Madison Marathon 2014

11/7 Friday
I took a red eye flight at 11:30pm out of LAX with United airlines. I would have a layover in Chicago O'Hare airport before landing in Madison, Wisconsin.

11/8 Saturday
During my layover at O'Hare airport, I ate breakfast at McDonald's. I then discovered something that I've not seen before. The toilets had mechanical self cleaning seat covers. No more have to use those paper toilet seat covers. I'm wondering what it uses to clean the seat.

After landing in Madison, I went to go pick up my rental car. The girl at the counter was a trainee. She was trying to sell me on everything with her trainer standing right next to her. I waived the usual insurance, but I'm such a sucker and went with the upgrade to a premium car to help her out. The car she gave me was a burgundy Toyota Avalon with leather seats and seat warmers. Pretty nice for another cold weekend, but the low tire pressure warning light came on as soon as I drove it a few yards. I drove back to the return lot and went back to the rental counter to get another car. This time they gave me a white Nissan Maxima. This car wasn't as nice, but at least no warning lights came on when I drove it.

I drove over to the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center for the expo and parked at the Government East Garage just off of Pinckney. It was a short walk over to the convention center from the garage. I took a bunch of escalators down to the bottom level where the expo was held. Right before you enter the expo, they will even print out your bib number for you if you didn't already know it. The bib and shirt pick up was in the back. I went through the bag and threw away the advertisements before heading out to go get lunch.

I hiked over to the Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry to eat a burger. They have good beer flights if you want to sample a bunch of the local brews. I started things off with the Wisco Road Trip. Then for my meal, I ordered the Melting Pot Burger. It came with Cheddar, Swiss, and Provolone cheese, Jones Diary Farm smoked bacon, and their signature English garlic sauce. I can definitely see and taste why it's their number one selling burger! I finished things off with the Mad City Flight. I've eaten my fair share of burgers and the one I had here easily ranks at the top. I would definitely want to come back here to try other items on their menu.

Taking the Wisco Road Trip

Melting Pot Burger

Mad City Flight

After my meal, I stopped by the Capitol Centre Market to buy water, coconut water, Powerade, and bananas.

It was a bit early to check into my hotel, so I went back to the expo to kill some time. I ended up checking out the course preview video that they had playing on a screen.

Parking came out to be $4.50 when I exited the garage. I drove to the Red Roof Inn just past the airport at Hayes Road. After checking into my room, I took a shower and a nap. The room was pretty much on par with a Super 8, Motel 6, or a Days Inn. It was good enough for a quick trip. The bed was comfortable and clean. Also the towels were clean. For dinner, I walked across the street to eat at Perkins. I sort of had an early Thanksgiving dinner. I ordered their turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and corn. I drank a couple glasses of ice tea with my meal.

Red Roof Inn

Red Roof Inn

Turkey dinner

Before going to sleep, I went through the expo haul. They gave us a bottle of TYR sports drink which I ended up dumping before going through TSA. I then got my race gear ready for another cold race. According to the weather forecast, we were going to be lucky that the cold weather would not be including snow or rain.

Race shirt

Race gear

11/9 Sunday
After getting ready, I packed my stuff into the car while snow was actually coming down. As I drove towards the starting area at the Capitol, the precipitation would go away. I parked in the same parking structure as yesterday and waited in the car a bit before getting ready to go outside. I wore last weekend's throwaway jacket and a mylar heat sheet to cover my legs. After using one of the portapotties, I ended up waiting with a whole lot of people inside the Starbucks just next to the starting corrals. One of the Starbucks employees was definitely irritated with the runners and the huge line waiting for the restroom. I braved the cold and went outside to wait inside the corral. As the race was about to start, I took off the jacket and the mylar sheet and threw them to the side.

