NYRR Queens 10k 2018

Thursday 6/14
After work, I drove up to LAX to catch my flight with Alaska Air over to JFK International Airport. I arrived at the usual parking lot C at about 5 pm. I went through a good portion of the lot, but was unsuccessful at finding a spot. I finally gave up and exited the lot to go find parking somewhere else. I went to my normal backup spot, The Parking Spot on Sepulveda Blvd, the one located next to In-n-Out. The entrance was blocked with a sign stating that they were full. I then headed over to their other location on Century Blvd. I had to crawl through some horrible traffic only to find that this location was also full. I drove down Century Blvd checking on Hilton, Marriott, Joe's Parking, etc., however every single lot was full. I drove down 98th St trying to figure out where to park before resorting to parking at the airport for $30 a day. I ended up pulling into the back entrance of the Airport Spectrum LAX parking structure. The employees there knew that somehow I had got in without a reservation. They tried to get me to valet my car, but I told them that I'd rather self-park. I guess they took pity on me, so they directed me down to self parking which was 2 floors down. I think they let me slide when I told them that I would need to park until Sunday. They had me park in a spot that would be blocked in by other cars. They told me that someone will move the car if my car was blocked when I returned.

Airport Spectrum LAX parking

The traffic was a bitch around LAX, so I decided to just walk over to the terminal instead of waiting for the shuttle. It was a pretty long walk, so I showed up kind of sweaty as I went through the TSA security check. Their scanner doesn't like sweaty clothes and my cargo pockets, so I got a nice little pat-down by the TSA agent. :)

Before going to my gate, I got in line to get dinner at The Habit Burger Grill. I ordered their Santa Barbara Char for the very first time. I've always gotten their Double Char, so I thought I'd try something new. I liked the avocado, but I prefer the hamburger bun over the sourdough bread.

Santa Barbara Char

It was a short flight over to Las Vegas McCarran Airport. We got off of the plane and then got back on the same plane for the flight into JFK. Once I boarded the plane, I browsed through the available movies and I saw that they had Star Wars: The Last Jedi. No thanks! Watching that awful movie twice was twice too many. I elected to get some sleep instead. :)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi for free? No thanks!

Friday 6/15
I landed at JFK at about a quarter to 6. After stopping at the restroom, I made my way over to the AirTrain station. I took that over to Jamaica Station to catch the E train into Manhattan. I got off at the 5th Ave/53rd St station and walked over to Connolly's on 45th St for breakfast. I got there just as they opened. I ordered the usual full Irish breakfast and coffee. I feel that this is the best meal for the price in Manhattan.

Full Irish breakfast

Starting to like the Brown Sauce!

After finishing off my breakfast, I headed over to the NYRR Run Center over on 57th St to pick up my bib and race singlet. I was actually hoping for a t-shirt, but it was a pretty nice looking singlet. I don't like to wear singlets anymore as my shoulders have been burned way too many times by the sun.

Bib

Race singlet

I then walked over to the Regal Cinemas E-Walk 13 on 42nd St to catch a showing of Incredibles 2. Honestly I don't remember much of the first movie. It was 14 years ago and I might have only seen it once. I'll have to re-watch it some other time. This second movie was quite entertaining. However I did fall asleep in the early parts of the movie because I was really tired from the red-eye flight and not because the movie was bad. Looks like I'll have to re-watch this one as well to see what I had missed. :)

Incredibles 2

After the movie, I took the 1 train down to the South Ferry station. I walked by the Charging Bull to check out the Fearless Girl statue. It was super crowded so I just got a little peak from across the street. Once again I booked a room at the Club Quarters Hotel, Wall Street. I stopped by to see if I could check into my room a couple of hours early. I was able to do so by using one of the kiosks. Thank goodness I was able to take a shower and watch the Portugal vs. Spain World Cup match from the comfort of my room.

Portugal vs. Spain

For dinner, I stopped by the nearby McDonald's to pick up some food. With the mobile app, I was able to score some free medium french fries with the purchase of a Quarter Pounder with cheese burger. After eating my meal, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's 10k.

