Rock n Roll Seattle Marathon 2012

Thursday
Plane tickets were significantly cheaper on Thursday versus Friday, so this year I flew out to Seattle one day earlier. I had a nonstop morning flight on Virgin America from out of LAX. I drove out to the airport pretty early to avoid any morning work traffic. I parked in the usual parking lot C and took the shuttle over to the terminal. I killed time by listening to music on my iPod while charging my phone. I had a window seat and the guy next to me smelled like oriental cockroaches when you smash them. Who knows, maybe he was killing some before he came to the airport. Yeah, that's one funky smell that you don't ever forget! :)

I love the SeaTac airport. It 's one of the easiest airports to navigate. I walked over to the Link light rail station which was at the end of the parking structure. I paid $2.75 for a one way ticket to the Westlake station. I got off at the Stadium station and walked over to the CenturyLink Field to attend the race expo.

Expo
I signed up for the Tinker Bell half marathon for $150. They did not give me another sling bag. Those bags were for people that signed up for marathons. I also signed up for next year's Seattle Rock n' Roll Marathon for $85 plus WA state tax, $93.08 total. A marathon under $100 is still a good enough deal in my books. I picked up a Garmin tote bag before sitting down at the stage area to listen to Jim Ryun, John The Penguin Bingham, and Suzy Favor Hamilton.

Jim Ryun, John Bingham, and Suzy Favor Hamilton

Front

Back

I ran into a few of my running friends as I was leaving the expo. I stopped at the nearby Uwajimaya in the International District to pick up some drinks and snacks before hopping back on the light rail to check into my hotel room at the Sixth Avenue Inn. The hotel didn't look all that great from the outside, but the rooms were pretty nice. I hung out in my room, snacking on a big bag of shrimp crackers while watching the TV.

I walked back down to the expo at around 6pm to meet up with a friend for dinner. It took me about 30 minutes to make the trek. My lower back was getting sore which meant it was going to rain soon. We walked over to a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant called Green Leaf. Everything inside the restaurant wasn't very clean looking, but I've come to accept that since most Vietnamese restaurant are that way. The food was pretty good. We got some Spring rolls and I ordered the duck salad. I love duck. This was a really good salad. But as with most salads, I was feeling hungry about an hour later. My friend drove me back to my hotel.

Spring rolls

Duck salad

Friday
I think anxiety usually gets the better of my GI system whenever I'm excited about an upcoming race. I was very excited to run in Seattle again and I was actually hoping to better my personal best of 4:21:25. But I was having major GI issues. It cleared up enough by near afternoon for me to go eat, so I went out to get some lunch down at the waterfront. There was light rain, so I brought my umbrella. Most people out and about were just wearing hoodies and not using an umbrella. Since I didn't stick around to watch it on Thursday, I first stopped by the expo again to watched the course preview. I got out of there pretty quickly after watching the video as it was pretty dang crowded.

I made my way down to the waterfront to eat at Ivar's Fish Bar. I ordered the jumbo shrimp & fries as well as a cup of white clam chowder. I tried to sit in the enclosed eating area, but it was super crowded due to the rain. So I sat down at one of the outside tables. As soon as I sat down, I was greeted by a seagull. He spread out his wings and had his mouth opened wide as if he wanted my food. I ignored him and started eating all the while feeling a little nervous that he would eventually attack my food. Lucky for me, a swarm of kids came over with crackers and fries. They started throwing everything at the seagulls.

Jumbo shrimp & fries with a cup of white clam chowder

Hungry seagulls!

After I was done eating, I walked through the Pike Place Market and took my annual picture on that famous hilly sidewalk. I hiked it back to my hotel room. I came back out to buy dinner at the McDonald's across the street from my hotel. I bought 20 piece chicken McNuggets and a Big Mac. This meal has worked for me for the last two marathons so I'll keep eating this before a race until it fails me.

