Rock n Roll Seattle Marathon 2015

Friday 6/12
I drove out pretty early to catch my 6 am flight with Alaska Airlines at LAX. I'm always excited to visit one of my favorite cities and to run this particular marathon. I love the Pacific Northwest so much that just a few months ago, I almost took a job up near Seattle. This year would be the seventh consecutive year that I've run this marathon since it joined the Rock n' Roll Marathon Series back in 2009. It was pretty cool to finally see working power outlets and USB ports on the plane!

Yea! Power outlets and USB ports!

I arrived in Seattle just a little before 9 am. I made my way to the SoundTransit light rail station. It was $3 for a one way ticket. I got off at the Stadium station and made my way over to the CenturyLink Field Event Center for the race expo. As I approached the entrance for the expo, I noticed that there was a huge line of people waiting to get inside. It was already about 10 minutes after 10 am, the time that it was supposed to have opened. As I was headed to the back of the line, they were just starting to let people in.

A very long line of people waiting to get in!

After picking up my race packet and race shirt, I started exploring the very familiar Rock n' Roll race expo. I picked up a few giveaways from various booths. The one that I spent a little bit of time at was the Toyota booth. I had to register my info on a tablet and go around to each vehicle to learn about the car's features and get my QR code scanned. The final car was a Sienna modified into a SpongeBob themed vehicle. I took a photo inside the vehicle and got a SpongeBob Movie lunch bag. Per the usual, I stopped by the Rock n' Roll area to sign up for next year's race. It was only $55 for the full marathon! Even with state tax and processing fees, it came out to only $69.04. Who says Rock n' Roll races are too expensive?! My legacy will continue!

Continuing my legacy!

After leaving the expo, I headed over to the Ivar's Pier 54 Fish Bar along the Alaskan Way to eat my customary first meal in Seattle, but it was temporarily closed due to construction. So I walked over to the 206 Burger Company near my hotel to eat lunch instead. For me, burgers are always a good backup plan. It was a small little burger joint among several other restaurants in the same complex. I ordered their 206 Burger and tater tots. I love any place that has tater tots on their menu! Inside was a bit crammed, so I found a table just outside in the courtyard. It was lunch time and the seating availability seemed to be pretty plentiful. After a short wait, I got my food and was ready to chow down. It was a good, tasty, and juicy burger. If I worked nearby, I would definitely eat here on a regular basis.

Ivar's is temporarily closed due to construction! :(

206 Burger with tater tots

After lunch I walked about a block over to my hotel, the Executive Hotel Pacific, to see if I could check in early. My room was ready, so I was able to go up to my room, drop off my bags and relax a bit. I was given a decent room up on the 6th floor.

Per the usual routine, I went through the expo haul after unpacking all of my stuff for tomorrow's marathon. I laid out my race gear to make sure that I had brought everything with me. I then watched a little bit of TV before taking a nap.

Expo haul

Flat runner

After waking up from my nap, I walked down to the International District to buy some drinks and a banana for tomorrow at Uwajimaya. I waited in the food court until it was time to meet up with my friends for dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant.

Drinks and bananas

When the time came, I walked over to Tsukushinbo for what's becoming the location of our traditional pre-race sushi dinner. There are no signs on the outside of this restaurant. We had with us someone that had just recently moved to Seattle. She was almost certain that it was a prank until other people besides those in our party started showing up before the place opened. Even without a sign, this restaurant is very popular and is packed right as it opens at 5:30 pm. We or Mr. Shoe knew from last year to make a reservation. This year, I ordered the yamakake and the chirashi. Everything was as good as I remembered it to be. The portions were on the small side, so don't expect to leave here feeling stuffed. They specialize in quality over quantity.

Marathon Maniacs at Tsukushinbo

Yamakake

Chirashi

Empty!

Saturday 6/13
At about 4:30 am I started getting ready for my walk up to the starting area at the Seattle Center. As I turned on the water for the shower, I noticed that the shower head had lights! Pretty neat. It was the first time that I had seen this type of shower head. Apparently the color indicated the temperature of the water. At first I thought that it randomly changed colors.

The shower head has lights!

