After work, I stopped by the race expo at Disneyland to pick up my race packet. They definitely controlled the flow of traffic for parking better this year. Once the parking lots for Downtown Disney filled up, they redirected cars to park in the lot just in front of the Mickey and friends parking structure. That worked out great. When enough spots opened up in the Downtown Disney lots, they redirect the cars to enter that area.
The packet pick-up process was the usual for a Disneyland race. First I went down the ramp to pick up my bib. Apparently when I registered, I had also bought a commemorative pin. So I picked that up as well when I got my bib. I then went upstairs into the expo. First I got my long sleeve race shirt before checking out the booths. Before leaving, I took a picture in front of the green screen. I thought the picture was a nice expo freebie! I also checked out the official race merchandise and bought the Spidey Mickey Mouse ears.
One thing everybody noticed was that Iron Man was inconspicuously missing from everything!
Event guide, bib, and commemorative pin
Long sleeve race shirt
Green screen photo
11/15 Saturday
I saw Big Hero 6 out at the El Capitan in Hollywood. It's always nice to watch a Disney movie at this theater. Before the movie started, they had a laser light show that was kind of like a concert. As for the movie, I liked it. Although it was pretty predictable, it was still very entertaining and funny.
When I got home, I laid out my race gear before going to sleep.
Race gear
11/16 Sunday
I paid $17 and parked in the Mickey and friends parking structure. I used the restroom downstairs before heading over to the starting area. My friend spotted me and we hung out in front of gear check until it was time to head over to the corrals. We both noticed that the corrals were much smaller than the usual Disneyland race.
Staging area
Starting corral A
"Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I heard the sound of distress, what seems to be the trouble? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?"
Baymax!
We saw a lot of nice costumes while waiting in the starting corral. Besides Baymax, we saw a guy dressed up as a King's hockey player. Disney even took the time to recognize on stage a race participant that have served for each of the military branches. I thought that that was a very nice touch!
LA King!
Recognizing those that have served
My goal was to finish in about 1:50 with an initial push of about a 7:30 pace. The first two almost three miles in the park went okay. Once we got out of the park and into the streets, we experienced some pretty strong Santa Ana winds. Pushing through the strong headwind while going East on Chapman Ave was pretty demoralizing. I had to take off my visor as it would've been blown off eventually. Mile 5 had us at the Crystal Cathedral. Running through the tree lined parking lot gave us some respite from the winds. Mile 6 had us run up probably the only significant climb for the entire course as we ran up an overpass going over the 22 freeway. Mile 7 had us going onto the Santa Ana River Trail where we were further punished by the wind and the dust that was being blown up into our faces. Mile 8 wasn't too bad as they had a long line of people dressed up as superheroes there to cheer us on. I even saw someone dressed up as War Machine! Mile 9 had us heading towards and running through Angels Stadium. After leaving the stadium I saw what I've never seen at a race before. The winds were so strong that it was blowing away the entire aid station. Water and cups were flying everywhere. I felt bad for the volunteers. I thanked as many of them as I could as I ran by. My right foot and ankle was starting to give me problems so the next couple of miles were a bit of a grind and I knew that I was starting to fall off of pace. It was probably a stupid idea to wear a new pair of shoes for this race. I quickened the pace for the last mile in an attempt to reach my goal but I was nearly a half a minute short.
1: 7:21
2: 7:42
3-4: 16:06 (8:03)
5: 8:18
6: 8:34
7: 9:00
8-9: 17:42 (8:51)
10: 9:03
11: 8:53
12: 8:55
13: 8:07
13.1: 0:45
Finish: 1:50:27
Despite the crazy winds, I had a fun time because it was a comic book themed race and it was organized by Disney. The course was a bit of a tweaked version of the Tinker Bell half marathon course back in January. You can bet that I will be back next year! Hopefully the strong winds won't make a return. A lot of the mile markers were blown over and the clocks were destroyed by the wind!
Mission#1 completed!
After crossing the finish line, I got my medal, took an official post race photo, grabbed a banana and a goody box. I then met up with a few of my friends. We snapped a few group photos before I had to leave for home for a quick shower and a change of clothes. Then it was off to Las Vegas for an evening marathon!
Maniacs!
I drove straight to the Monte Carlo hotel. Along the way I was snacking on a pack of beef jerky. I made pretty good time and got there in about 3.5hrs. I parked the car and got checked in. The check-in line was long but it was moving pretty quickly. Before heading up to my room, I bought some food at the McDonald's in the casino food court. I went with the usual Big Mac and Filet o' Fish. After eating my pre-race meal and relaxing a bit, I changed for the race and started heading over to the starting area to pick up my race packet.
Monte Carlo
Big Mac and Filet o' Fish
The starting area was at the usual lot just across from the Mandalay Bay. It was about 2:30pm and it was swarming with people! I started to look for the solutions booth for race day packet pick up. Back when I registered for the race, I had paid an extra $40 for race day pick up. God knows, I tend to spend that or more at expos so I thought it was a fair amount. If you didn't pre-pay during registration, they had stations set up to collect the $40 if for any reason you had to miss the packet pick up at the expo. Along the way to finding the booth, I picked up a small bottle of water and a banana that were on tables that they had set up. They also had bagels.