How's my butt? Are we grading on a curve? :)

20 piece chicken McNuggets and a Big Mac

Saturday
I got ready and walked over to the Seattle Center, the new starting line area. I packed my umbrella in case it rained while I was walking to or after the race. I even brought a mylar blanket in case it rained while I was waiting in the corral after I've checked my gear bag. After we took a Marathon Maniac picture, I checked my gear bag, and lined up for the portapotties. I started near the front of corral 10.

Seattle Space Needle

Starting line

Goal A: sub 4:30 (run 1st half in 2:00)
Goal B: sub 5:00

1st half
Given that I've only ran about 10 miles since San Diego, my ankle felt as good as it has been in a long time. But it also meant that I undoubtedly had lost some fitness and endurance. Everything was flowing smoothly until we hit a big hill at mile 5. It was pretty steep but short. When we crested the hill, it was quickly followed by a very steep downhill. Almost everyone around me had no idea how to run downhill. They were slowed to a crawl as I passed a whole bunch of people. The full marathoners split off from the half marathoners near the mile 6 marker. My body was sluggish and feeling the effects of the high humidity. I knew that I was working harder but going slower than I had ran at San Diego. A little after the mile 12 marker, we rejoined the half marathoners. We had our own lane to the right side of the road to ourselves. I tried to pick it up a bit when we ran through a shady area. But because I was feeling like I was overheating, I slowed down again and was a little over my goal of 2 hrs for the first half.
1: 8:38
2-3: 17:00 (8:30)
4: 8:45
5: 8:53
6: 9:15
7: 9:24
8: 9:25
9: 9:39
10: 9:46
11: 9:51
12: 9:05
13: 9:34
1st half: 2:00:12

2nd half
As we approached mile 14, we split off again from the half marathoners to run a little out and back before heading on the I-90 bridge. They extended the section on the bridge this year. We ran all the way to the end of the bridge and into the tunnel before turning around. Here was where the humidity really got to me. My legs were cramping up like a rock and my bad ankle was starting to feel sore. For the next 5-6 miles, I was trying to revive the legs. We reconnected with the half marathoners for the last time a little after getting off of the I-90 bridge and entering the tunnel. Again we had our own separate lane. Just like in San Diego, they never did once impede my forward progress. I emptied my handheld and filled it with Gatorade at an aid station. They were passing out salt packets at one aid station, so I added one to what was left of my Gatorade. The back-of-the-pack half marathoners and I were both about 3.5 hours into our races. I gave them a few words of encouragement as they're being tailed by the SAG Wagon. I applaud them for having the courage to enter a half marathon. They are getting off of their couches and running or walking a half marathon. I got the legs sort of working again at mile 23, but they quickly cramped up again. I took my last S-cap and drank all of my Gatorade before managing to run most of the last mile.
14: 10:12
15: 12:28
16: 11:57
17: 11:58
18: 14:05
19: 14:16
20: 14:09
21: 15:04
22: 13:30
23: 11:26
24: 14:28
25: 15:02
26: 12:36
26.2: 2:10
2nd half: 2:52:29
Finish: 4:52:41

Post race
They improved the course for this year, but I felt that it was a harder course. There was no longer a need to take a long bus ride down to Tukwila.

Here are my results for the past 4 years for this race:
2009: 4:50:46
2010: 4:53:05
2011: 5:26:52 (coming back from sfx)
2012: 4:52:41

I guess I'm consistently bad at Seattle. :)

I skipped most of the post race food. I stuck to the liquids... Jamba Juice, Chocolate milk, and water. I still can't handle solid foods really well right after a race. I guess maybe that's why I never had problems with post race food, but there was plenty of edible yellow bananas. :) I talked to a few Maniacs at the finish before heading over to the UPS trucks to pick up my gear bag. It was a good thing that I packed an umbrella because it finally started raining and my hotel was several blocks away.

Yellow bananas

Finish Marathon No. 78

After getting back to my room and getting cleaned up, I went back out to the McDonald's across the street to buy some lunch. I used the coupon in our goodie bag for a buy one get one free premium chicken sandwich. It was pretty good stuff. A couple hours later, my Seattle friend picked me up to go eat with a few others at a Korean restaurant, Ho Soon Yi, up north in Edmonds. I got the Kim Chee fried rice. It was okay but a bit greasy. Definitely nowhere near as good as Side Street Inn in Honolulu. The seafood pancake was pretty good.

