Run Through Redlands Half Marathon 2023

Sunday 3/5
I got ready and left the house at about 5 am to time it so that I would get to Redlands right at 6 am which was the time that packet pick-up was scheduled to start. Along the way, I was passed by several cars going at least 100 mph. For me, these early morning drives to races have been a game of guessing whether the drivers in the cars around me are either sleepy, drunk, or high on drugs.

When I exited Eureka St and headed south, I saw that the road was closed off at Redlands Blvd. So I made a left turn onto Redlands Blvd followed by a right turn onto Orange St to get to Citrus Ave. I was going to park in the not-so-well maintained lot next to Frontier Communications. I missed the turn at 4th St, so I made a u-turn at Eureka St. Once I entered the lot, I took a loop to find a decent parking spot. All of the stripes were completely faded, so I ended up parking at the most eastern end just to be away from other cars.

Prior to coming to the race, I was wondering why parking locations were changed for this year as I saw that people were still parking over across the street at the zombie Redlands Mall. Eventually, it'll be torn down and redeveloped into the State Street Village.

This year, packet pick-up was instead at the AK Smiley Public Library. I bumped into my friend, Rachel, at the table to pick up my race bib. After we got our race shirt and goodie bag, she told me that she was staying at an Airbnb about 2 blocks away. Then we came across Ryan who was going to be pushing a wheelchair for Team Hoyt. After that I went back to my car to get out of the chilly morning air.

Back of race shirt

Race shirt

Goodie bag

At about 6:50 am, I got out of my car to go use one of the portapotties as well as to catch the start of the 10k race. Although the 10k was scheduled to start at 7 am, the race announcer delayed it a few minutes as he noticed that there were still stragglers crossing the street and getting into the starting corral. After the bulk of the participants went through, I headed back to my car to get ready for my race.

10k start

I stopped by my friends' car along the way to the start line. I ended up starting with them near the front of the corral. I came into this race thinking that I would have a good race. The past 2 weekends, I had run shorter races. However, they were both on hilly courses. Unfortunately, the hills on this course weren't any easier. I tried to take advantage of the downhills, but my legs felt heavy from all of the climbing. I started feeling some soreness in my right hip near the end of the race. Then with about 1.5 miles left, I completely bonked. I just had no energy left. I practically had to walk it in, but I did manage to muster up a jog to the finish line.

Start line

Sherry

Finish line

Finish: 2:16:45
Click here for my Garmin data.

After crossing the finish line, I bumped into my friends that had finished ahead of me. After taking a couple of selfies, we walked over to the tables to get some orange juice and orange slices. My legs felt pretty trashed, so I ended up sitting at a nearby bench to recover a bit. I eventually got a second cup of OJ before heading out. My friends invited me to breakfast over at the Septembers Taproom & Eatery. I was feeling pretty crappy, so I told them that I would be a maybe.

Tracy

Finisher medal

Karen, Ryan, and Dan

Post race orange juice

I headed back to the finish line to see if one of my friends was there. Along the way, I came across a little girl scout selling cookies. That is smart to sell those cookies after a race! I asked if she had any of those new raspberry cookies. She told me that I would have to buy those online. Bummer! I didn't find my friend, so I started heading back to my car. The more I walked, the better that my legs felt. I dropped off my handheld bottle at my car and put on my jacket before heading over to use one of the portapotties.

Seeing this reminded me of those hated Gooners!

I saw that the Septembers was pretty close nearby, so I decided to walk over. When I got there, I didn't see any of my friends inside. The skies looked pretty gloomy so I decided to head back to my car and drive it over. Once I returned, I still didn't see any of my friends there. I parked my butt on one of the benches near the entrance to start texting my friends. Luckily, my friends who were former Redlands locals were only a few minutes away. My other friends had gone back to their hotel over in Loma Linda to get cleaned up. We weren't seated right away since the waitress told us that they were slammed this morning. She asked us if we could wait until 11 am as the next shift will be starting then. I guess that they're not used to the influx of hungry and thirsty post race runners wanting food and drinks. We were given some water while we waited. Once we were seated and had time to look over the menu, we had to flag down a waitress to put in our orders. It turned out that they thought we were already taken care of since we had water at our table. Anyway, I ordered my usual favorite breakfast meal, their NY steak and eggs. I got the steak medium rare and my eggs cooked sunny side up. The steak and eggs were good, but the hash brown grease tasted a little weird. Also, I don't like my toast that burnt. Otherwise, it was a good meal with friends.

