NYRR Training Series 15M 2018

Saturday 8/11
Once again I headed out very early to LAX for another flight out to NYC. This time I pre-purchased parking via SpotHero at a parking structure called Airport Center Express. I was going to book at the usual WallyPark parking structure, but decided to come here because it was the cheapest for this weekend. It was located just east of Crowne Plaza. I entered from Century Blvd. Inside the parking structure, they had plenty of signs directing you where to go. The place was pretty packed and I wasn't able to find an empty spot until I reached the 6th floor. I believe the 7th floor was the roof. After I parked, I took the stairs down to the ground floor. I then walked over to the shuttle waiting area. The shuttle was waiting there, so I got on board. Everyone on the shuttle appeared to be construction workers or airport employees.

Airport Center Express Parking

For this trip, I flew with Southwest Airlines. It wasn't a direct flight. I first flew into Oakland Airport before heading over to Newark Airport. As our plane got closer to the east coast, our pilot had to take a longer indirect route in order to avoid bad weather. We were delayed about an hour getting into EWR. As soon as we landed, I made my way over to the AirTrain station. Before getting on the AirTrain, I used one of the kiosks to purchase a NJ Transit train ticket for $13. I took the first train heading out to NY Penn Station. From there I headed straight up 8th Ave to pick up my bib at the NYRR Runcenter. At first with the delay, I was afraid that I wouldn't get there before they closed at 8 pm, however I got there with about 30 minutes to spare. Our race premium for this race was a cap. It's pretty nice, but I kind of wish they would make it a more rigid ball cap or trucker cap.

Race premium

After picking up my bib, I hopped on the 1 Train heading uptown and got off at the 96th St station. From there, it was a short walk over to my hotel for the weekend, Days Inn by Wyndham NYC-Broadway. Once I got checked in, I took the elevator up to my floor. The elevator smelled like marijuana. Great. My room was located in the stairwell which was somewhat nice as there wasn't any traffic from other tenants for the duration of my stay. This hotel was a pretty run-down, desperately needing a refresh. For one, they really need to replace those old CRT box TV's and get some flat screens! My room was also very dimly lit at night as half of the light bulbs were burnt out. My biggest complaint about my room was the bathroom. The shower was incredibly tiny and the water temperature was unpredictable. It would randomly fluctuate between spitting icicles or scalding hot water, so forget trying to get the water temp to stay the same!

Room was in the stairwell

After dropping off my bags, I went back out to the nearby McDonald's to pick up a late dinner. I placed the order on my app to get free medium fries with my Quarter pounder with cheese. On the way back to my room, I also stopped at the Duane Reade next to my hotel to buy some drinks.

Quarter pounder with cheese and free medium fries

Water and Powerade

Back at my room, I watched a little bit of National Lampoon's Vacation on the old tube... such a funny classic! I laid out my flat runner before going to sleep. I had some Hammer Gels that I wanted to try again during tomorrow's race. This brand of gels always wreaks havoc on my stomach! They're usually the gels that are available at the upcoming ET Full Moon Midnight race.

Griswolds and Aunt Edna

Christie Brinkley aka Ferrari Girl

Flat runner

Sunday 8/12
The race started at 7 am, so I planned to get there at about 6:15 am to meet up with a couple of my friends. It was a pretty short walk from where I was staying. Unfortunately I got a text from my friends. They were running late, possibly missing the start of the race. After using a portapotty, I found a spot to sit down and wait for the start of the race. As they announced that the corrals would soon be closed, I entered my assigned corral. It would seem that with NYRR races, the majority of the runners will wait until the last possible moment before entering their corral.

Runner check-in

Start line

The start of the race was delayed for a few minutes. During the delay they informed us that if there was lightning in the area at anytime during the race, the race would immediately be canceled, however we would still receive credit towards the 9+1 program. Thankfully there was no storm for the duration of the race, but the humidity was pretty stifling!