My friend warned me about the hills. Boy was she right. I kept that in mind for the entire race. I made sure not to run out hard in the opening miles. The course had us heading out to the University of Wisconsin Arboretum. The hills started coming by mile 4. That would only be the beginning of a rolling course full of hills. If you weren't running up, you were running down.
1: 8:14
2: 8:28
3: 8:32
4: 8:58
5: 9:03
6: 8:49
10k: 53:57

The short climbs here and there was already wearing me out. We ran up to Camp Randall and the Observatory Hill around the University of Wisconsin. There was then a couple mile stretch along Gorman St where we got to see a nice view of Lake Mendota. I crossed the halfway point just behind the 4 hour pace group.
7: 9:21
8: 9:04
9: 9:14
10: 9:56
11: 9:46
12: 9:40
13: 9:38
Halfway: 1:59:39

After crossing the halfway point, we headed up Sherman Ave where we headed up to Warner Park for some more rolling hills. The temperatures during this race was in the low 30's. It felt significantly warmer than last weekend's marathon where it was in the 20's. I actually had to roll down my arm warmers and thought about removing the gloves. It was still cold enough that I kept the gloves on.

Running up a hill

14: 9:58
15: 9:57
16: 10:18
17: 10:52
18: 11:53
30k: 2:58:28

We headed up to Maple Bluff. This was one difficult but scenic course! The short steep climb near mile 24 finally had me taking a walk break. The final mile had one last climb that had my legs begging for a walk break, but you can see and hear the finish line just a block over. I knew it was just a quick u-turn before I saw the finish line.
19: 10:39
20: 11:37
21: 11:28
22: 12:37
23: 11:11
24: 11:20
25: 12:07
26: 11:18
26.2: 1:56
Finished: 4:25:55

This was a much tougher course than last weekend's marathon, so I was glad to find out that I had beaten last weekend's time by 1 second. Progress is progress. :) I love races that gives out free race photos. Usually I only want one race photo, but I really don't want to pay $30 for one especially when I run so many races!

Finish line

After getting my finisher's medal, I picked up a few post race goodies. There was even a booth that printed out your results. I then picked up a free ice cold beer. I sat down at a table to drink it and it got pretty cold. I quickly finished the beer and headed to my car to change out of my clothes and put on some warm clothing.

See you next time!

After I changed, I walked around the corner to the Great Dane Pub for my traditional post race burger and some real beer. I sat at the bar and started off with a Texas Speedbump IPA. For my burger, I ordered the Applewood Bacon Burger with sharp Cheddar and a side of mashed potatoes. It came out with fries, so they brought me some mash potatoes separately in a small bowl. It was a good burger! I had plenty of time before I had to head to the airport to catch my evening flight home, so I had the Devil's Lake Red Lager and an Old Glory American Pale Ale as well to help finish off the burger. During my meal, I had the chance to talk to a few people that had also run the marathon and their friends. Throughout the marathons over the years, I've had so many great conversations with strangers.

Great Dane

Texas Speedbump IPA

Applewood Bacon Burger

After I paid my tab, I headed over to the airport. This time it cost $5 to exit the garage which was the maximum per day. I gassed up the car along the way. This time I was able to not incur the EZ Fuel charge because I was able to show my gas station receipt to the guy at the car rental counter when I dropped off the car. I hung out in a section of the airport where they had some comfortable chairs. I sat there for a spell drinking my bottles of water before going through TSA. I had to toss the TYR sports drink as I had no more bladder space. This time my layover was a quick one in Denver. State #30 done!

Indianapolis Monumental Marathon 2014

10/31 Friday
I took an early morning flight with US Airways out of John Wayne Airport, one of my favorite airports. I parked in the Main Street parking lot and took the shuttle over to the terminal. When I checked in for my flight, I was able to select a seat in one of the exit rows. So much nicer to fly with the extra leg room! I originally had a very short layover in Phoenix, but my connecting flight was delayed a bit before heading over to Indianapolis. Good thing that the expo was open until 9pm.

Yay for exit row seat!

After picking up my rental car, I drove over to my hotel to park the car and check in before heading over to the expo at the Indiana Convention Center. While walking over to the expo, I realized that the Indiana Pacers had a game at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse since there were a quite a few people at the corners trying to sell me tickets.

I went through the expo. Picked up my shirt and bib. Then on my way out I looked for my name on the poster with the names of all of the participants. My first and last name was split up on two different lines. They gave us a small souvenir version of the poster.