Septembers

Breakfast menu

NY steak and eggs

Steak medium rare

Brea 8k Classic 2023

Sunday 2/26
I woke up early to get ready while watching Premier League Mornings. I then followed that with the Spurs v. Chelsea match. I ended up catching the entire first half before hopping in the car and heading to the race. They were scoreless through the first half which is always a good thing with the slow starting Spurs. The Spurs would go on to win 2 nil with a goal from Skipp and Kane. I actually couldn't start my drive right away as I needed the windshield to defrost a bit.

Boy, things sure have changed since the last time that I've run this race back in 2020! Per the usual, I drove down via State College. What used to be an open unmaintained lot was now an apartment structure called Avalon Brea Place. The road just before reaching Birch St was already barricaded when I got there, so I turned in and drove towards Target. I ended up parking next to the Men's Warehouse.

Avalon Brea Place

Not sure what this is

After parking the car, I walked across the street to pick up my race packet. Along the way there, I bumped into my friend. After getting a quick selfie, I continued on. I looked up my bib number and got my bib. That was followed by getting a goodie bag and then the race shirt. At the shirt station, I saw the usual volunteer guy that I had volunteered with at the LA 5k back in 2019. He is always volunteering at races. I used a portapotty before returning back to my car to get out of the chilly morning air.

Bib pick up

BoxLunch tote bag

Goodie bag contents

Race shirt

Race shirt

Back at the car, I went through the contents of the goodie bag which was mostly just flyers. At about 7:35 am, I finally got out of my car to get ready for the race which was scheduled to start at 8 am. I shed my jacket and cargo shorts before jogging over to the portapotties to get warmed up and to empty the bladder one last time. Once I took care of that, I jogged back towards the start line and positioned myself right in front of the 7 mins per mile sign.

Start line

7 mins per mile

Finish: 41:12
Click here for my Garmin data.

Finish line

Finisher medal

I was quite pleased with how I ran the race, mostly because I paced myself correctly and didn't have to walk any of the uphill sections. However, it was the slowest in the 4 times that I've run this race. Still, I'm making good progress in getting myself back into shape. I don't mind being a little slower if it means nothing is hurting.

2020: 39:32
2019: 38:12
2016: 38:38

After receiving my finisher medal and catching my breath, I headed into the post race food court. At the entrance, I received a bottle of water and a banana. Here were the tables that I came across inside the food court and what was being passed out:

• Red Robin: small pizza slices
• Starbucks:
  • Pike Place (medium roast)
  • Sumatra (dark roast)
  • Veranda (blonde roast)
• The Power Club
• Ding Tea:
  • Mango green tea
  • Brown sugar milk tea
• Nothing Bundt Cakes
• Coach's Oats
• BJ's: Chicken alfredo

Post race food court

Red Robin... yum!

Starbucks

The Power Club

Ding Tea

Nothing Bundt Cakes

Post race goodies and coupons

I bumped into my friend from Long Beach while inside the food court. Per the usual, we went over how our races went. We both agreed that the food spread while still better than other races, just wasn't quite as good as years prior. I think the local restaurants are still trying to recover from dealing with a few years of COVID.

Ward!

On my way back to my car, I came across a pedestrian. He looked to be in a bad mood. As we crossed paths, he mumbled something along the lines of, "they had to go have a marathon and shut down the streets. Now, I have to f'n walk!" Whoa, take it easy. First of all, the race was only 8k or 5 miles. I'm pretty sure that the city gave you plenty of warning ahead of time of any road closures.