Free medium fries with Quarter Pounder with cheese purchase

Flat runner

Saturday 6/16
The race was scheduled to start at 7:45 am. In hindsight, I probably should've left earlier, but per the race instructions I tried to time it to arrive an hour before the start. I took the train from Wall St to 42nd St/Grand Central station to catch the 7 train. From there I took it to the Mets/Willets Point station. The train was packed with mostly runners and it eventually got delayed. The conductor then announced that the train was switching from local to express. I didn't reach my destination until about 10 minutes after 7. After getting off of the train and following the masses, I walked briskly over to the starting corrals just to make sure that I had enough time to use the portapotties to empty my bladder before the race.

Before the race even started, it was already feeling quite warm and humid. The course was a bit narrow and congested. I wanted to run faster during the first mile, but I was blocked. However I also didn't want to run too hard and suffer from heat exhaustion, so I didn't make an effort to get around too many runners. I tried my best to keep a pace that would get me to the finish in just under 50 minutes. I had a hard time convincing myself to keep running during the last 2 miles. I had to fight the overwhelming urge to walk. I didn't walk, but I slowed enough to land me just a few seconds past 50 minutes.

Finish line

Finish: 50:04
Click here for my Garmin data.

Completed NYRR race #4 of 9.

I got the usual high five from Peter Ciaccia and a finisher medal after crossing the finish line. I was feeling pretty spent, so when I was given a bottle of Gatorade, I pretty much chugged the entire bottle. I was also given a bottle of water, an apple, a bag of pretzels, and a PowerBar as part of my recovery bag. I don't think it was smart at all for me to wear a regular cotton t-shirt for these warm conditions.

Finisher medal

Chug that Gatorade

Post race recovery bag

After I felt recovered a bit, I started walking over to the Unisphere to take pictures before heading to the train station. Between taking various pictures of the Rocket Thrower statue and the Unisphere, I came across one of my local Marathon Maniac/50 States friends just as he was finishing his race. It was as if we planned to meet there! What a coincidence!

Rocket Thrower

Unisphere

I'm glad that I finally made it out to the Unisphere although the fountain wasn't turned on. I want to return one year for the US Open Tennis Championships.

On the crowded train ride back to my hotel, I ended up having a good conversation with another runner. I believe he was from upper Manhattan or north of upper Manhattan. He was a bit shocked to find out that I would be doing the 9+1 program while living on the West Coast. Although it is quite expensive, I thought it would be a good way to see the different boroughs versus going the charity route. The train ride took a while since it was running local and it was packed to the gills. We felt sorry for the normal passengers as they had to be packed in there with all of the sweaty runners. I got off at 42nd St/Grand Central to switch over to the 4 train.

Back at my room, I got cleaned up before going back out to pick up some lunch at the nearby Go Go Curry. I ordered the usual Grand Slam with fukujinzuke and took it back to my room to enjoy. Since I only ran a 10k, it was more than enough food for me to skip dinner.

Grand Slam

Sunday 6/17
Since I had an early morning jetBlue flight, I got packed and ready before heading over to the Fulton St station to catch the A train over to Howard Beach. I think I prefer this route over taking the E or J train to Jamaica station.

Flying home with jetBlue

On the plane, I finally got to watch Doctor Strange. It was pretty entertaining, but not among my favorite Marvel movies. I can see why people were upset about the casting of the Ancient One. At least it tied a few loose ends for me with all of the Marvel movies. After that I then switched over to watching the Germany vs. Mexico World Cup match. It was pretty crazy when all of the Mexican passengers in unison erupted with joy when they scored the only goal to defeat the heavily favored German team with a score of 1-0.