Start corral

The first couple of miles went okay. By the third mile, I was already overheating and developing a headache. Since this was supposed to be a timed training run, I had to start taking walk breaks in order for my body to cool down. I drank the Powerade from my bottle and at every aid station, I dumped the water on my head. I was slowing down a lot more than I had anticipated for each loop around Central Park. The tight left glute and hamstring definitely didn't help. The third and final loop was practically a stroll around the park. One of the spectator at Harlem Hill was pretty clever with her sign. She updated it for each loop.

1st loop: You love this hill!
2nd loop: You still love this hill!
3rd loop: You are done with this hill!

Cheering the runners up Harlem Hill

During the final stretch up East Dr, my legs were beginning to cramp up. I ended up having to walk a lot of the inclines. I took the opportunity to stop and take a picture of the Still Hunt statue, the namesake for Cat Hill. The finish line was a sight for sore eyes!

Still Hunt aka Cat Hill

Finish line

Finish: 2:46:36
Click here for my Garmin data.

Relive 'Morning Aug 12th'

That was a rather grueling race for me! A combination of the high humidity and my gimpy left leg made for a long grind. I grabbed a bagel with raisins, half a banana, and some water as I went through the finisher chute. I was pretty wiped out, so I started heading back to my hotel. Good thing I was staying close by and didn't need to take the subway.

I vegged out in my room after taking a shower. When lunch time rolled around, I finally mustered up the will to go out for some food. I settled on going to The Halal Guys since it was only about a block away. The first time that I've had their food was actually back home in Southern California. I've been told that their food was better in NYC. Honestly I couldn't tell the difference, the white and red sauces were just as deliciously good on either coast. I'll have to make time to try it from their original location at W 53rd St and 6th Ave. I've heard that their portions are much larger from the cart. I ordered their small combo platter and it was just the right amount of food. As I was paying for my food, the cashier told me about their rewards program and gave me a card that I would need to register online. I took the food back to my room to enjoy.

Small combo platter

After finishing lunch, I resumed vegging out again in my room. After resting for a few hours, I went back out to walk around. I headed over to the 91st St Garden in Riverside Park because You've Got Mail is one of my favorite movies. I even walked by Kathleen Kelly's apartment over on W 89th St.

91st St Garden at Riverside Park

On my way back to my hotel, I stopped in at the McDonald's to buy a small dinner. It was pretty dang humid and I was sweaty pretty profusely from the short walk, so an iced coffee sounded like a great idea. I used the app to buy a large iced hazelnut coffee and a McDouble for $1 a piece. Man, what a bargain!

$1 iced hazelnut coffee and $1 McDouble

Monday 8/13
I woke up early and went for a walk up to Columbia University. Along the way, I stopped in at Tom's Restaurant. As almost everyone knows, the outside of this restaurant was used for Monk's Cafe in the old Seinfeld sitcom. A couple of my coworkers and I have been going through old episodes, so I somewhat felt compelled to finally visit this place. It was pretty empty for breakfast. After looking through their breakfast menu, I decided on their corned beef hash and had coffee for my drink. Their coffee tasted pretty awful. Thankfully even though the corned beef hash was from a can, it was actually pretty decent mixed with some Cholula hot sauce.

Menu

Yucky coffee!

Corned beef hash

After settling the bill, I walked over to the nearby Columbia University. It was only a couple of blocks away. I wanted to check out their bookstore and possibly purchase a polo shirt, but unfortunately they did not open for another hour. I didn't feel like sticking around for that long, so after snapping a quick photo, I started heading back to my hotel.

Columbia University

After packing up my stuff and checking-out of my room, I took the 1 train down to Times Sq - 42nd St to catch a movie at the AMC Empire 25. I used the MoviePass to watch BlacKkKlansman. No doubt about it, this movie was one emotionally charged film. Even though the movie was set a few decades back, we are still dealing with the same issue in present day America. I thought it was very well done and fair. The ending was very poignant to say the least. If you haven't seen it, you should. John David Washington did a fantastic job and was clearly a chip off the old block (Denzel Washington). This was a much better role to show off Adam Driver's acting skills as opposed to Kylo Ren in the current hot mess of post-Lucas Star Wars movies. Goes to show that actors can only do so much with the character that they're given to play. I still can't believe that someone had to go out and prove to me that it could be worse than the Star Wars Prequels... much worse.