Grilled chicken club and grilled chicken BLT

Hosoonyi menu

Kim Chee fried rice

Sunday
I tried to sleep in, but I still woke up pretty early. I packed up and relaxed in my room until it was time to check out. I walked over to the Elliott's Oyster House at the waterfront to eat some seafood and drink some post race beer. I had the waitress pick out a half dozen smaller sized raw oysters. I also started with an imperial sized (25oz) Maritime IPA. Eating seafood from the Pacific Northwest is one of the main reasons why I come back here every year. She also suggested one of the Copper River salmon. I got the sockeye salmon. This was really good. The pomegranate was a nice added flavor. I finished it off with a small glass of seasonal stout.

½ dozen raw oyster and imperial sized Maritime IPA

Copper River Sockeye Salmon

Seasonal stout

I hiked back up to the Westlake area to watch a movie at the AMC Pacific Place 11 theater. I thought about watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but instead I opted for Disney Pixar's Brave. I know I've wanted to stop watching movies in 3D, but it was actually pretty good watching it in 3D. I'm hardly ever disappointed by a Disney movie. It's your typical Disney magic at its best and since I'm a big Disney fan, I liked it very much.

I had a late evening flight, so I still had time to kill. I hiked down to the International District to eat at Maneki. It was super busy, so I ate at their bar lounge. I ordered their teishoku and it was a bad choice. I should've stuck to their sushi, sashimi, and other cooked seafood which was their specialty. Since it was pretty mediocre, I didn't even bother taking a picture of it.

I then hopped on the light rail and headed for the SeaTac airport. See you again next year Seattle!

Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon 2012

Friday
During the summer, I normally take Fridays off of work. But not this Friday. I had work to do. I left work as soon as everything was done hoping that I would make it in time for the expo. Traffic wasn't too bad until I got into North County San Diego. According to the radio, there was a huge accident. I tried getting off of the freeway to go down PCH, but that was super crowded as well. I then drove inland and almost stop at Kaito Sushi in Encinitas to eat, but I kept heading south. Eventually I hopped back on the 5 freeway. I was still about 30 minutes away when the expo closed at 7pm. So off I went to eat dinner before checking into my hotel.

I stopped by Tajima to eat a bowl of extra chashu ramen. I then went across the street to Mitsuwa to buy some snacks before heading over to the nearby Four Points Sheraton to check in. There was a very fancy feel about this hotel. They even had a 9 hole golf course. The room rates were really affordable probably because not a whole lot of people need to stay in Kearny Mesa. I spent the rest of the night just snacking and watching TV.

Tajima - extra chashu ramen

Four Points Sheraton

Snack time

Saturday
I drove out on the 163 down to the Convention Center at about 10am, giving myself a little preview of the most dreaded part of the course. I tried to give myself enough time to make it through the expo and to meet the 4 time Ironman World Champion, Chrissie Wellington. I parked at the Horton Plaza parking structure and walked over. With validation, you get 3hrs of free parking.

The expo was incredibly crowded. I ended up spending a good chunk of change at this expo. I signed up for the Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge, for which I received a nice sling bag. I also registered for next year's San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon for $95. It was a pretty good bargain for signing up so early. I bought 2 pairs of Injinji mid-weight socks and a box of GU chomps.

Another runDisney bag

There was three things that I saw at this expo that I've never seen before or really stood out and I've been to a few of these expos. :) One was the Pepto Bismol booth. I've had annoying GI issues in the past during a race, but I think I've figured that out. Maybe I should look into carrying some just in case. Second was McDonald's. They seem to be getting into the marathon business. They were also an event sponsor at the Med-City Marathon, but they didn't have quite the presence like they did here at San Diego. Third was the Chicrunner dressed up as a penguin. :)

First time seeing Pepto Bismol at a race expo!