Mexico beats Germany 1-0

After landing at LAX, I decided to walk back to the parking structure instead of waiting for one of the shuttles. Along the way, I spotted a couple of the Spectrum parking shuttles so for sure they were making the rounds. Unfortunately during the long walk, I was approached by a supposed Army vet asking for a handout. He was asking specifically for cash. After I told him a couple of times that I don't have cash on me, only credit cards, he quickly changed his tone. He berated me for lying and being a non-human for refusing to give him anything, not even a penny. Yeah, good luck getting any sympathy with that kind of attitude. Who the heck carries cash these days? We're practically a cashless society. I have credit cards and Google Pay. It would be easier for me to send you money via PayPal than to give you cash! I actually hate the fact that people will look at an Asian and automatically assume that we're all loaded with money. Some of us work at a non-profit organization and live from paycheck to paycheck!

In case you were wondering, my car was actually not blocked in when I returned to the parking structure. After dropping off my bags at my car, I went to the valet desk to pay for my ticket. It actually turned out to be an okay experience parking my car here. However I will need to start making parking reservations for my future flights out of LAX since I can no longer depend on parking lot C. I could also use SuperShuttle or Prime Time Shuttle service, so I don't have to worry about driving.

Rock n Roll Seattle Marathon 2018

Saturday 6/9
I drove out to LAX pretty early in the morning to catch my Southwest flight to Seattle. I arrived at parking lot C a little before 4 am. Fortunately I was able to find a parking spot after a few minutes of searching. Since I was flying with Southwest out of terminal 1, I decided to forego the shuttle and walk over to the terminal.

Parking lot C

Southwest from LAX

I had to make a plane change at San Jose Airport. I actually had a couple of hours to pass at that airport and would've eaten at a McDonald's if they had one. Most of the restaurant choices were pretty pricey. Since the closest thing to a McDonald's was Smashburger, I decided to just wait until I got into Seattle to eat.

While on the second leg of my flight, I was able to catch some of the French Open Women's Championship match on my tablet using the inflight WiFi. After being down 1 set, I didn't think Halep would come back to win it!

French Open

I landed at SeaTac Airport at about 12:30 pm. After getting off of the plane, I made my way straight to the Link Station to catch the light rail into downtown Seattle. I still had money on my Orca card, so I didn't have to get in one of the lines to purchase rail fare.

I got off the train at the Stadium station and walked over to the expo located at the CenturyLink Field Event Center. The first thing I saw as I entered was the banner that listed the all year runners. I found my name pretty quickly as the list wasn't very long. The list included those that ran half marathons as well. I wonder how many have run the full marathon each year.

All year runners

After picking up my bib, I got my race shirt. The shirt was disappointingly similar to the one I got last weekend for Rock n' Roll San Diego. I guess one way to do things on the cheap is to reuse the same design template. Oh well, it's not like I need another race shirt.

Race shirt

I then went through the official merchandise area and saw that they had clothing that had all of the names of every participant on it. I briefly thought about buying one of them, but then quickly remembered that I don't need or have space for another piece of clothing!

Find your name

I then started visiting all of the vendor booths. I made a stop at the Rock n' Roll area to sign up for next year's race as well as to pick up my legacy t-shirt. In the weeks leading up to the race, I was sent an email instructing me to do so. It was an average looking tech-shirt, nothing too fancy. At least it was something. For a while I wasn't expecting them to do anything to acknowledge the legacy runners. I received another cotton t-shirt for signing up for next year's race.

Legacy t-shirt email

Legacy shirt

Legacy shirt, back

Race expo swag

After I was done with the expo, I started making my way over to Uwajimaya to buy some drinks and snacks. I normally don't check the prices when I shop here and I noticed that the prices were pretty high. So I walked over to the nearby Daiso to see if they have anything comparable. Unfortunately their selection was pretty small, so I went back and bought my drinks at Uwajimaya. I will have to look into buying my stuff somewhere else in the future to save a few extra bucks.

Uwajimaya

I was getting kind of hungry, so I started heading over to my usual spot, Ivar's Fish Bar, for some lunch. It was drizzling a bit, just enough rain to make you want to pull out the umbrella. For some reason my phone completely crapped out, I was unable to power it back up. Oh well, hopefully it's just a battery issue. When it was time for me to order, I got their 3pc Pollock and chips combo which came with a drink and cup of chowder for $11.99. The dining area was closed due to ongoing renovations, so there was very limited table options for me to eat my food. I had to settle for an open bench. It was open for a reason as the rain started coming down and there was no covering. I got a little wet, but it wasn't too bad.

