I took an early lunch break to drive out to Ontario to pick up my race packet for tomorrow's marathon. Prior to going to the race expo, I ordered lunch on the Yoshinoya mobile app. I tried out their beef bowl with the yuzu jalapeño sauce. I also used the deal to get 5 pcs gyoza for $1. I was skeptical at first, but the sauce actually turned out to be pretty good! It was tangy and not too spicy.
Large beef bowl with yuzu jalapeño sauce and 5 pcs gyoza ($1)
Instead of paying $10 to park at the Ontario Convention Center, I walked over. I had to go through the metal detector before entering. Per the usual, the packet pick-up process was streamlined. I first got my bib and gear check bag. Then I went further inside to get my race shirt where I bumped into a few of my friends. I didn't stick around too long as I needed to get back to work.
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Race packet goodies
Participants name wall
Found my name
Fuel the bear within you
Saturday 11/16
I got ready and left the house at about 2:30 am. During the beginning of my drive to the bus loading location in San Bernardino, I received a text telling us that the marathon was cancelled due to unsafe road conditions from the recent snowstorm. We would be given race credit based on the amount that we had paid for our registration and then use it to defer to another one of their races. We also had the option to run the half marathon. Well, we didn't get dressed up for nothing. Since I was now going to run the half marathon, I parked my car at the SW corner near the Olive Garden to catch the half marathon bus. However, a bunch of friends that were also registered for the marathon called me and wanted me to join them at the marathon bus loading corner. I walked over and we boarded one of the nicer motorcoaches. It was a nice relaxing ride, but our driver followed the 2 ahead of her and went way past the drop-off location.
Olive Garden
Bus ride up to the start line
When our driver finally made a u-turn and reached the starting area, the place was packed. I don't think the area was big enough to support both the half and full marathoners. It was so packed that I really couldn't tell where the lines ended for the portapotties. Thankfully, I bumped into Almi and joined her in line. While waiting in that line, I noticed that the Super Moon was really bright! Thankfully, I wore my post race fleece jacket that I had saved from the Tokyo Marathon as it was quite cold!
Almi
Super Moon was bright!
Luis
At about 5:40 am, I started making my way over to the truck to check in my gear bag. I don't normally check anything, but I wasn't about to part ways with this nice throwaway jacket. After checking my bag, I headed towards the start line to position myself for the 6 am start. I positioned myself in front of the 1:40 pacer.
LaBoo and Lorinda
JC
Lea
Ready to run!
I ran the first 6 miles comfortably hard at about a 7:20 min/mile pace. I was still feeling good, so I decided to drop the hammer. It wasn't a big hammer as I finished the remaining miles at about 7:10 - 7:15 min/mile pace. That last mile was a little bit of a struggle as I might have started emptying the tank a tad too early. That finish line looked really far away when I made that final left turn! Coming into this race, I was only planning for a 4:05 in the marathon. With the last minute change to a shorter race, I really didn't know how I would do. I thought realistically, I would finish somewhere between 1:40 and 1:45. With a couple of miles to go, I was quite pleased when I knew that I was going to finish in under 1:40 by a good margin.
First half: 47:50
Second half: 47:32
Finish: 1:35:22
Click here for my Garmin data.
It was quite satisfying to cross that finish line knowing that I ran a good smart race and set a new PR for the half marathon! My mile splits were pretty even, including a slight negative split. Not too bad for a pair of non-super shoes with about 700 miles on them! FYI, runners that wore super shoes sounded like horses galloping.
The first volunteer gave me a finisher medal for the marathon. I asked if I could get a half marathon one. She said no, that they had to give out the medal based on our bib. That was totally understandable. I was ready to accept that answer when a second nearby volunteer overheard my request, gave me a half marathon medal.
Finisher medal
PRs for both of us!
I picked up some post race snacks and drinks as I headed towards the exit of the finisher chute. I grabbed a cookie before heading out. Ted and I got in the long line to get a print out of our results. I was starting to feel cold, so I had to roll down the arm sleeves. We then got in line to get our extra reveler medals. The font size on their name list was super tiny. They informed me that I was not on the list. No worries. I told them that I would email the race director as I had run the Mt Charleston Marathon earlier this year.
Post race goodies
Chavet
Post race cookie from Cookie Company
Ted
I continued to bump into more of my friends as I waited for the gear check area to calm down a bit. Normally, I would be running the marathon, so by the time I showed up, the volunteers would have already organized the bags by numerical order. I briefly spoke with a guy in the beer garden wearing a Wales shirt. He flew over to run the marathon! Bummer that it got cancelled! I asked him if he had run the London Marathon. He told me that he never felt the need to run it, but if someone were to fly all the way over to the UK, then they should run it. I excused myself from the conversation when I spotted my friend, Eric.
Dee
Eric
Robert
Friends at the finish
Eventually after taking a bunch of selfies with my friends, I took Robert over to the table to pick up his extra reveler medal. This time, I decided to go on the results page and pull up my digital finisher card for Mt Charleston to show them. However, that wasn't necessary as they told me that I was on the list. Well, go figure! Unfortunately for Robert, they wanted to see his finisher printout for today's race before they would give him his extra medal. He didn't want to wait in that long line as he wanted to catch Karen crossing the finish line, so he just left without the medal. I would've thought that him having a finisher medal would be enough!
Beautiful dog
Double Reveler
After I used one of the poratpotties, I then got into the very long shuttle line. Apparently, I was right behind 2 Marathon Maniacs from Ontario, Canada! #762 Rick Cooney and #1441 Keith "Rocketman" Parks. We each went over our Maniac race résumés. They looked really familiar to me. They told me that they have paced quite a few races.
Taking the yellow school bus back to my car
Four days later, we received an email regarding the deferment credit instructions. I had used rewards points on the REVEL Race Series app to register for the marathon, so money wise, it was worth $134. When I checked, the option for next year's race wasn't available yet. I will hold off for that option to appear before I use up the credits. For it being a local race, it was nice to get a free half marathon out of this minor inconvenience.