After the movie, I stopped in at Go Go Curry on W 38th St to get a quick lunch before heading over to Newark Airport. Instead of ordering the usually grand slam, this time I went with the smaller home run platter. The cashier was pushing the fukujinzuke add-on and since I normally add that to my order, I went ahead with it.

Home run add fukujinzuke

After my meal, I walked over to the Penn Station to catch a NJ Transit train over to the airport. I purchased a one way ticket for $13 from one of the kiosks. I boarded the train once the track number was announced. The conductor came by and canceled the ticket, but didn't collect it since I needed it to exit the train station. After exiting, I then took the AirTrain over to the terminal.

Train ticket to Newark Airport

After going through the TSA security checkpoint, I checked the flight status and saw that my flight into Denver was delayed by almost 3 hrs due to bad weather in the Mid-Atlantic/NYC area. That meant that I would definitely miss my connecting flight in Denver. I talked to a Southwest agent and he got me on the next available flight the next morning at 6:15 am. That meant that I needed to either sleep in the airport or get a room at a nearby hotel. I decided on the latter.

Weather related flight delay

During the extra long wait for my flight, I hopped on the Wyndham website to book a one-nighter at at Days Inn near Denver Airport. When we finally boarded the plane, the pilot informed us that our plane was ready to leave on time but sat at Oakland Airport because it was not cleared to depart. Oh well, safety first! Once the plane landed, I gave the hotel a call for shuttle information. The guy at the front desk informed me that shuttle pick up was from the West Terminal, Door 512, 3rd island. By the time I got checked-in and ready for bed, it was already a little past midnight.

Booked a room near Denver Airport

Tuesday 8/14
I was able to catch a couple of hours of sleep before I needed to get up for a 4 am shuttle back to the airport for my flight home. Thankfully McDonald's was still an option at Denver Airport. From all of the traveling that I do, it would appear that more and more McDonald's are being replaced by expensive "healthier" options at a lot of airports. Unfortunately, the one at Concourse C did not accept any deals from the mobile phone app. For once I had to pay full price! :)

Full price McDonald's!

Flying home via Southwest Airlines

After landing in LAX, I decided to skip the shuttle and just walk to the parking structure. I was about 4 hrs past the time frame that I pre-paid with SpotHero, so when it was time to exit, I was ready to pay extra. However shortly after giving the gate attendant my paperwork, he opened the gate and said that I was good to go without extra cost. Sweet! :)

San Francisco Marathon 2018

I received an email on 7/13 from the folks at The San Francisco Marathon regarding a refund for those wanting to drop out of the race due to the race course change. That was the first time that I became aware that the Golden Gate Bridge Board had decided to stop all events from using the Golden Gate Bridge road. Upon further reading, I found out that only those that are participating in the full marathon will actually get to run across the Golden Gate Bridge using the sidewalk. That's a huge bummer for those signed up to run the first half marathon! I didn't really care how we got across the bridge, so I was still in to run the full marathon.

Refund email

Saturday 7/28
I had an early morning flight on Southwest over at LAX. I got ready, gassed up the car, and drove over to once again park at the WallyPark Premier Parking garage. This time I found a corner parking stall up on the 5th floor. I grabbed my bags and took the elevator down to catch the shuttle over to the terminal. There was a very large crowd of people waiting for a shuttle. That shuttle was packed to the gills and somehow I ended up sitting at the very back of the shuttle. It would turn out that I was the only one getting off at the first terminal. It was a tight squeeze getting off of the shuttle as nobody in the aisle got off or out of the way for me to get through. Good thing I'm a skinny dude!