Fueled by McDonald's!

Oh my! Chicrunner! :)

I barely got through the expo in time to get a good seat to listen to Chrissie Wellington. I made my way over to the stage area and sat in the first row. She talked about her humble beginnings and how she got into triathlons. The moderator also had her talk about her last IM World Championship in Kona. She went into it injured from a bike crash and still won. She said that your finishing time isn't always indicative of how deep you had to dig and how much you put out there on race day. That was her smallest margin of victory, but she had left everything out there on the course. She said that there's something satisfying knowing that you have nothing left after crossing the finish line.

After her time on stage was up, she was going to be signing autographs at the Brooks merchandise area. There was a lot of people fighting their way through the expo to get to the autograph line. I got in line and bought her book, A Life Without Limits. She signed my bib, a poster, and the book. She was one of the nicest professional athlete that I've met.

Up on stage

Med-City Marathon finisher meets 4 time Ironman World Champion

I then had to leave the expo to make sure that I vacated the parking structure before the 3hrs was up. I dropped off my expo bags in my car and went across the street to Ralph's to pick up some Odwalla drinks. Before driving off I went into the mall to validate the ticket. I then headed back to Kearny Mesa for some lunch at Sakura. This place is always packed and there's no restaurant sign on the outside. I guess when the food is good, all you need is word of mouth and Yelp. I had the cold tofu and seafood fried rice. Good stuff.

Cold tofu

Seafood fried rice

I then went back to my hotel room and sifted through my expo bags to throw away the junk. This was one of my more enjoyable expos. I might change my mind after I see the credit card statement. :)

A little bit later, I went back outside to pickup dinner. I drove to a nearby McDonald's. I ordered what's starting to become my regular pre-race meal, 20 piece chicken McNuggets and a Big Mac. I laid out my gear before going to sleep.

Expo goodies

Carboloading with McDonald's

Sunday
I drank my Odwalla Strawberry C and got ready. I checked out and arrived at the old San Diego Sports Arena at around 4am. I believe it is now known as the Valley View Casino Center. Parking was easy and very convenient with the shuttles just a stone's throw away. I relaxed a bit in my car listening to some tunes on my iPod shuffle. I boarded the shuttle at around 5am for the short ride over to starting line at Balboa Park.

I met a fellow Marathon Maniac (MM#4975) on the shuttle. It was his first San Diego RnR Marathon, so I showed him the ropes. I sat at a curb near my UPS truck for the most part. Near 6am I dropped off my gear bag and went over to the spot for the Marathon Maniac pre-race photo. We went our separate ways after the photo.

Starting line at dark o' clock

Portapotties are good enough for this guy!

I was assigned to corral 5. It was the corral for runners shooting for a 3:40 finish. I guess I had different plans last year when I signed up. But that pace is feeling much easier these days, so I did not start in a slower corral. In the corral I saw two runners dressed up at Fred and Wilma Flintstone. I talked to them a little bit before the race and found out that they had ran the Nanny Goat 100 miler just last weekend. What a small world since we knew almost the same group of crazy people. :)

Starting in corral 5

Fred and Wilma Flintstone!

Goal: run the 1st half in 2:00 and coast in on fumes... finish in around 4:30


The Race
I ran at what felt like a nice and relaxed pace from the first step. But by mile 3, I was feeling that same sharp pain in my right ankle. This was where I caught the PF Chang's dragon. I slowed down the pace and jogged a little bit with the dragon. Somehow the pain went away right after the 3:40 pace group passed me. I increased the pace a bit to see if I could follow for a bit. I kept myself just a few steps behind the 3:40 pace group. The pace-leader's pace was all over the place. He flew by Petco Park and slowed down a bit at around mile 6, but I made sure not to pass the group. Once I saw the dreaded 163 looming ahead just around mile 8, I decided it would be best to not press my luck and let the group go. I would have to work too hard to keep up especially going up the 163. The camber really made the gimpy right ankle sore. Even when I got to the downhill section, I could not take advantage of the free speed. I just focused on keeping an even effort. I got through the first half in 1:59:36.
1: 8:32
2: 8:48
3: 9:09
4: 8:14
5: 7:52
6: 8:24
7: 8:57
8: 10:04
9: 9:50
10: 9:50
11: 9:36
12: 9:38
13: 9:41