Mercedes Benz sink! :)

It was a little over a mile walk up to the Space Needle. I decided to walk since I thought it was a waste of money to pay $2.25 each way to ride the Seattle Center Monorail for such a short distance. It was pretty cool to see that they had moved the starting line so that the Space Needle would be in the backdrop.

Starting line at the Space Needle

There were no UPS trucks this year for gear check. Instead they fenced off a grassy area where they stored all of the gear bags in piles grouped by last names and bib numbers. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I used a portapotty before heading back to the base of the Space Needle for the customary Marathon Maniacs/Half Fanatics pre-race photo.

Pre-race photo

My friend and I started in corral 4. My left foot still has been feeling quite sore, but I still decided to run the first 10k a bit harder and just cruise to the finish line. The first mile was pretty flat with some short steep inclines through the downtown area. Then there was a long downhill to the International District. The course then takes us down along Rainer Ave towards Seward Park. At about mile 6.5, the full marathoners split off from the half marathoners on Lake Washington Blvd. The legs felt like they were filled with lead during mile 7. I then proceeded to slow things down. I felt really horrible during mile 9. The left foot felt extra sore and I was just really tired. Most likely it's because I've been losing whatever fitness that I had left. I reached the halfway point just under 2 hrs.
1: 8:03
2: 7:56
3: 8:39
4: 8:29
5: 8:25
6: 8:26
7: 8:36
8: 9:08
9: 10:21
10: 9:42
11: 9:33
12: 9:58
13: 9:47
13.1: 1:58:11

Just after reaching the halfway point, I noticed that there was a floating platform towed by a tugboat with a Brooks Run Happy sign sitting on it out on Lake Washington. It looked like it would've been an awesome day to be out on the lake. The next mile continues to be one of the main reasons why I run this race every year. There were pictures of fallen military service members. Then there were many people lined all along the side of the course with each person carrying an American flag. They were part of the organization called, Wear Blue: Run To Remember. You can't help but get a little bit misty eyed seeing all of the young faces and reading their names and ranks. It also makes me proud and feel lucky to be an American citizen. Even with it's flaws, there's really no other country quite like the USA.

Lake Washington

Back to grind. The next 7 miles or so always ends up being the hardest for me. After a little out and back on Lakeside Ave, the course joins up with the half marathoners for a brief but steep climb up to the I-90. The half marathoners headed left towards the finish line while the full marathoners headed right for an out and back on the I-90. This section is always difficult for me because it's exposed with no respite from the glaring sun except for the tunnel. The turnaround was at about mile 18. It was pretty nice to finally get out of the sun at about mile 21, but the mile or so inside the I-90 wasn't too much fun since the air was stale and the road was cambered. As I finally got off of the I-90, I started heading towards downtown, getting closer and closer to the finish line. Unfortunately as I ran through downtown, I got to witness a couple of homeless guys arguing about the size of their penis and who was going to beat whose ass. Also that section was an uphill climb before turning left to go run on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. There was another uphill climb up to mile 25. Thank goodness during the final mile, I got out of the sun for a bit while running through the Battery St Tunnel. Along the side of the road before turning on Mercer St stood a spectator with a sign with those tear-off contact info tabs. I usually like to play along with spectators, so I ran by and took one. The final stretch was a hill up to the finish line.

Spectator during the last mile

14: 11:36
15: 10:13
16: 11:17
17: 13:21
18: 11:24
19: 12:43
20: 12:47
21: 13:29
22-23: 27:08 (13:54)
24: 12:11
25: 12:59
26.2: 15:19 (12:46)
Finish: 4:41:32

One thing that I had noticed about this year's race was that the aid stations were not manned by volunteers. Some of them as well as the course marshals were wearing yellow official looking jackets. I'm pretty sure they were race employees. I have read about their pending litigation concerning using charity volunteers to bypass paying employees to man the aid stations and checkpoints. Whatever the case, it was a good change. Volunteers tend to crowd the course competing with each other to get runners to take their cup instead of their friend's cup.

After getting my medal and some post race drinks and snacks, I made my way to the gear check area to get my bag before getting in line to get my finisher jacket. I now have 3 of these jackets... New Orleans, San Diego, and Seattle. After I got my jacket, I gave away my free beer ticket to a random runner and started heading back to my hotel. I probably should've rested at bit at the Seattle Center and ate something. I started getting dizzy and light headed, so I pulled over to the side and rested on a bike rack while drinking some leftover Powerade.