Poster with participants' names

My first and last name was split

On my way back to my hotel, I stopped by Noodles and Company to eat a quick dinner. I ordered the spaghetti with meatballs and a side order of the chicken noodle soup. The spaghetti was decent and served well for a carbohydrate rich meal for tomorrow's marathon. The chicken noodle soup also hit the spot as it was hovering around or below 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

Spaghetti and meatballs with a side of chicken noodle soup

I also stopped by a Big Red Liquors to see if I could buy some sports drinks or water. They had bottles of water for 50 cents a piece. Apparently the cashier thought I was underage and was trying to buy or steal alcohol. Oh if he only knew how old I was. There was also some unsavory characters staring at me the entire time. I paid for the water and hurried on back to my room. Since I couldn't find any sports drinks, I decided to just go with Nuun water for the marathon.

For this trip, I stayed at La Quinta. I had decided on running this race kind of late and it was pretty much a great find. Although it was close enough for me to walk to everywhere I needed to be, it was located near the outskirts of Downtown. In a way that was good since it was pretty quiet. The room was nice and came with a microwave oven and a refrigerator.

Microwave oven and mini-fridge

This was one of my favorite race shirts. Nice colors with a very simple design. I normally donate my race shirts to Goodwill, but this one for sure is a keeper for me. I got my race gear ready before hitting the hay. With the temperatures in the 20's, I was pretty sure that the arm sleeves and gloves will stay on for the entire race. This was also the race where I would be giving the Root Beer GU's a try.

Race shirt front

Race shirt back

Race gear

11/1 Saturday
I got dressed and jogged over to the Indiana Convention Center. Thank goodness they opened it up because it was cold outside. Since I was going to wear everything for the race, I had no gear bag to check. I brought with me a mylar heat sheet for waiting in the corral. Inside the convention center, they even had a stand handing out bananas and water. While waiting, I bumped into a few familiar faces and a bunch of Marathon Maniacs. We waited inside until it was closer to the 8am start.

The starting line was on Washington St between West St and Capitol Ave with the course heading East.
Here's a YouTube video of the course: http://youtu.be/DygBz7NxxnU

After a few miles around Downtown, the course headed into the suburbs. I ran the first 4 miles progressively faster around the vicinity of the 3:30 pace group. It felt okay, but it was prudent to ease off on the pace as I had been dealing with plantar fasciitis in both feet as of late. The course for the most part was flat. I got through the first 10k in 51:06 which was good for me in a marathon.
1: 8:23
2: 8:08
3: 7:56
4: 7:54
5: 8:35
6: 8:26
10k: 51:06 (8:15)

A little after mile 7, the half marathoners split off. Without the fresh eager to finish half marathoners pushing the pace around me, I eased off further on the pace. I just wanted to run a smart race especially since my legs have been feeling tired and heavy from so many races on consecutive weekends. At the halfway point, we were pretty much as North as we were going to go before we started heading back towards the capitol.
7: 8:41
8: 9:01
9: 8:56
10: 9:20
11: 9:31
12: 9:50
13: 9:48
Half: 1:55:30 (8:49)

I further slowed the pace down to try to make it to mile 20 running at a consistent pace. This section of the marathon has always been a grind for me. I kept sucking down the Root Beer GU at one every hour and a salt cap every 30 minutes.
14: 10:07
15: 10:27
16: 10:42
17: 10:35
18: 10:43
30k: 2:54:41 (9:23)

We ran about 2 miles down the White River Parkway which was a pretty scenic section. I started having leg cramping issues, so I had to start taking walk breaks. We then headed East along the Burdsal Parkway and Fall Creek Parkway before we head South on Meridian. No, I wasn't hallucinating! I did see a rainbow unicorn! I ran with him during the last couple of miles. He's a fellow Marathon Maniac and was running to support a peer support group for women that are going or have gone through breast cancer. Also apparently the girl, Hailey Danisewicz, in the red top set the world record for the fastest above the knee amputee marathon in 4:25:28, which was 28 seconds faster than me!

Mr. Rainbow Unicorn

19: 11:19
20: 12:49
21: 11:53
22: 12:32
23: 12:12
24: 12:21
25: 12:19
26: 11:33
26.2: 1:54
Finish: 4:25:56 (10:09)

It really never gets old. It was a nice feeling crossing the finish line especially with the State Capitol building as the backdrop. State number 29 finished! After getting my finisher's medal, I was given a bunch of goodies in the finisher chute. I got a bottle of water, TruMoo, a banana, and a cookie. In addition to those goodies, I was given a throwaway zip up jacket and beanie to keep warm. My fast friend, Sally, spotted me shortly after I crossed the finish line. She usually finishes about an hour ahead of me. After snapping a photo, I started making my way back to my hotel. I so looked forward to the warm shower!