I was feeling ok, but I could feel the lack-of-stamina starting to set in. I kept telling myself to hold it together until mile 18 or 20. I was trying to keep all of the miles under 12 minutes until I hit the wall. Things started to get hard once I got on the concrete bike paths in Mission Bay. It felt like I had strapped on some lead ankle weights. The wheels came off a bit at mile 22. The right foot just hurt a little too much that I had to walk more than I'd like. The 3ish miles around Fiesta Island wasn't too bad. I kept taking my usual walk breaks and telling myself that I was almost done. But I knew that if I walked too much, I would miss my goal. I also knew that I was losing minutes every mile, so I tried and managed to speed up a bit on the last two miles. I finished the second half in 2:30:42.
14: 10:18
15: 9:56
16: 10:17
17: 11:00
18: 10:47
19: 11:39
20: 11:53
21: 12:18
22: 14:21
23: 12:04
24: 12:45
25: 11:44
26: 10:53
26.2: 1:45
Finish: 4:30:18

Post-race
After crossing the finish line, I picked up my finisher's medal, bottled water, Gatorade, TruMoo chocolate milk, and Shamrock Farms Rockin' Refuel lactose-free chocolate milk. I finished what's left in my handheld on the way to the UPS gear check trucks. My legs were cramping up, so I took another S-cap with my water. I changed out of my wet clothes and drank the TruMoo. I checked out the finish line area for a little bit before heading out.

Ann at the finish line

I hit the portapotties one last time before boarding the shuttle back to the Sports Arena parking lot. There was no line which meant that they had plenty of shuttles running. I got everything in order and texted my friends that I finished before heading out to the Range in Hillcrest for lunch. The traffic getting out of the parking lot was a bit hairy. Everybody wanted to get on the 8 freeway. Thanks to knowing the area, I was able to bypass the freeway and take surface streets all the way over to Hillcrest.

Medal

I met up with my friends from San Diego. I like hanging out with them. I had a couple of nice refreshing beers and a dish called the Hash. It was corned beef hash with potatoes and some eggs. Drinking the Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter reminded me why a porter is still my favorite kind of beer. Afterward shooting the breeze and all of the talk about everything under the sun, we went our separate ways. I took the 163 to the 15 freeway home. Lately I been staying away from the 5 freeway because the traffic has been bad.

Hoegaarden

Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter

The Hash

I was very pleased with my race, missing my goal by only 18 seconds. It took a while to recover from all of my injuries. But I'm almost finally out of the woods. Pretty soon I can start training for some faster marathons. I must say that this road to recovery has been much tougher than the last one with the stress fracture on the left tibia. I felt like I had hit rock bottom at the St Louis RnR Marathon. At that point, I felt like I should just give up on the whole idea of running. I knew I could've just taken time off, but all of the registration fees would've gone to complete waste. But it did give me a greater appreciation of those back-of-the-packers. Most of them were dealing with some sort of limitation where that's the fastest they could go. Taking 6-7 hrs to finish a marathon is not easy even if you're jogging, walking, or crawling.

Med-City Marathon 2012

Friday/Saturday
Memorial Day weekend is well known as a busy weekend to travel. My flight was a Friday evening red eye flight from out of LAX. The place was a zoo. It was also one of the few times that I've flown with Delta. With a window seat, I tried to sleep as much as I could on the plane, but the seat was just too uncomfortable. The pilot must have somewhere to get to because he got us to Minneapolis St. Paul airport about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. I took my time heading over to the car rental area. I had to wait a bit before I could get my car. I got a nice little Kia Rio. They always try to give me a bigger car, but it's just me and I always travel light so I declined the bigger car.