Ivar's

After I was done with my food, I walked over to WorldMark Seattle - The Camlin to check into my room for the weekend. Once again they invited me to attend an owner's presentation during the check-in process. This time, I made sure to have them check my status. It was nice to finally get to my room and put my bags down and to take a shower.

Room came with a VHS player!

For an early dinner, I went over to the nearby McDonald's to pick up dinner. Thank goodness I was able to revive my cellphone. All it needed was a little charge. Still I think the phone is on its last legs and I'll need to get an upgrade soon! I used the McDonald's app to score a free Sausage McMuffin with egg sandwich for the Sounders FC Match Day giveaway deal. I took the food back to my room to enjoy. Afterwards I took the time to lay out my flat runner before going to sleep.

Salt water tank at McDonald's

Sounders FC Match Day free Breakfast Sandwich

Flat runner

Sunday 6/10
The race was scheduled to start at 6:30 am, so I timed my walk to arrive at the starting area at about 5:30 am. Despite the wet weather forecast, from what I could see, it would appear that the rain would hold off for the majority of the morning. That was great since nobody likes to wait in the middle of a downpour. After checking my bag at the UPS trucks, I went to go use one of the nearby portapotties. There were no lines. When I was done, my friends were waiting for me outside. Apparently they had spotted me going in. If I had known they were waiting, I wouldn't have been posting stuff on Facebook. :)

Nice morning view!

There wasn't a planned Marathon Maniacs pre-race photo, but I did get one with the President before we went into corral 2 to wait for the start. While waiting, I saw a couple of dudes dressed up as Wayne and Garth!

My local friends!

Corral

Corral

Wayne and Garth!

The legs felt pretty good from the start, but I knew my endurance wasn't there yet for a full marathon and I only wanted to finish under 5 hrs, so I made sure not to get too crazy. Also I knew that there would be a lot of rollers in this new course. The first significant uphill came pretty early on Olympic Pl as the course ran alongside Kinnear Park. It was followed by a pretty long stretch of downhill on 11th Ave. The course took us up to Nickerson St where we took that east until it turned into Westlake Ave. We stayed on Westlake Ave until Valley St and Fairview Ave which took us to Eastlake Ave. We took that up to Fuhrman Ave which turned into Boyer Ave. Turning onto 19th Ave off of Boyer Ave was a bit of a shock. It was a short, but very steep hill. From there we took Interlaken Blvd through Interlaken Park heading towards Boylston Ave where we headed south. The road then turned into Lakeview Blvd as we continued south until turning west on Republican St. Here would be where the course splits between the half and full marathon.

After getting a sniff of the finish line, I headed out for the second half of the race. The course headed towards the Alaskan Way Viaduct. It was good to see some of my faster friends having already done the out and back that took us out past CenturyLink Field. That wasn't so bad compared to the very long out and back on Aurora Ave that took us all the way out to Woodland Park. My friends caught me at the park just as we approached the mile 21 marker. This was my first time running to and through this park. It was actually quite nice to change up the terrain a bit. With about 4 miles to go, the weather turned a bit. It got a bit chilly and it started to rain. It wouldn't be a trip to Seattle without some rain! Eventually it felt cold enough that I had to wear the arm sleeves again. Right on cue, the rain let up and it got sunny as I approached the finish line.

My friend, Jack

My friends caught me at mile 21

Finish line

Finish: 4:50:43
Click here for my Garmin data.

Year #10 done. God willing, I'm hoping to go at least another 10 years! :)

After crossing the finish line, I got my medal and a bunch of post race food and drinks. I made my way over to the UPS trucks to collect my gear bag. I bumped into my friends there. They were off to the side eating their post race snacks. I took a picture of my medal in front of the International Fountain. We then entered an area fenced off for marathon finishers where they were serving pizza and sandwiches. I passed on the food since my stomach wasn't quite ready for solid food just yet. It was actually a bit chilly, so we moved over to the grassy area in front of the stage where there was warm sunshine. I gave away my beer ticket and drank my chocolate milk before parting ways with my friends.