Finish

Sally at the finish

Medal and post race goodies

For an early dinner, I walked over to the Circle Centre Mall to eat at the Granite City Food & Brewery. Per the usual after running a marathon, I went with a burger and beers. I started off with their beer sampler for $4.95. What a great deal to check out 8 different beers. For my burger, I got the Bison burger with bacon. All of their beers were pretty decent. Couldn't go wrong with any choice. The burger was flavorful, nice and tasty especially with the added bacon. I finished it off with a pint of the Batch 1000, their double IPA.

Beer sampler

Bison burger with bacon

11/2 Sunday
For some reason when I checked into my flight, they assigned me with zone 5. I wasn't about to deal with having to involuntarily check my bag when overhead bins are full so I paid the extra $20 for PreferredAccess which meant that I get to board with zone 1.

My flight was at 6am, so I got up super early to get ready and headed for the airport. I gassed up the rental and got to the airport at about 4:30am. There was a whole row of cars being dropped off ahead of me. They had conflicting signs there so some of us were confused as to what to do. Nobody was at the counter yet at that hour, so I went with the sign that said to leave the keys in the car. Since I had not driven more than 75 miles, they would later tack on their EZ Fuel charge of $13.99 which kind of sucked since I couldn't show my gas station receipt to anyone there. I guess I could've called in to get that money back, but that would be too much of a hassle for me.

We were about 15 minutes late arriving into Phoenix since they had to de-ice the plane before we left Indianapolis. I sort of had to hurry to my connecting flight. They had already started boarding. Fortunately it was a pretty empty flight. There were empty seats everywhere.

Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon 2014

10/25 Saturday
For this race expo at the LA Convention Center, I parked my car at the Sierra Madre Villa Station and took the Metro into Downtown LA. Sure I could find cheap parking for about the same price as a Metro fare, but I would have had to deal with the headaches of downtown driving. After picking up race packet, I went to look at the 5 year legacy banner. It was pretty disappointing to find that my name was not on it. I stopped by the solutions booth to let them know. Besides the banner, they didn't do anything special for their legacy runners. No extra shirt, no special bibs. Hmmm... I wonder if I should maintain my legacy status, assuming they actually have added me to the list. I'm wondering if my extra slow performance in 2011 led them to suspect that I had sold or given my bib to someone else. I had to limp through the race that year with a stress fracture.

Race shirt

Boo! My name wasn't on here! :(

I stopped by the Rock n' Roll area to register for next year's race for $65. I got a nice blue cotton shirt for signing up. I also stopped by the GU booth to pick up a box of their Root Beer GU. I love Root Beer! Then before leaving the expo, I stopped by the OC Marathon booth and registered for $95.

Register for next year

Bonus shirt

Box of Root Beer GU!

Before heading home, I took the Metro over to Little Tokyo to eat a bowl of delicious ramen at Men Oh Tokushima Ramen. It was actually pretty packed. Normally as a party of one, there's no wait or the wait is very minimal. Eventually I was seated at the bar. I ordered the Tokushima ramen and Tokushima don combo. After my meal, I took the Metro back to my car.

Before I went to sleep for the evening, I got out my usual Superman outfit for tomorrow's race. I might need to upgrade the shirt as it is made out of heavy cotton.

Race gear

10/26 Sunday
I did the same routine for race morning. I parked my car at the Sierra Madre Villa Station and took the Metro down to the Pico Station. Then I walked over to Chick Hearn's table in front of Staples Center to get ready. Although one thing has changed this year, they had moved the gear check area over to the lot just across Staples Center on Figueroa Street. The old location was used for the Charity Village and a Bark Park.

Starting line at dark o'clock

I hit the portapotty a few times before going visiting gear check. After I got my "gear" ready aka throwing on the cape, I checked my bag and headed for my starting corral. Slowly my friends started showing up and we ended up starting together right behind the 1:45 pace group. My goal was to try and run a 1:42.

