as well. The staff at this location was very friendly. I had some nice conversations with all of them. I originally was going to go to their original location at Capitol Hill on Melrose Ave, but decided to check out this place since it had just recently opened and was just across the street from my hotel.

Breakfast beer Space Needle Golden IPA

Shigoku on the right, Kumamoto on the left

Geoduck sashimi

I then made my way towards the AMC Pacific Place 11 to catch a movie. Along the way I stopped by the Pike Place Market to take my annual photo of the famous sign. I finally watched The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I like the current reboot. I was not a big fan of Tobey Maguire. Having said that, although I thought the movie overall wasn't bad, I thought Electro was a huge disappointment in how they developed the character.
Also I was not a fan of the portrayal of the Rhino. I wish that they would stick more to the comics.

Pike Market Place

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

After the movie, I decided to stop by Ivar's Fish Bar one last time for some fish and chips before heading to the airport to catch my evening flight home. This time I went with the white clam chowder. The white chowder was definitely better than the red. I'll see you guys and the seagulls again next year!

Fish and chips with a bowl of white clam chowder

I walked over to the University Station to catch the light rail to the airport. While waiting for my flight, I decided to have a drink at the Seattle Taproom. I found an open table and had a large Elysian Immortal IPA. I thought about getting another beer, but service was horribly slow so I paid my bill and went to wait at my gate.

Immortal IPA

I guess there's no reason why I should ruin a tradition in ending my marathon trips. So on my way home, I drove to What's Up Men, to eat a late evening bowl of ramen.

Shiro ramen

UCSD Triton 5k

Sunday 6/7
I didn't think that I would drive all the way down to San Diego to run a 5k especially having just been down here last weekend for the San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon. But I haven't been back to visit my Alma Mater, so I signed up pretty last minute to run this race. I had been running a bunch of marathons lately and I thought it would be nice to see how fast the legs would move in a shorter race.

After making the all too familiar drive down to good ol' La Jolla, I parked my car at the Hopkins parking structure near RIMAC. Everything seemed so familiar yet there were so many new buildings since I was last here. Per the race instructions, I walked over to the P357 parking lot to pick up my race packet. They had signs everywhere pointing to that lot.

After picking up my race packet and using the portapotties, I walked back to my car and took a nap. At about 45 minutes before the start of the race, I started making my way over to the starting area. There was a lady leading some silly warm up exercises while participants after participants were crossing the starting line to get into the corrals. I know it's just a 5k, but they might want to control the flow of traffic next time. I positioned myself in Wave 01 designated for speedsters running under 20 minutes. They even had signs telling you where to line up. I thought today would be as good as any to attempt a sub 20 minute 5k. I don't run enough of them to know how fast I should go out in the opening mile.

King Triton!

The mile markers were pretty much non-existent. There was a girl supposedly positioned at the one mile mark at the back of Galbraith Hall. If that was true, I ran a 6:15ish for the first mile. I knew that I there was no way that I could hold that for another 2 miles, but I kept up the effort. There were short climbs here and there. During the last mile, my legs were spent and I really slowed down. They felt like rubber. I had absolutely no kick during the final stretch on the track.
1: 6:15
2-3.1: 15:57 (7:35)
22:12 (7:09)

After crossing the finish line, I got a bag of water and some Stone IPA. Not bad to have Stone IPA at the end of a 5k. After cooling down with the beer, I went through the rest of the finish line festival to check out the different booths. There was a booth about sharks and one handing out Monster drinks. I picked up a Monster for my friend who drinks them.

Since I have not been on the campus in ages, I basically took a walking tour of the entire campus. I took pretty much the same route as the race. It was also the first time that I got to see the Triton statue just outside of Price Center. I even stopped by the mud huts to visit my old dorm, Beagle Hall. I've been out of college for almost 20 years, but it felt as if it was just yesterday. I bought an alumni polo shirt at the bookstore before leaving. Their selection was quite lacking. All they had were mostly t-shirts. I might have to write a letter to the Alumni Association to have them remedy the lack of alumni wear.

Sun God

They're still painting the anchor

Good ol' Beagle Hall

On my way home, I swung by the Ballast Point Brewery out in the Scripps Ranch area to pick up a six pack of the Habanero Sculpin IPA for my friend. Since I was there, I might as well drink some samplers. It was quite crowded with a tour bus full of people going through, but I found a spot and got samples of Piper Down, Indra Kunindra, and Indra Kunindra Bourbon Barrel Aged. I loved the Piper Down, but it was interesting to taste the curry beers. Never had one before. I prefer the bourbon barrel aged version probably because I like the taste of bourbon.

Beers on tap

Right to left: Piper Down, Indra Kunindra, Indra Kunindra Bourbon Barrel Aged

Habanero Sculpin IPA