Finish

International Fountain

Another finisher jacket

Finally I made it back to my room. Walking back seemed way longer! I got cleaned up and rested for a few hours while channel surfing on the TV. The warm weather really wiped me out. I was not looking forward to going back out for dinner.

I eventually decided to check out Shawn O’Donnell’s American Grill & Irish Pub for dinner. Apparently it was right before the Seattle Sounders game, so I got to order off of their game day menu. I started things off with a Guinness since it was an Irish pub. I then ordered their Fish n' Chips and the Corned Beef n' Cabbage which were two of favorite foods. I was definitely very rungry! They also brought out some bread while I waited for my food to come out. I devoured all of my food while watching some soccer on the TV screens. I had a rather good conversation with the bartender about marathon running and traveling the world. She asked what my favorite marathons have been. I told her that New York, Berlin, and Tokyo have been a few of my favorites. It turned out that she had traveled to Japan as well.

Guinness

Bread

Fish n' Chips and Corned Beef n' Cabbage

Sunday 6/14
As I was getting ready to check out, the water pressure was very low and the water coming out was dirty and brown when I started the shower. They must have very old pipes. Fortunately the water cleared up. I let the front desk know about the water pressure as I checked out.

I walked up to the Regal Cinemas Meridian 16 to watch Jurassic World. I watched the regular 2D version of the movie and the movie theater was super old. It reminded me of the theater that I used to go to back in the 80's. This was the fourth movie in the Jurassic series and it was more of the same content. Some kids go to the island. They end up facing off with velociraptors and a big tyrannosaurus rex. We're told how extremely intelligent velociraptors are and that they communicate with each other because they hunt as a pack. The main characters somehow escape death and leave the island. About 5 minutes into this particular movie, I wanted any dinosaur to just pop out of nowhere and eat the annoying kid. But overall I thought this was a pretty entertaining movie, about as good as the first one. Chris Pratt was well suited for this type of movie.

After the movie, I walked over to the nearby Tap House Grill to eat lunch. I got a table after walking down a flight of stairs to the dining area. I started things off with an Elysian Dragonstooth Stout. I love stouts and I ordered this one in particular because of the name. Then for my meal, I ordered The Morning After Burger. Not bad! I think any burger tastes better topped with an egg. It was just the protein that I needed post marathon.

Elysian Dragonstooth Stout

The Morning After Burger

After lunch, I decided to take a walk down to the Public Market. That was a bad idea since I was carrying all of my bags. The weather was really nice and sunny, so the place was super crowded. I tried to get out of there as quickly as possible, but it was just a sea of humanity.

How does my butt look? Are we grading on a curve? :)

I hopped on the SoundTransit light rail at the University station and headed for the airport to wait for my 9:45 pm evening flight. It was scheduled to arrive in LAX after midnight. Since all of the earlier flights were completely full, I couldn't fly stand-by on any of them. I had so much time to kill, so I made my way over to the Ivar's Seafood Bar to eat dinner. I just couldn't leave Seattle without eating some fish n' chips and clam chowder from Ivar's! It's not gourmet seafood by any stretch, but I always try to eat at Ivar's whenever I'm in Seattle. This airport location would be my last chance. There was a huge gathering of people in front of this place. At first I couldn't tell if people were in line to order or waiting to pick up their food. It would turn out that the long line on the far left was the line to place your order. Although the line was long, it moved pretty fast so long as the customers knew what they wanted when it was their turn to order. The food came out pretty quickly even though there were a lot of people waiting and what looks to be only one cook.

Ivar's Seafood Bar at SeaTac Airport

Fish n' chips and a cup of white clam chowder

My plane pulled in a little before 9 pm. Everybody in the terminal noticed that the plane's paint job had Tinker Bell on it. I wasn't the only one to get up and take a picture of our plane! I believe that this was my first time flying on a Disney themed airplane.

Tinker Bell flying me home to Disneyland!