Southwest

It was a short 1 hr flight up to SFO. Once I got off of the plane, I made my over to catch the AirTrain. I took that over to the BART station. I used my ticket from last year to enter. It was actually a pretty decent uneventful ride over to the Embarcadero station. I was hoping that I had enough money left on the ticket, but it would turn out that I had less than $3 on it. All of the add value machines only took cash and only $1, $5, or $10 bills. I only had $20 bills. The change machines for cash was on the outside. Brilliant setup, you knuckleheads. How about putting a machine there that actually takes something besides cash? The BART employee at the booth wasn't there, but eventually I found him. He told me to exit through the side gate next to the turnstiles, get the change, come back in to add the value to my ticket, then exit with the ticket. I guess I could've just taken off, but that wouldn't be right. After adding money to my ticket and exiting, I purchased a Clipper card for $3, so I could avoid all of this in the future should I come back to San Francisco. With all of the different ways to pay electronically these days, I just don't carry much cash on me.

After exiting out to Market St, I walked over to the Hyatt Regency to catch the complimentary shuttle over to the expo at Fort Mason. Last year, the pick-up spot was on Spear St, but this year it was back on Market St. The bus dropped us off on Marina Blvd in front of the Safeway supermarket. From there it was a short walk over to the Festival Pavilion for the expo.

Expo

Upon entering the pavilion, there were several banners on each side with the names of each of the participants in this Sunday's event. They had signs next to each banner telling you the alphabet range. After finding my name, I made my way to the back to pick up my bib and race shirt. Then on the way out, I checked with the challenge booth to see what I get for being a 3 consecutive year loyal runner. For that, I received a pint glass. This year was actually my 4th consecutive year. If everything remains the same and I run this race again next year, I should receive a metal water bottle for having run the race 5 consecutive years. Next to the challenge booth, they were taking early registration for next year's race. I was mildly interested in running one of the half marathons until I saw that they were wanting $95 for either half. That's just not good enough of a price without knowing whether or not the 1st half marathon will once again get to run across the Golden Gate Bridge. I will have to make my decision at a later time. Just as I was leaving I bumped into my friend Dexter who was once again volunteering.

One of several participant name banners

Found my name

Bib pick-up

Race shirt and expo haul

3 consecutive years loyal runner pint glass

Dexter!

I then walked back to the location where we were dropped off to catch the bus back to Market St. After getting off of the bus, I walked over to the nearby McDonald's to get a Quarter Pounder with cheese sandwich for $1. This McDonald's charged me 10 cents for a paper bag. I always thought that California was trying to discourage the use of plastic bags. It would turn out that this fee was local to SF and applied to all take-out bags. After I got my burger, I headed straight over to the Metreon to catch an afternoon showing of Blindspotting. I ate the burger before going into the movie theater. I thought the movie was pretty well done. The movie dealt with a lot of the big social issues that the bay area has been dealing with in the recent years. There was a good balance of comedy and drama, all done with some freestyle rap thrown in.

Since I still had an hour or so before check-in time and I was relatively close by, I decided to hoof it over to Hai's Restaurant to see if I could get some delicious spicy chicken rice with mint leaves. I arrived at about 2:30 pm, but they were already locking up. I was pretty disappointed as their listed hours say that they're opened until 3 pm on Saturdays. It was quite gross walking through the Tenderloin, so I didn't stick around. From there I hoofed it up to the WorldMark San Francisco located at the corner of Sutter St and Stockton St. It was my hotel/vacation rental for the weekend. It was my first time staying at this property as an owner. Upon arrival, I inquired on the status of my room. The lady at the front desk checked and informed me that it wasn't ready. As I proceeded to wait in the lobby, the concierge beckoned me over to his station to give me a visitor package as well as to invite me to take a quick in-room survey on Monday morning at 8 am in return for 3,000 Wyndham Reward points. At about 4 pm, I was able to check-in and go up to my room.

Hotel history

After I unpacked my bag and went through my expo haul, I decided to go back out to get something to eat at one of my favorite spots, Super Duper Burgers. Since the elevator was so slow going up, I decided to take the stairs going down. The sign said that it was 115 steps. Since it was between lunch and dinner, the place wasn't quite as busy. I ordered the mini burger with everything and added cheese and a fried egg. It was delicious indeed, but the runny egg made it quite messy. Maybe I should have them cook the egg hard or well-done next time. Before heading back to my room, I stopped in at the 7-Eleven next door to buy some drinks for the weekend.

