I took Friday off from work, so I drove up to the Santa Anita Race Track to attend the Great Race Place Expo. I got into the Arcadia area a little bit early so I decided to eat an early lunch at Taisho. Since I had ran a 50k last weekend, I needed protein to rebuild the legs for another Goofy weekend. After lunch, I drove over to the race track which was only about 5 minutes away.
Beef and Chicken combo bowl
Entering Gate 6, I parked in the designated parking lot and walked over to the expo. The signs for parking could be bigger. I knew where to go because this used to be my old stomping grounds... not the race track but the Arcadia area in general. It was still about 30mins before the expo opened, so I took a look around as they continued to set up. The expo was anything but great. It was small... very small with very few exhibitors. I just did not get a good feeling from attending the expo especially after receiving a notice that Renegade Racing had dropped out just 2 weeks from the start of the race due to non-payment. Devine Racing was notorious for that sort of stuff. Couple that with an over-hyped expo just gave me such a bad feeling about the race. Also just like the prior years, they were not ready again at the hour the expo was stated to open. There were long lines already formed as they were scrambling to stick the timing "chips" on the back of the race bibs. The chips were somewhat big and stiff picture frame looking things stuck to the back of the bib. I picked up my bib and had to have a volunteer scan in the timing chip to assign it to my number. This was the first time I've seen this kind of timing system. I liked the black race shirt. The design was nice and clean. After that I was done with the expo in a matter of minutes.
Expo at the Santa Anita Race Track
Saturday
I drove out to Palos Verdes to run the half marathon... good warm-up for a marathon, right? :) Later that day, I drove out to the Olive Garden in Arcadia to celebrate my friend's upcoming 100th marathon. I was glad that someone else would be reaching a bigger milestone than me at Pasadena. It took the spotlight off of me. But I was still pretty nervous about my 75th marathon. Even though I've been around the block a few times with these marathons, I still get nervous because 26.2 miles is still a lot of miles to cover and I never assume that finishing is a given. The party got moved last minute to the BJ's next door since the Olive Garden was packed. I got their ribeye steak with string beans.
Ribeye
Maniacs pre-celebrating Mitch's 100th marathon
After parting ways with my fellow maniacs, Mitch and I walked over to Claim Jumper to watch the Lakers game. My biggest mistake was ordering and eating the Range Rattlers. They were deep-fried breaded jalapeños stuffed with cheese and shrimp. I should know by now that deep-fried greasy food never ever agrees with me. The spiciness of the jalapeños didn't help. I was pretty tired when I got home, so I crashed into my bed right away. I had all of my gear set out already, but I fell asleep without setting any alarms.
Range Rattlers
Sunday
At about the time I needed to get up, I awoke feeling pretty sick and nauseated. I thought about going back to sleep and sleeping it off. But I wanted to keep my legacy status, so I started to get ready. But the stomach felt very queasy. Eventually I knew those range rattlers were coming back up. So instead of eating breakfast, I threw up whatever I had at Claim Jumper. I swear I will never ever eat fried food ever again. As with running ultra-marathons, you always feel better after you throw-up.
Again I contemplating bagging the race, but I finished getting ready and drove out to Pasadena. Again I took the back streets to avoid all of the traffic. I parked in my usual spot in the same parking structure as the previous years.
Since my right ankle was feeling a little iffy after Palos Verdes and I was feeling pretty crappy overall, my goal was to just finish. I kind of figured I would finish around 5:30, but I brought enough salt caps for a 6:30 kind of day.
The Marathon Maniacs and Half-Fanatics met in front of the stairs for a pre-race group photo. I dragged myself to the portapotties. Then my friend and I found our other friends near the front of the corral. They were easy to find since Mitch was wearing a balloon.
Pre-race Maniac photo
Mitch ready to rock his 100th marathon!
There goes Wonder Woman!
The Race
I started off with my group of friends for a little bit and eventually hung around the 9 minute per mile range. I spotted one of my friends and ran up to chat with her for a little bit. Then I fell in stride with one of my maniac friends for the rest of the first 2 miles. I dropped off and wished him a good race as I was not feeling well and overheating. One of the first things that I noticed was that the aid stations had little tiny Dixie cups. I slowed my pace down but still felt tired. My legs started feeling heavy by mile 7 and I felt extremely fatigued by mile 8. I completely bonked and I knew it was because I wasn't eating anything due to the nausea. I started just walking and looking for my friends all the while force-feeding Shot Bloks in an attempt to revive the legs. A Hispanic guy was probably confused to see someone walking so early kept urging me to continue running. I could not believe just how far I still needed to go. I haven't even reached the halfway point or come close to reaching the hard part of the course at miles 20-22. I talked to a first time marathoner as we were walking up a hill leaving the Rose Bowl headed up to mile 13. He was shocked to find out that it was my 75th. I told him that I thought I would be a one-and-done marathoner, but somehow I ended up running my 75th. I advised him not to sign up for a 2nd or he might end up like me. :) It was a hot day and a lot of the aid stations were running out of cups, especially the aid stations shared by the half and full marathoners. Some runners were running off with a gallon jug. I'm glad that I always bring with me a handheld. God bless those volunteers as most of them had to stand in the hot sun passing out drinks. The rest of the way to the finish line was just a whole lot of walking and jogging. I leapfrogged with Maniac Dale for most of the way since he caught up to me at the Rose Bowl. After getting through the hills at miles 21 and 22, I knew the worst was over. The sun was blazing hot for the last 4 miles.
1: 8:55
2: 8:50
3-5: 31:15 (10:25)
6: 9:38
7: 11:28
8: 11:43
9: 12:48
10: 14:35
11: 12:40
12: 11:56
13: 14:57
14: 14:27
15: 16:19
16: 14:25
17: 14:25
18: 13:00
19: 15:45
20: 14:35
21: 15:09
22: 13:32
23: 14:42
24: 14:34
25: 13:28
26.2: 14:48
Finish: 5:37:57
Post-race
After getting my nice finisher's medal and grabbing some water, I headed over to the Maniac celebration tent. My entire body felt cooked. All I wanted to do was sit down. I rested for a bit under the tent while drinking a can of Pepsi. I love the medal. It's a bottle opener. It's a nice and simple design. It goes to show that the medal doesn't necessarily need color to be a nice medal.
After I felt a little bit better, I got up to go to the finishing chute to cheer on the runners that were still finishing. It was good to see that first timer finish, but he was really struggling. I reminded him not to sign up for another one. :) I tried to wait until the Jester finished, but I gave up after hearing from multiple sources that the course had closed ahead of him. He had just ran a 100 miler on Saturday so he was undoubtedly moving a little bit slower.
It was another Goofy weekend in the books. Number 75 was a bit rough, but I got through it. I'm starting to see that I tend to sabotage myself when I'm nervous about some big or important event coming up. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to get to 100 since I'm planning to take a break. Anyways, I love the course this year. It's been roughly the same each year and they've managed to add the Colorado Blvd Suicide Bridge to the course. But I really hope the race organizers are not going in the direction of Devine Racing. If they lose the trust of the runners, it will be hard to get them to come back. This is a race with great potential and I intend on preserving my legacy status for as long as I can.
Post-race at the Maniac tent
Another Goofy weekend!
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