Casper Marathon 2015

Saturday 6/6
For this marathon, I used my miles for a free round trip ticket to Casper, Wyoming. It was an early morning Delta flight out of my favorite airport, the Ontario International Airport, with a short layover in Salt Lake City, Utah. For the second leg of my trip, I flew on a small regional jet out of Concourse E. I kind of like it when I get to walk out on the tarmac and board the plane on a ramp.

After the short flight, I landed in Casper in the afternoon. I had reserved a compact car with Hertz, however they gave me a very nice SUV, a Buick Enclave. It had wood paneling and leather seats. Thank goodness it also had an onboard navigation system as my cellphone data service was nonexistent. Darn you, T-Mobile! I had not memorized any maps, so it was good to have some sort of GPS to point me in the right direction.

Buick Enclave

I drove to the McDonald's across the street from my hotel to first eat lunch before checking into my room. I ordered the Bacon Clubhouse Quarter Pounder meal. It was pretty good for a burger from McDonald's, very different from the usual Big Mac or the regular Quarter Pounder. Since it was still a bit too early to check in, I drove down to the nearby Albertsons to buy some drinks and bananas for the weekend. People were staring at me while I was walking up and down the aisles of Albertsons looking for my items. I guess the locals aren't used to seeing Asians in Casper.

Bacon Clubhouse Quarter Pounder meal

After picking up supplies, I drove back to my hotel, the Best Western, to check-in. A few of my fellow Marathon Maniacs spotted me in the lobby. I got a room that was pretty close to the stairs and the side exit door of the hotel. It was a pretty nice room. The cleaning crew even left a handwritten note on the desk. That was a pretty cool touch, because I'm not even sure if they still teach penmanship in school these days.

I watched about an hour's worth of TV on the history of the Belmont Stakes. At about 3 pm, when the expo opened, I drove over to the nearby Ramada to pick up my bib and race shirt. I was done with the expo in about 2 minutes. I saw a bunch of familiar faces there, so I stuck around to chat with a few of them. On the way back to my hotel, I went through the McDonald's drive-thru to pick up my usual pre-race dinner, a Big Mac and 10 pieces of Chicken McNuggets with hot mustard sauce.

When I returned to my room, I went through the expo stuff, laid out my race day breakfast and fluids, and laid out my race day outfit before eating my dinner. Then it was finally time to watch the Belmont Stakes. It was pretty exciting to watch American Pharoah win to join the elite ranks of Triple Crown Winners. No wonder that there's so many people that bet on the ponies!

Big Mac and 10 pieces of Chicken McNuggets with Hot Mustard sauce

Sunday 6/7
The weather forecast had said that there could be rain until noon. It was slightly raining early in the morning when I was getting ready. I decided to just chance it with arm sleeves and a mylar blanket. So when I was ready, I walked over to the Ramada to catch a bus up to the starting line at the Casper Events Center. They opened up the place for us to stay warm indoors and to use the restrooms. They also had a lot of refreshments set up for the runners. The Marathon Maniacs were sort of all gathered in the same general location, so we ended up taking an impromptu group photo before heading over to the starting line.

Marathon Maniacs

Starting line

The race started off with a gloomy overcast. The ground was still a little bit wet. But wow! Be careful what you wish for! Everybody was hoping that the weather would stay dry and boy did it turn out to be a beautiful sunny day! The first 4.5 miles was a big loop with the first and fourth miles almost overlapping. The first mile felt pretty good because it was mostly downhill. Then I got a light headed when there was a slight incline for the next couple of miles so I had to pull way back on the pace. I forgot that Casper was at a much higher elevation than where I call home. Then the course took us to the North Platte River. Most of the course was along or around the river. At about mile 9 we ran by the finish line at the Ramada. I'll see you in another 17 miles! At about mile 11, we crossed a bridge to take a lap around the Three Crowns Golf Course. That bridge looked pretty solid and stable, but my brain told me otherwise. Crossing it made me a little nauseated. It already got quite sunny as I ran around the perimeter of the golf course. I ran a bit with MM#2445.

Maybe I should take up golfing instead! :)

1: 7:53
2: 8:45
3: 9:34
4-5: 17:59 (9:00)
6: 9:21
7: 9:44
8: 9:54
9: 10:26
10: 10:42
11: 10:20
12: 11:18
13: 11:27

As I was headed back to the river, I saw my friend, Joe. He has run a few hundred more marathons than me! We're both from California and if he's running an out-of-state marathon, it must be a great marathon worth running!