LA Chinatown Firecracker 10k 2023

Saturday 2/18
I woke up early to catch the Aston Villa v. Arsenal match at 4:30 am. Villa players showed up to play against the league leaders. In the first half they played well enough to take a 2-1 lead. However, those Gooners were relentless with their offensive pressure in the second half. Zinchenko scored an unlikely goal to equalize. It was his first since joining Arsenal. Now, the go ahead goal was a lucky ass shot by Jorginho. It hit the cross bar which bounced back and hit Emi Martinez's head which then ended up in the net, resulting in an own goal. The 4th goal was an empty netter as they brought Martinez up for a failed set piece. If Arsenal does end up winning the league cup, it will be because of sheer luck.

Next, there were 6 matches all starting at 7 am. I kept an eye on the Everton v. Leeds match while I focused on watching the Forest v. Man City match. To be honest, this match should've and could've been easily 6 nil City, instead it somehow ended in a 1-1 draw. As soon as the match was over, I hopped in the car and started heading out for Chinatown to go pick up my race packet.

I don't enjoy driving around the Downtown LA area, so I drove out to the Sierra Madre Villa Metro rail station to take the light rail. Prior to driving out, I had downloaded the TAP app to try and use up my balance on a couple of cards. Once I got on the train, I kind of regretted my decision to take the Metro. The last time I took the rail, it was right around when COVID hit. It seemed to have gotten worse since then. The cars were filthier with homeless people in each of the cars. The city makes no attempt at securing the fare gates, so people pay based on the honor system. Unfortunately, there is very little honor among the general public these days. The homeless guy that was in the same car as me was constantly having trouble securing his cart from rolling away even though it was missing a wheel. Eventually, he took off his shoes and laid on top of it to stop it from rolling off. When he was finished drinking from his gallon container and the train came to a stop at a station, he tossed the empty container out onto the platform. Nice.

I arrived at the Chinatown Metro rail station at a little after 10 am and not soon enough. It definitely wasn't a pleasant experience. The timing of my arrival was excellent as the packet pick up was scheduled to start at 10 am. It seemed a little strange that Broadway wasn't shut off to traffic. I thought about maybe doing the bike ride one year, but not if the course is not closed to traffic! There are too many idiot drivers out there!

Chinatown Metro rail station

Year of the rabbit

After picking up my race bib, shirt, and goodie bag, I headed over to the Carbo-load area to pick up the usual takeout box of noodles. This year they had Boon chili sauce. It added a nice kick to the somewhat bland noodles. In prior years, I think they only had soy sauce. I was kind of baffled with the "fortune" that I got from my cookie. It read, "work on improving your exercise routine." That sounded more like an advice than a fortune.

Race schedule

Bib and carbo-load

"Fortune" cookie

I was pretty disappointed with the shirt this year. The shirt was pretty much the primary reason why I continued to run this poorly organized race. It would appear that they didn't hold an art contest this year for the t-shirt design. It was just a tiny medal logo on the left chest. The contents of the goodie bag was a sample of Liquid IV electrolyte mix, a keychain, a rabbit sticker, a deck of cards, a fan, and a couple of flyers.

Race shirt

Goodie bag

Fan

Before heading back to the Metro rail station, I did a quick loop of the Chinatown Central Plaza to check out the various vendor booths. Most of the booths were fundraisers this year. I didn't come across any vendors giving out samples. Per the usual, I made sure to take a quick selfie with Bruce Lee. Thankfully, the ride back to my car wasn't as bad as it was getting into Chinatown.

Bruce Lee

Chinatown merchandise much cheaper than EPCOT

Sunday 2/19
I woke up pretty early to get ready to head to the race. I was dragging a bit as I would much rather stay home and catch the 2 EPL matches today. I wasn't looking forward to riding the Metro rail to the race. I had thought about driving to Chinatown and hoping that there were street parking. However, I wasn't sure if I had to still feed the meter on Sundays. I ended up sticking to the original plan and drove out to Sierra Madre Villa Metro station to take the rail. It was a chilly morning, but I knew to stand next to the elevator to avoid the cold breeze. Once again, there was the homeless issue, but it felt much safer once the cars started picking up more race participants at each stop.