Finisher medal

Chocolate milk

Along the way back, I saw a huge crowd of people in front of the Amazon Go store. It's supposed to be very innovative in that you just grab your items and go. The store will automatically know what you have taken and charge your account accordingly. I will probably have to check it out in one of my future trips. Right next to it was The Spheres. It definitely looked very unique. Here's their description of the place on their website:

"The Spheres are a place where employees can think and work differently surrounded by plants."

The Spheres

After getting clean up and waiting a couple of hours for my appetite to return, I headed out to get a late lunch and to catch a movie. I walked over to the Public Market to eat at one of my favorite non-seafood places in Seattle, Uli's Famous Sausage. I went with their sausage platter and my 4 choices were the Cajun Andouille, heavy garlic chicken, Hungarian, and Polish Kielbasa. Those were among my favorites. They surely did not disappoint!

Uli's Famous Sausages

After the meal, I walked over to the Regal Cinemas Meridian 16 at the corner of Pike St and 7th Ave to watch Ocean's 8 with my MoviePass. I'm a fan of Sandra Bullock and it was a pretty entertaining movie. However it just wasn't quite up to par with the other Ocean's movies. It also felt like they tried way too hard to make it a movie about girl power. The whole time, I kept waiting for George Clooney to make a cameo.

For a quick dinner, I went back to good 'ol McDonald's to pick up a meal. There weren't any more deals on my app to use, so I ordered 2 medium french fries for $5 as one of their local in-store deals and a Quarter Pounder with cheese sandwich.

Monday 6/11
I attended the owners presentation in the morning. They gave out the usual complimentary breakfast where I got some hard boiled eggs, a croissant, and some coffee. I remember hearing the same presentation from the same presenter last year. Thankfully they skipped the pressure sales pitch as I told him that I had just purchased credits a couple of weeks ago. After that I went back up to my room to pack up my stuff.

After checking out, I made the walk over to the nearby Taylor Shellfish Farms, located on Melrose Ave just south of Pine St, for lunch. Eating delicious Pacific Northwest seafood is the primary reason why I keep coming back each year to run this marathon. I've been to their other location on Republican St, so I was pretty confident that their food would be good here as well. After getting seated, I ordered their Harissa geoduck and the Moqueca Brazilian shellfish stew. I'm kind of over oysters lately, so I thought I'd order other types of seafood. I definitely did not go wrong with these two items. They were both very good!

Harissa geoduck

Moqueca Brazilian Shellfish Stew

After lunch, I walked over to the AMC Pacific Place 11 to catch a movie before heading to the airport. I decided to use my MoviePass to watch Hotel Artemis. If you liked the rest and recovery scenes at the Continental in the John Wick movies, this was pretty much the entire movie. The story wasn't great or well thought out. It was set in a time where people were rioting over the availability of clean water. Jodie Foster mailed it in for this one. For such a big name actress, that was pretty disappointing. I did like Dave Bautista's character in this one, but still I wouldn't recommend watching this unless you had a MoviePass and don't have anything better to do.

Hotel Artemis

After the movie, I hopped on the Link light rail and headed for the airport. I had an evening flight with Southwest Airlines. Normally I would stop at the Ivar's in the airport after going through the TSA checkpoint to have one last fish & chips meal before going home. However since their lease was not extended and they were no longer an option, my fallback plan was to eat at the ever so popular McDonald's in Concourse B. It was a madhouse! I escaped most of it by placing my order on my mobile app. I was able to buy 1 Quarter Pounder with cheese and get another for $1. I ate the 2 burgers near my gate.

No Ivar's at airport :(

Buy 1 Quarter Pounder with cheese, buy 1 for $1

Originally the plane was supposed to stop in Oakland without a plane change, but once we landed, we were notified that we were changing planes. All of us walked over to the terminal where we waited for our plane to LAX. Once the plane was ready, the fly-through passengers were allowed to board first.

For the remainder of the flight, I watched some WWE Raw on my tablet via the complimentary inflight WiFi.