115 steps to the 7th floor

Mini burger with everything add cheese, egg

Drinks from 7-Eleven

Back at my room I laid out my flat runner. After a little while of watching TV, I went back out for the usual McDonald's the night before a race. Fortunately there was one about a block away. I used the app on my phone to get a McDouble for $1 and large fries for $1. That's a pretty sweet deal that I cannot pass up even if I didn't have a marathon the next day! Funny thing was at this location, they did not charge me 10 cents a piece for the bags used in my to-go orders! Did they not get the memo?

Flat runner

$1 McDouble, $1 large fries

Sunday 7/29
The full marathon was scheduled to start at 5:30 am, so I got ready and headed out at about 4:30 am. As with all hotels in the area, the doors were locked for the night. The security guard opened the door for me. Along the way, a fellow marathon participant asked me if I was headed to the start and if he could walk with me. With so many belligerent homeless people in the area these days, I wasn't looking forward to walking to the start alone, so I definitely welcomed the company. His name was Rick, he was from the Orange County area, and it was his very first marathon. He told me that he was about to order an Uber when I showed up. I told him it wasn't necessary. We were only about 1 mile away. Along the way, I gave him a few pointers. When we arrived at the end of Market St and had reached the starting area, I pointed to the location of the portapotties and the entrance to the corrals. Before going our separate ways, I gave him my beer ticket and wished him luck in his first marathon.

I then headed to the gear check area to drop off my bag. They were much more organized this year. The UPS trucks were already there with the volunteers ready to take your gear bag. Before heading inside my corral, I got in line for one of the portapotties.

Gear check

Elite corral

Corral A

Start line

The race started promptly at 5:30 am after the singing of the national anthem. I felt bad for the singer as she messed up the lyrics a bit. Sometimes I can barely speak a few phrases let alone sing a song that early in the morning! The first couple of miles went okay until I got to that first climb at Fort Mason. I started feeling the tightness in the left glute and hamstring, so the third mile was my last quick mile. Slowing down the pace helped a bit, but the leg was just not good enough to handle the long climb up to the Golden Gate Bridge.

It wasn't all that bad running across the bridge via the sidewalks. It wasn't too crowded since only those running the full marathon got to run across. I was pretty pooped once I got to the other side. It was good to run on some softer trail down to the other side. However once I got onto Conzelman Rd, I had to pull over and walk up the hill. It was just too steep for my sore left leg to handle. Once I got back up to the bridge, I practically had to force myself to start jogging again. After getting off of the bridge, we headed towards Golden Gate Park, this time via the California Coastal Trail which took us to Lincoln Blvd. As I was heading down 27th Ave, I was passed by my friend the Endorphin Dude. It was good to see him moving faster again!

1st half: 2:16:17

This year they moved a couple of miles into the Presidio area and around the bridge instead of having us run circles around the various lakes inside Golden Gate Park. Unfortunately without the bridge miles for those running the first half, we were stuck with the first half marathoners for a lot longer as they got to run several miles through Golden Gate Park. I actually thought it was a good trade-off for them. Having run across many bridges, the Golden Gate Bridge is somewhat overrated. It's always foggy, wet, and slippery. We certainly had a lot more elbow room once they peeled off for their finish line. Even though I struggled once again in the park, there were many spectators present with their clever signs to cheer you on!

:)

As I was approaching mile 19 and getting ready to exit the park, I was looking forward to getting some hash-browns at the McDonald's on Haight St. I was denied my treat as the fast food restaurant had been shut down! My bay area friends would later inform me that that place had a major drug problem and this was the city's solution. I was hoping to hit the back-up McDonald's on 16th St and Potrero Ave, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be as I was routed south on Florida St to 17th St just about a block before reaching it.

McDonald's has been shut down!