I made the nice and somewhat long drive down to Rochester. This was my first time using the GPS on my smartphone. It does come in handy, but I pretty much ignored the directions the whole time. Stupid machines. :) Unlike driving in Southern California, the drive was nice and relaxing. I could drive the speed limit, 65 mph, and not feel like I was going to get run over by the millions of cars behind me. This was also my first time in the Minneapolis St. Paul area as well as Rochester. I kind of like the slower pace... but I'm guessing it could get boring.

I got into Rochester a bit early around 8am. I thought that I would park at a ramp (aka parking structure) and take a nap, but the free weekend parking doesn't start until 9am. Fortunately parking was free for the first hour, so I parked anyways and walked over to the Mayo Civic Center area to check things out. They were in the process of setting up the finish area for the weekend races.

The finish line

I went back to my car and had to find a few things to do to kill some more time. So I drove to a nearby McDonald's to eat breakfast. I rarely eat here, but only do so when I need to save some money. I had a sausage McMuffin meal with orange juice. I waited until it was after 9am before heading back to one of the ramps near the Civic Center. I waited in my car until it was closer to 10am before heading over to the expo. The expo was pretty crowded. I picked up my packet and got into a secondary line for the shirt.

Sausage McMuffin, breakfast of champions

Packet pick-up at the expo

After leaving the expo, I stopped by the Hy-Vee supermarket across the street from my hotel, the GuestHouse Inn, to pick up Pringles and drinks before attempting to check into my room early. Housekeeping needed time to get the rooms ready so I hung out in the lobby with my smartphone and charger. After the lady at the desk was able to check me in, a huge thunderstorm had rolled right through Rochester. It was pouring too hard for me to get to my car, so I went up to my room to wait out the storm.

The room was pretty spacious, but on the older side. I noticed that the toilet was dry. I flushed it and it was backed up. So I located housekeeping and asked for a plunger. It looked like the previous tenant wiped too much and stuffed it with too much paper, but it was pretty easy to unclog. :)

GuestHouse Inn

I like rooms with a fridge

I relaxed while watching TV. The storm lasted a couple of hours with some areas being pelted with quarter-sized hail. I was hoping there would be no hail where I was at because I don't need a damaged rental car. Lucky for me, the car was not hit by hail. Once the storm passed through, the weather slowly warmed up and become really humid just in time for a marathon. :)

Since I needed to get my stuff from the car, I decided that I might as well get something to eat and drove back to McDonald's for a late lunch/early supper, which I took to-go. I got 20 pieces of chicken McNuggets and a Big Mac. I'm not sure when I last at McDonald's twice in one day. Probably never. Well, McDonald's was one of the event sponsors for the race. :)

McDonald's for a late lunch/early supper

I went through the stuff I got from the expo. The participant's shirt was pretty nice, nicer than most races. We also received a souvenir timing chip which I kind of like. I'm kind of tired of those orange disposable ones. If anyone wants the Subaru water bottle, let me know and it's yours.

Participant shirt, bib, souvenir timing chip, and water bottle

Since I ate lunch kind of late, I ate a tube of Pringles as my final meal before the race while watching the NBA playoffs. In the future, I probably should eat a baked potato with salt instead of Pringles, but I really do love me some Pringles. I've limit myself to eating them only for races. I haven't been very successful in giving them up entirely. Before calling it a night, I got my gear ready. I brought my new pair of Asics Sky Speed 2.

Celtics v. 76ers and Pringles

Race gear

Sunday
After getting ready for the race, I headed back to Civic Center to park at one of the ramps. Around 5am, I boarded one of the school buses for a short ride over to the Byron Elementary School. They opened the school for us to wait inside before the start of the race. As the start got closer, we were instructed to move over to the starting area up the road. They even had a jumbo screen setup. Pretty nice for a $30 race. I guess race costs are much cheaper in Rochester. One problem was that their speaker system was entirely inadequate. I was lined up right in the middle with the 4 hr marathon pacer, but we could not hear a thing, including the national anthem. At least we were able to hear the start signal.

