In the morning I drove out to Pasadena to ride the Metro Gold Line into Chinatown. I rode the rail so I wouldn't have to deal with finding a parking spot. I got to the Sierra Madre Villa station at a little after 9 am. It was roughly a 30 min ride to the Chinatown station for $1.75 one way. Then it was a short 2 small block walk up W College St to get up to the expo/race area on Broadway. I picked up my bib, t-shirt, and tote bag. Afterwards, I went and picked up a doggy bag of chow mein as a complimentary carbo-load meal for runners. It was hardly a meal, more like a snack. It was decent but it was already getting a little cold. After finishing my snack, I opened up my fortune cookie. My fortune read, "there will always be delightful mysteries in your life." Sure, but I don't really like mysteries. :)
Complimentary "carbo-load" meal
My fortune
Since I haven't been to Chinatown for decades, I decided to walk around and view a few spots that the race website had suggested. I first visited the Bruce Lee statue. It was pretty cool, but it didn't really resemble him particularly the face. I also saw the statue of Sun Yat Sen, the first president and founding father of Taiwan, the Republic of China. There was some live entertainment near the gate. It was okay, but not my type of music. I checked out the wishing well before heading out. It was a pretty big elaborate wishing well with many specific targets for your coin.
Bruce Lee statue
Sun Yat Sen
After checking out a bit of Chinatown, I rode the Metro rail back to my car and drove back home to eat lunch at a nearby In-n-Out. I had the usual Double Double x2. This time I decided to get a chocolate shake. Besides gels or sports drinks, I almost never eat anything sweet these days.
Double Double x2 and a chocolate shake
I went through the expo haul which included a sample bag of rice. It happened to be a brand that Asians don't buy. I just found it funny that they would include that in the goodie bag. :) I picked out my clothes for the race. Since we would be running up to and around Dodger Stadium, I thought the LA Marathon shirt was appropriate.
Expo haul
Race gear
Sunday 3/1
At about 6:30 am, I rode the Metro Gold Line to Chinatown. It was time to go run a 10k and drink two free beers in the beer garden. I brought a throwaway jacket in case it rained. But it didn't so I checked it at their bag check. The bag check service was only provided to those that took the Metro.
Beer tickets
Bag check
I then got up to the front of the finishing chute just to the left of the starting corral to watch the start of the 5k race. Shannon Lee gave a little speech before the start of the race. Then there was a little dragon dancing up and down the corral before they lit the firecrackers. It was super loud and it produced a lot of smoke. Unfortunately for me and a whole bunch of people around me, we were standing downwind and it just overwhelmed us.
Starting line
Shannon Lee
Run away! Run away!
As I was getting away from the smoke, I ran into some of my running friends. They were running both the 5k and 10k. They asked me to hang on to their 10k bibs while they ran in the 5k. The timing chip was on the bib and it would've registered a time for the 10k bib if they carried it with them while running the 5k. The 5k began at 8 am and the 10k started at 8:30 am, so they had about 30 minutes to get back and pick up their bibs. I had waited for my friends in the starting corral at a specific location to give them their bibs. They finished just as the 10k race was about to start. I was stuck behind a lot of people running the race slower than me, but it was the easiest spot for them to see me. My goal was only to finish under 50 minutes, so it really didn't matter. It was a challenging course and it would be near impossible for me to set a new PR.
The first three miles were mostly uphill, followed by three downhill miles. During the first mile I dodged a lot of slower runners. The second mile was the toughest with the steepest climbs for the race. We ran on roads that had a lot of potholes. I paced myself pretty well and was able to keep on passing people. The third mile flattened out a bit and we would reach the highest point of the race. The fourth mile was a big downhill mile. I haven't clocked a sub 7 mile in such a long time. The fifth mile was still mostly downhill, but it was starting to flatten out. The final mile to the finish line was a roller. I was sort of tired by this point, so I had no kick to the finish line.
Nearing the finish line, pic from Deo
1: 7:52
2: 8:51
3: 8:18
4: 6:58
5: 7:22
6.2: 9:51 (8:12)
Finish 49:13
I kind of liked the challenging course. I just might have to run this race more often. But next time I'm going to have to start closer to the front, so I don't have to dodge so many people in the first mile.
After crossing the finish line, I got my medal and got in line to enter the beer garden. After picking up my beers, I hung out at the Angel City Brewery table near the DJ. I even took a picture with one of those Instagram frames as I waited for my friends to show up. Eventually I found my friends near the exit of the beer garden. The place was packed to the gills making it super hard to move around! We each ended up having more than two beers as our friends and random strangers were giving us their beer coupons. They should probably increase the size of the beer garden in the future.
Beer garden
Nice medal for a 10k
Instagram
We spent so much time in the beer garden that I was the last person to pick up my bag from bag check. They were almost done tearing down everything when I finally made my way there. I then hoofed it over to Philippe the Original to eat lunch with the same friends that I hung out with in the beer garden. This place has always been super popular. Everybody has always been telling me to eat here. Their food is affordable and supposed to be good. There were many lines to the counter and I got into a shorter line to order my food. I ordered their roast beef sandwich and a Red Trolley Ale. We were able to find a spot to eat. It was a decent roast beef sandwich especially with their spicy mustard sauce. I personally don't see what the fuss is all about. It wasn't anything spectacular or something that I'd go out of my way to go eat. But heck if my friends want to go... sure, why not?
Roast beef sandwich and a Red Trolley Ale
Put some spicy mustard on it!
After eating our food, we walked back to the Chinatown Metro station to catch the Gold Line home. My friends went South and I went North back to my car in Pasadena.
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