Rock n Roll San Antonio Marathon

Pre-race travel, expo, and food
I took a very early flight out of Ontario to San Antonio on Saturday. I sat next to Rafael from New York who was also running the marathon. Once I landed, I headed over to the car rental office to pick up my car. I drove over to the Alamodome to attend the expo. The instructions said to park at the Alamodome, but it was closed off. I ended up parking about 2 blocks away for $10. There was a bet on how many races I would sign up for... I signed up for 0. Sorry to disappoint. Speaking of signing up for races... I picked up my Rock Legend medal at the RnR booth. I asked one of the girls there if I get an extra discount if I show up wearing the medal at future expos. She jokingly said I should get a lifetime discount for earning that medal. Just as I was about to leave the expo, I bumped into Sam. I would see him later again at the tweetup.

The Alamodome

After leaving the expo, I started heading towards Downtown over to the Riverwalk and the Alamo. I ran into Dave, a fellow Marathon Maniac, down at the river. Weird how we keep bumping into each other. I took a couple of pictures at the Alamo. I was kind of tired so I didn't go in. It was nothing spectacular from the outside. Besides reading about it in history books, I've only remember seeing the Alamo in the movie, Cloak & Dagger. I hoofed it back to my car and drove over to my hotel.

The Riverwalk

The Alamo

On my way to the hotel, I stopped by a HEB supermarket to pick up my usual drinks and snacks. I stayed at a Red Roof Inn. A nearby street was Emil Street. I only saw the street when I was mapping out my driving routes for the weekend. I'm sure I looked odd to the drivers when I was taking the picture. The hotel was not located in a very nice area. It kind of seemed like a poor part of town.

Emil Street

I headed back out later for a tweetup at Chris Madrid's for burgers. It was touted as having the best burgers in San Antonio. The locals recommended the macho sized cheddar cheezy, but I was afraid too much cheese might screw up my GI system the next day. So I got the regular cheeseburger with sliced American cheese, fries, and a Coke. I've made a thing lately to never "super-size" any meal and to always order the small size. I met a few new tweeters, people that have been following OperationJack. Yes, the burger was good... but I still prefer a burger from Island's or a six dollar burger from Carl's Jr. I'm not a big fan of In n' Out either. To each their own.

Chris Madrid's

Regular cheeseburger with sliced American cheese & fries

Shortly after I got back from dinner, it would appear that the room next door was having a party. From the peephole, they looked like a bunch of highschoolers that chipped in for a room. But thank goodness it looked like they were only using the room for a pre-party. They were pretty tame and ended around 10pm most likely to go to the real party.

Race day
I woke up at about 3am to get ready and checked out at about 4:30am to go park at the AT&T Center. I took a quick cat nap in the parking lot before riding the bus over to the starting village. I walked over to corral 7 where I would wait for the pre-race maniac photo. I sat at the curb listening to music on my iPod. The UPS gear check trucks were parked diagonally in one of the narrowest streets in San Antonio. The street was packed to the gills with runners trying to check their bags. A few of us noticed that the sidewalks were pretty open and was able to bypass the crowd. I checked my bag and barely made it back for the maniac photo. After the photo, I hit the potty one last time and entered corral 4... the 3:40 corral.

Goal A: sub 4:30
Goal B: sub 5
Goal C: go home

1st half
I was at the front of my corral. When they released our corral, I knew I was going a bit faster than 3:40 pace. But it felt easy and I did not accelerate. I also have walk breaks built in, so everything would eventually average itself out. There were walkers and joggers that we had to pass... seriously with chip timing, WTF are you guys doing in corral 1, 2, and 3? I already feel bad starting in corral 4, but at least I can hold the pace until the halfway mark where the crowds have long thinned out. Anyways the usual ankle discomfort came at mile 8. It was hard to start back up when I took my walk break. The 3:40 pace group caught me at around mile 10. I ran with them until my next walk break right during mile 13. The right foot was not good after reaching the halfway mark at around 1:51:xx.
1: 8:09
2: 7:51
3: 7:53
4: 8:25
5: 8:18
6: 8:12
7: 8:18
8: 8:55
9: 8:47
10: 8:45
11: 8:52
12: 8:52
13: 9:20

2nd half
As usual, I went into my longer walk-jog 2nd half mode. I just wanted to see if the ankle could hold a 3:40 pace for at least the first half. I'm pretty sure I went to use the potty at miles 17, 20, 22, and 23. Muscle cramps kept creeping in and I kept drinking my Nuun water. I'm thinking that I've mixed it too thin. It tasted way better when I added an extra salt packet. The right leg was pretty useless when the ankle starts to hurt. I did a lot more real running in the last 2 miles or so just to get it over with sooner. I like the finishing chute at RnR races. They set it up so that spectators line both sides of the chute. The cheering really made me run hard even though there was a noticeable climb near the very last turn.
14: 10:22
15: 11:12
16: 12:16
17: 14:32
18: 13:36
19: 12:36
20: 14:38
21: 12:51
22: 15:56
23: 17:28
24: 13:27
25: 12:15
26: 11:32
26.2: 1:49
Finished: 4:45:08

Rock Legend!

Post race food
After I changed out of my running clothes, I took the bus back to the AT&T Center to get my car. I drove over to a McDonald's to eat something. I ordered a McRib sandwich meal. They had sweet tea. I don't think I've ever seen that at a McDonald's. I love sweet tea. I think the last time I ate a McRib was 8 years ago... probably also the last time I ate at a McDonald's.

McRib sandwich and fries

Sometimes the race is the easy part
I tried to find a gas station near the car rental area, but I couldn't find one. I ended up driving around for about 5 miles before I found a gas station. After I returned the car and hopped on the shuttle to the airport, I had thought that the hard part for the day was over. Instead it turned out that the marathon was the easy part of the day. Most of what happened in the marathon I could control, but a super long flight delay I could not control. They said it was a mechanical issue... most likely BS. I fly American Airlines enough to know that that's their standard answer for practically every delay. Instead of a 3 hour layover at DFW, I ended up missing my connection to Ontario... the last flight out to Ontario. They gave me two options: 1) stay overnight in DFW and fly out on 1st available flight next morning. 2) fly out to LAX and take a shuttle to Ontario. I went with option 2. The flight was one of the most uncomfortable ones I've had. They put me in the middle seat on the bulkhead row. There was very little leg space and I'm not that tall. Anyways, it took another hour ride in a Prime Time shuttle to get to the Ontario airport after making 2 other stops. By the time I drove home, it was a little past 2am. I could've showered and gone straight into work with no sleep... but no way! I slept and went in around lunch time. From now on, I'm only booking direct flights.