Sierra Madre Villa Metro rail station

The train pulled into the Chinatown station just shortly after 7:30 am. That was the starting time for the opening ceremony, so I walked briskly over to the start line area. I wanted to get to the other side of the start line to get a video of the 5k race start, but there was caution tape blocking off access via the sidewalk. I backtracked to find an opening to cross to the other side of the street. Along the way, I bumped into my friend who was running with the Pasadena Pacers. They're a great group of people.

Willie!

Prior to the start of the 5k race, they had the lion dancers perform followed by the lighting of the firecrackers. It looked like this year, they had the firecrackers lit mechanically instead of having some distinguished guests light them by hand. That's a good change and much safer! Thankfully, there wasn't a breeze this year, so the smoke from the firecrackers went straight up instead of being blown into people's faces.

Pace car

Lion dancers

Firecrackers

5k ready to start

5k run start

Once the 5k runners had passed through, I headed over to College St to use one of the portapotties. I then walked over to Phoenix Bakery to wait for the 1st runner to arrive at the finish line. The 1st male finish in 16:22. Not bad! I stuck around to catch the 2nd and 3rd place male finishers. I was only able to catch the 1st and 2nd place female runners, as I needed to start heading over to the start corral for the 10k race. My Fotmob app notified me that Man United had defeated Leicester by a score of 3 nil. Man United, especially Marcus Rashford, has been on fire as of late! They play so much better as a team without that has-been CR7!

Phoenix Bakery

5k 1st male

5k 2nd male

5k 3rd male

5k 1st female

5k 2nd female

After the 5k walkers went through shortly after 8:30 am, I headed into the corral for the start of the 10k race. The scheduled start time for the 10k was for 8:40 am, but it would seem that each race had been pushed back by 10 minutes. We were released at about 8:50 am.

This was my 5th time running this race, so I was very familiar with the course. I knew to take it easy during the opening mile as the first half of the race was pretty much a steady climb. Even so, I quickly realized that I wasn't in shape yet to handle such sustained climbing. Besides the general feeling of being out of shape, I felt some tightness in my left hamstring, so I decided to take walk breaks here and there. For this race, I just wanted to get in a good workout with some substantial hills and not hurt myself for the upcoming LA Marathon. I made up some time during the downhill sections, but I didn't feel as strong as I would have liked.

10k start line

Finish: 55:11
Click here for my Garmin data.

After crossing the finish line, I received my finisher medal and a volunteer marked my bib to signify that I had received my medal. I then continued down the finisher chute where I got a bottle of water, an apple, an orange, and a banana. I always liked that they gave out healthy post race snacks. During that walk through the chute, I ended up talking to a lady that I had leapfrogged during the race. I had narrowly beaten her to the finish line. I was only faster by 6 seconds. It would turn out that she would be running in the upcoming Tokyo Marathon. I told her that I was training for the upcoming LA Marathon. Both her and I only need the Boston Marathon to complete all 6 World Marathon Majors. We wished each other well in our upcoming marathons before going our separate ways.

Finish line

Finisher medal side 1

Finisher medal side 2

Post race water and fruit

This was my slowest finishing time for this race. The 4 other times that I had run this race, I had finished in just under or around 50 minutes. Without any current knocks, niggles, or any injuries to speak of, I hope to get back into better shape soon.

After turning off airplane mode on my cellphone, I was happy to see that my Spurs had beaten West Ham by a score of 2 nil. I bumped into my friend just after getting out of the finisher chute. I headed with him over to the line for the beer garden. I skipped the line to see if I could find his wife and some of my other friends that had run the 5k. Unfortunately, the music inside the beer garden was a bit too loud for my friends to hear my text messages. After waiting around one of the exits for about 10 minutes, I decided to bail and head home.