Haight St and Buena Vista Ave

With about a couple of miles to go, I came up to an unofficial aid station that had both beer and mimosa! I definitely would have partaken if I still drank alcohol. My legs were cramping up pretty badly at this point so I was having trouble even maintaining a 15 min per mile pace. I hate those stinkin' Giants, but it always great to see AT&T Park each time I run this race as I knew that I only had about 1 more mile left before reaching the finish line.

Beer & mimosa!

AT&T Park

Finish line

2nd half: 3:05:44
Finish: 5:22:01
Click here for my Garmin data.

Finisher medal

That was a pretty rough marathon for me. I was hoping to be able to finish in under 5 hrs, but that turned out to be just wishful thinking. I had been dealing with a tight left hamstring and glute which really made it very difficult climbing all of those hills. Despite dealing with these ailments, I actually enjoyed all of the course changes. Before exiting the finisher chute, I grabbed a chocolate milk and texted my friend to let her know that I had finished. I guess the timing was perfect since she was in charge of the volunteers and her shift had just ended. We met up in front of the Ferry Building where I bumped into another local friend... Tony aka Endorphin Dude. That was when he told me that he had set a new PR for the marathon. Congrats to him!

Chocolate milk

Kathy!

Tony aka Endorphin Dude!

After the obligatory photos and goodbyes, I started heading towards the UPS trucks to get my gear bag. Along the way, I stopped by the Taiwan booth where they were passing out cans of Sarsaparilla soda. Running a marathon in Taiwan has been on my mind lately. I will have to look into running one soon. After getting my bag, I went over to the challenge tents by the celebration festival area to pick up my California Dreamin' bonus medal which I qualified for by running both the Surf City Marathon and San Francisco Marathon in the same year.

Sarsaparilla soda

Celebration festival area

California Dreamin' medal

After getting back to my room, I got cleaned up and relaxed in my room for a couple of hours. I then rolled out to get a late lunch at the nearby Lori's Diner. I decided to come here because my hotel gave me a voucher for 20% off my meal, it was a short walk from my hotel, and they appeared to serve a good corned beef hash. After being seated right away and looking through the menu, I went with their corned beef hash and a vanilla milkshake to go with it. The milkshake was pretty standard. It hit the spot and was a good reward for finishing the marathon. The corned beef hash was one of the better ones that I've eaten. This wasn't the stuff that came out of a can. It was served with a couple of fried eggs. The service was great and the food was pretty decent, however I thought it was a bit pricey for diner food. I think I will only return if I have a huge craving for some good corned beef hash.

Vanilla milkshake

Corned beef hash

Back at my room, I proceeded to veg out and watch a bunch of TV. I ended up watching most of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. I had not seen either movie as I'm not a big fan of Tom Cruise. I did find them to be pretty entertaining and I now felt adequately prepared to watch the new Mission Impossible: Fallout although I will have to wait a few more weeks before I'm allowed to watch it with my MoviePass.

For a quick dinner, I went back to McDonald's and used the app to get the McDouble and large fries for a $1 a piece. Very hard to pass up such a good deal!

$1 McDouble, $1 large fries

Monday 7/30
One of the Wyndham representatives stopped by my room at 8 am. The survey had questions concerning WorldMark features that I've never heard of since the start of my ownership back in 2016. For example, I've never heard of Triple Play or the Blue Thread. That prompted him to schedule me for an account update at 9:30 am. I thought that the update would last maybe 1 hr tops, but it ran right up until it was time for me to check out at 12 pm! It ended when I finally realized that they were yet again trying to sell me more credits. That was way too much work for 3,000 Wyndham Rewards points. They usually give me 15,000 points for sitting through something that long! I had to quickly pack up my stuff once I got back to my room. Had I known that I would have to sit through one of those lengthy sales sessions, I would've packed up my stuff when I got up this morning.

After dropping off my room keys at the front desk, I headed back to Hai's Restaurant for lunch. As much as I hated to walk back into the nastiness of the Tenderloin, I just couldn't leave San Francisco without eating their famous spicy chicken rice with mint leaves! It's nothing fancy, but it's really good!

Spicy chicken rice with mint leaves

After I paid for my meal, I walked over to the Civic Center station to catch the BART over to SFO for my evening flight home.