Inside the corral

When our corral was released, I felt like I was constantly trapped behind slower runners. I tried not to weave too much and eventually I settled into a groove. After looping around the Coliseum, it was a gradual incline up through downtown on Figueroa. After a slow mile 5, I kind of already knew that that 1:42 was out the window. The 1:45 pace group would catch up to me just as we approached the 10k mark. I then switched to plan B which was to get to the finish as fast as I could preferably under 1:50. I then made my onto Flower where I ran up to the 3rd Street tunnel. It was a good feeling to not slow down going up the hill at miles 9 and 10. However the last steady incline for mile 12 slowed me down a bit. My friend would catch and overtake me as we ran through the 3rd Street tunnel heading down to the finish line. I kept a steady pace and was happy to come in just under 1:48.
1: 7:42
2: 7:25
3: 7:49
4: 7:58
5: 8:27
6: 8:24
7: 8:39
8: 8:14
9: 8:26
10: 8:33
11: 8:13
12: 8:56
13: 8:20
13.1: 0:42
Finish: 1:47:49

2013: 1:57:16
2012: 2:05:16
2011: 3:21:08
2010: 1:54:33

Well, after a disastrous 2011, I'm finally getting around to running better races. This year was my fastest for this race. While I was nowhere close to my goal of 1:42, it felt good to see that a bad race day was now a sub 1:50. I can still remember when it used to be very hard for me to come in under 2 hrs!

After picking up my medal and a bunch of post race goodies, I made my way over to the gear bag area to pick up my bag. I put away the goodies, my handheld bottle, and the cape to free up my hands. I also threw on my cargo shorts so that I had some pockets. I then made my way over to the beer garden to get my free Michelob Ultra. After I was done with the beer, I noticed that there was another tent giving out free wine. So I sampled their rosé wine. A couple of my friends eventually joined me in the beer garden. It was pretty cool going over our races and talking about our future races over a few drinks.

Beer tent

Medal and beer

Wine and post race entertainment

Maniacs in the beer garden!

After getting back to my car, I drove on home. I decided to finally check out the local Bob's Big Boy for lunch. I got the Super Big Boy Burger combo with a salad and ice tea. The salad was a bit plain and there was nothing super about the Super Big Boy Burger except that it was a bit bigger. It also tasted worse than a McDonald's Big Mac. But I did love that they played oldies from the 50's and 60's for the old diner experience. The service was excellent and I might want to stop by every now and then just for a little bit of nostalgia.

Big Boy!

Salad

Super Big Boy Combo

Duke City Marathon 2014

10/18 Saturday
I hadn't planned on renting a car and from what I could tell, there wasn't a real convenient way with public transportation to get to the expo at the Isleta Casino & Resort. So when I registered for the race, I paid an extra $20 to have the race packet mailed to me.

Shirt and bib mailed

For this trip, I was able to book a pretty cheap flight with Southwest Airlines flying out of LAX. I landed at Albuquerque airport at a little before 1pm. I waited for bus number 50 for my ride into Downtown. On weekends, the bus comes once every hour, so I had to wait a while for the 1:45pm bus. The bus fare was only $1. I got off at the bus stop at the corner of 2nd St NW and Copper Ave NW. I then walked a few blocks west to check into my hotel called The Hotel Blue. It looked a bit dilapidated on the outside. I also came across a bunch of shady looking characters along the way. Perhaps they've never seen an Asian before, but they just kept staring at me. I booked this hotel because of the excellent room rate and the convenient location. The Tempur-Pedic bed was nice and people working at the front desk were very friendly.