Starting line

The Race
I started off the race very relaxed and kept reminding myself to go easy. I tried to keep all of the early miles 9 minutes or slower. Everything was going well until around mile 5. I felt a sharp pain on the outside of my right ankle. Very similar to the pain that I felt at the Houston Marathon. Coincidentally both times that I've felt this pain, it was also the week after running a Goofy (half marathon on Saturday and a marathon on Sunday). It was the sort of pain that made me think that I would have to drop out. I walked and jogged in an attempt to try and alleviate the pain. Eventually it subsided. I noticed that it was set off by the road camber. I felt good enough to speed up a little bit through miles 9-12. I got through the first half in 2:09:46.

Race photo by Nicole Mathison

The race at this point was getting pretty toasty. The race director had extra aid stations set up all along the second half. There was plenty of ice cubes being passed out. I can't say that I remember too much of the 2nd half. It was just a whole lot of concentrating and trying to keep the effort even. I was very worn out by mile 25. The heat was getting to me. I was very glad that the race was almost over. They had a huge American flag about a block away from the finish line. That was a nice target to have as you're approaching the finish. The finishing chute was lined with a lot of spectators. I finished the 2nd half in 2:36:49.
1: 8:54
2: 9:12
3: 9:03
4: 10:01
5: 10:56
6: 11:25
7: 10:27
8: 10:32
9:-10: 18:50 (9:25)
11: 9:24
12: 9:45
13: 10:17
14: 11:46
15: 10:49
16: 10:52
17: 11:40
18: 12:25
19: 12:01
20: 10:51
21: 11:39
22: 12:47
23: 11:26
24: 12:05
25: 13:28
26.2: 15:59
Finish: 4:46:35

Post-race
One of the funniest thing I was asked right after I crossed the finish line was "did you remember to stop your watch?" Maybe he was seeing if I was doing okay by asking me a basic question. It was pretty dang hot and humid. Anyways, I got my medal and a very nice red finisher shirt. There are shirts you donate and there are shirts that you know you'd keep. This was definitely one that I would wear often. I picked up a few drinks and headed over to my car. I changed out of my wet race shirt and relaxed a bit in the car before driving back to my hotel.

Finisher shirt and medal

One of the things that I like about endurance running is that there is a lot of on-your-feet problem solving involved. I went from wanting to drop out at about mile 5 to running my first sub 5 hour marathon since the Carlsbad Marathon way back in January 23, 2011. There's just a lot of stuff that can happen over 26.2 miles.

A few of my friends had registered for this race, but bailed for different reasons. I had thought about doing the same since getting to Rochester, MN was not cheap. But in hindsight, I was very glad that I ran this race. I loved the small town race feel to it. The level of organization and the treatment of the runners was exceptional. I would run this race every year if I lived nearby.

A Famous Dave was conveniently connected to the hotel. I ordered to-go some rib tips, roasted chicken, and broccoli to eat in my room. Very good stuff after running a marathon. I was definitely craving protein and I love rib tips for the cartilage.

Famous Dave's rib tips and roasted chicken

Monday
The next morning, I vegged out in my hotel room until it was time to check out. Since my flight was later in the afternoon, I headed over to the nearby movie theater, CineMagic Theatre, to watch Men in Black 3. The movie was entertaining but not a must-see movie. I watched it in regular 2D. I'm starting to think 3D is very overrated. I then drove back up to Minneapolis St. Paul to catch my flight. I had time to eat so I ate at the Mill City Tavern near my gate. This place was pretty expensive and totally not worth it. The beer was good, but I could've bought a 6 pack somewhere else. The ham sandwich with Gouda was decent, but still it was overpriced for a sandwich. I think two flights got combined, which resulted in my seat being changed to one way in the back near the restrooms. Worst place to sit. My seat assignments almost always change when I book through Orbitz or Travelocity as opposed to booking directly with the airline. LAX was a zoo when I got back... home sweet home! :)

Rush River Unforgiven Amber Ale

Ham sandwich with Gouda