After checking my gear bag at the UPS trucks, I started heading towards to the starting corrals. Along the way I got in line to get a free t-shirt from Mazda. The pre-race concert nearby had just started. I must say that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were pretty awesome and I really don't even know who they are, however I did recognize their name. I'm definitely more of a country music kind of guy. For that free shirt, I had to answer a whole bunch of survey questions concerning my knowledge of and the likelihood that I would buy a car from Mazda. I also had to give them my email address. Sure, why not? I'm already on so many mailing lists. I took the shirt and went back to gear check to put the shirt into my bag. On my way back to the starting corrals, I got in line for the portapotties one last time. I spoke to a lady in line that also happened to be doing the same thing, Avengers in the morning and Las Vegas at night. See! I'm not the only crazy one here! :)
Race day packet pickup
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
I got situated in my starting corral and it just got plain chilly waiting there even though I had on the long sleeved shirt that I got from the Avengers half marathon. So I got out of the corral and waited next to a big moving van that was parked nearby to shield myself from the wind. There were a few people doing the same thing.
Starting corral
When it was time for our corral to be released, it was pretty congested. The first mile I tried to stay behind a girl that was cutting through the mob. Then I realized that there was no way that I could keep up that effort for even a half marathon, so I just went with the flow and tried not to push the pace. Around mile 7, I happen to bump into one of my running friends. I was feeling tired but okay after reaching mile 9, so I kept going straight and went with the full marathoners through the Fremont Experience. This section was my favorite part of the marathon course. I like it more than running up and down the Strip. Too bad the half marathoners do not get to run through here. After reaching mile 10, we headed down an underpass. As I was coming back up, I completely bonked. I thought that I had no chance of completing the race within the 5 hr cutoff. From prior experience with epic bonks, I knew that I had to get some calories and fluids in my body as soon as possible. I took two GU's and drank about a third of my bottle. It was as if I had stalled and just needed to restart the engine. Thank goodness everything was fine again as running up Martin L. King Blvd to the turnaround shortly after passing the halfway point was a grind.
1: 8:23
2: 9:16
3: 8:57
4: 9:24
5: 9:48
6: 9:46
7: 10:08
8: 10:46
9: 10:42
10: 11:54
11: 13:53
12: 11:02
13: 11:39
Halfway: 2:16:52
I was actually feeling pretty good running up Carey Ave. to the turnaround at the Fiesta Rancho Hotel & Casino. During this dark stretch, they even set up a tunnel with a bunch of lights that you get to run through. I made it back to MLK Blvd before I saw the SAG wagons following the last participant. My energy level was down again so I sucked down some GU's and took it easy for a couple of miles. Some of the mile markers were either blown down or missing, but I knew that as we rounded the Stratosphere and got back on Las Vegas Blvd that it was about mile 24. It was such a relief knowing that you only had two more miles to go and that you would finish just under the cutoff.
14: 11:46
15: 10:40
16: 10:45
17: 12:39
18: 13:21
19: 13:15
20: 12:02
21: 11:48
22-23: 23:02 (11:31)
24-25: 25:00 (12:30)
26.2: 14:01
Finish: 4:54:00
Finish line
After grabbing a finisher's medal, I picked up a bottle of water, Gatorade, and other post race goodies. I hung out for a bit at the table with the pretzels. I chatted with the volunteers before moving along. I also picked up a mylar sheet to cover up my legs. I got a can of Michelob Ultra before heading to the UPS trucks. I only took a few sips before throwing it away. After picking up my gear bag and putting on my jacket, I walked over to the Heavy Medals booth to pick up my race shirt. Then I started heading back to my hotel. After taking a shower, I was definitely done for the night. I was out like a light.
Disneyland to Vegas One Day Challenge completed!
11/17 Monday
After getting packed and checked out of my room came my favorite part of endurance running, the post race recovery meal! I drove over to my current favorite buffet on the Strip, the Wicked Spoon for brunch. The quality of the food has gone down a bit since they first opened, but the bone marrow and duck wings are still good. I still love that the cocktail shrimp are served in shot glasses so inconsiderate people cannot create a mess digging into the pile of shrimp.
During my meal, I ended up talking to a couple of older gentlemen sitting next to me. They were from Albuquerque, New Mexico. One of them was wearing the Duke City Marathon race shirt from the race that took place last month. They started talking to me because they saw my USA Olympics Marathon Trials jacket. I guess that I'm still skinny enough that they asked if I had run in the Trials. I believe both were in their 70's yet they looked like they were in their 50's. Running does keep you looking younger! They both ran the half marathon. I definitely will want to still be running when I'm their age.
Plate 1: beef brisket eggs benedict, bone marrow, duck wings, beef brisket, ham, pork belly
Plate 2: duck wings, bone marrow, brussel sprouts, roasted chicken, shrimp cocktail
Plate 3: shitake mushroom, shrimp cocktail, rum baba, brussel sprouts, bone marrow
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