View from my room

I was pretty hungry so after checking out a few possible places on Yelp, I decided to eat at the nearby Q Burger. The restaurant was located at the Northwest corner of 3rd St and Central Ave. I ordered their Q Burger with Sweet Potato Tots. I don't like sweet potatoes and before coming here, I've never eaten them as tater tots. I've only eaten regular tater tots. I can honestly say that they were actually pretty good. The burger was pretty much their version of the bacon cheeseburger. It was pretty good for a burger. I had a Marble IPA to go with it. I went back to my room to relax a bit. Along the way, I stopped by the 7 Eleven to pick up some water and Powerade. One of my favorite movies was playing on TV, That Thing You Do! I noticed that beneath the TV was an electronic fireplace which was a bit cheesy looking. :)

Marble IPA

Q Burger with sweet potato tots

Electronic fireplace

For my pre-race dinner, I met up with my friends at JC's New York Pizza Department. Although it was a pizza place, I didn't order a pizza because my body doesn't really like pizza the day before a marathon. So I ordered the hot Italian Roast Beef Sandwich and a lemonade. The sandwich was actually pretty good. It was full of flavor and I sort of wished that it was a little bit bigger. It came with a small salad. Service was decent. The place wasn't very crowded so we had enough attention from our server. He was able to split up the check for all of us. The restaurant itself showed some age. The booths were a bit on the grimy side, but hey as long as the food is good and I don't get sick, I'm okay with it.

Italian Roast Beef Sandwich and a lemonade

A few Marathon Maniacs having dinner

After snapping a group photo, we went our separate ways. I went back to my room and got all of my stuff ready. I really need to buy some GU's soon as I was running out of miscellaneous ShotBloks and gels in my stockpile of runner stuff at home.

Race gear

10/19 Sunday
There was a little bit of chill in the air as I made my way from my hotel room to the starting area just in front of the Convention Center at 3rd and Tijeras. It was nice that the Convention Center was open, so that we could stay warm inside. It's also always nice to be able to use real restrooms instead of doing your business inside a portapotty before a race. As the start of the race approached, I went back outside and met up with my friends in the starting corral.

Starting line

The marathon started promptly at 7am. The shorter distances would follow later. The course was a pretty straightforward out and back course with a good majority of it on the Paseo del Bosque Recreation Trail. It took a few road miles before we got to the trail. The trail was pretty narrow but we were pretty spread out by then when the half marathon front runners came storming past us. I was feeling okay until about mile 10. The legs felt very heavy especially when we had to run up a big overpass. It took me a little over 2 hrs to reach the halfway turnaround point. The weather continued to get warmer and warmer. I was already beginning to feel the onset of leg cramps.

Course map

Lots of miles along the open scenic bike path

The majority of the mile markers were not in the right place so I just used them to get a general idea of how much further I had left. I started feeling a little dizzy at around mile 14. I had forgotten that Albuquerque was at a much higher elevation than the greater Los Angeles area! As I was dealing with the leg cramps, I kept leapfrogging with a tall guy, who I would talk to later on our way back to the same hotel. He was Brian from Houston, Texas. I kept pushing and plodding along as fast as I could, but had to keep taking walk breaks. For some reason, I was pretty determined to finish under 4:40. It really didn't matter, but perhaps I just wanted it to be over with as soon as possible. Running down the finishing chute was pretty nice.
Finish 4:39:48

Yay! Another finish line crossed in a new state! #28 in the books!

Medal

I bumped into a few Marathon Maniacs at the finish and I waited around for my friend to finish while drinking my chocolate milk. After my friend came through the finish line, we went our separate ways to our hotels to get cleaned up before reconvening at Q Burger. On my way back to my hotel, I bumped into the guy that I had been leapfrogging with during the later miles. We talked a little about the races that we've done and where we're from. I find that I've met so many interesting new people from running all of these marathons over the years and at different states.

After getting cleaned up, I walked back to Q Burger where I joined my friend at the bar counter. This time I had their BurQueño Burger with green bean fries. The green chile added a nice kick to the burger. I would definitely pick this burger over the regular Q Burger that I had yesterday. With the burger I ordered the La Cumbre IPA and finished with a Santa Fe Happy Camper IPA.

La Cumbre IPA

BurQueño Burger

After our meal, my friend had to go meet up with her old friend before catching a flight home. I wished her a safe flight and went back to my room to rest. I did not go back out for dinner as I had already consumed enough calories and just ate some post race snacks while drinking water.

10/20 Monday
After checking out of my room, I walked over to the bus stop at Tijeras Ave NW and 2nd St NW. On weekdays, the bus comes every 25 minutes. It was an uneventful relatively short flight back home. Upon landing at LAX, I drove over to my favorite ramen shop to eat a late lunch.