Joe!

Around mile 16

At about mile 17 at the intersection of Wyoming Blvd and Fort Caspar Rd/13th St, this was where the course was somewhat confusing. There was a lot of construction in the area with cones everywhere. Luckily for me, I noticed the traffic cop at that intersection and he was directing me to cross diagonally to the other side of the road. Everything was pretty much nice and flat until the course became quite rolling at about mile 18 with a big incline up to Magnolia Rd. There was a downhill stretch down to the turnaround point at Paradise Dr. Then it was back up the hill to mile 20.

Around mile 21 near Morad Park

At about mile 23, there was a note written on the ground stating that this was the last hill. I beg to differ, but then again any slight incline felt like a hill! At about mile 25, I took a picture of the fly fishing statue in the river that was near the Jonah Bank of Wyoming. You don't see this sort of stuff in California! They have actual rivers here. The last mile was a bit grueling for me. My legs kept cramping up, but it was cool during the final stretch as it was lined with enough spectators to keep me going.

Around mile 23, this was not the last hill! :)

Around mile 25

14: 10:24
15: 11:27
16: 11:56
17: 11:40
18: 12:09
19: 11:57
20: 16:20
21: 12:38
22: 12:14
23: 12:42
24: 13:18
25: 13:43
26: 13:06
26.2: 2:01
Finish: 4:53:00
Gun time: 4:53:09

37th state finished and it was a nice scenic course! Besides the leg cramps, both of my feet were very sore. After getting my medal, a volunteer gave me chocolate milk and a Gatorade to help with the cramps. Instead of drinking either one, I hobbled over to the tables in the back to get some beer! They had a few choices available. I went with a PBR. I enjoyed the beer with some of my friends that had finished ahead of me.

Finished!

Oh my goodness, I was pretty wiped out. After drinking the beer, I started heading back to my hotel. I stayed long enough to take a few pictures of my friends finishing their race, but man, I was pooped!

I went back to my room, got cleaned up, and watched a bunch of the Women's World Cup Soccer. The Norwegian team had a lot of good looking players!

Norway!

For an early dinner, I drove out to the FireRock Steakhouse & Grill. Along the way, I found a country music station on the radio, Buckin' 92.5, Casper's High Energy Country! I set the station to one of the presets, so the next person that rents this car can enjoy. :) At the restaurant I sat at the bar so I could watch a little TV while I ate my dinner. I started off with a Ellie's Brown Ale. I then ordered their bone-in rib-eye cooked medium rare with creamed spinach. I also had a house salad to go with the steak. While I was waiting for the food to come out, they gave me some bread. The bread was nice and warm, tasted good with butter. The steak wasn't the best that I've eaten, but it was good enough to hit the spot after a long day of running. The creamed spinach and the house salad were both decent as well. When I was settling my check, the bartender informed me that he comped the salad because he mistakenly told me that it was included with my meal.

Bread and house salad

Bone-in rib-eye with creamed spinach

Done!

After dinner, I drove back to my room to veg out. I watched the NBA Finals game between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. Man, it was tight close game!

Monday 6/8
I got ready, packed up my stuff, and checked out of my room. My flight wasn't until 5 pm, but I figured that I'd save a bunch of money on the rental car by returning it at noon and just wait at the airport. First I stopped at McDonald's one last time for lunch. I got the Quarter Pounder Deluxe meal with large fries. Man, I love McDonald's fries! I'm lovin' it! :)

Quarter Pounder Deluxe meal

As I was parking the rental car in the rental car lot, I bumped into a fellow Marathon Maniac who was also from California. Lucky for him, he was catching an afternoon flight. I dropped off the keys at the Hertz rental car counter and found a nice spot to sit down. It was going to be a long wait. I noticed that the TSA agents weren't there the entire time. They would only be present when there were scheduled flights taking off.

When it was finally about time to catch my flight, I went through the TSA security. This particular agent was the first to tell me that the Microsoft Surface Pro needed to be in it's own tray when going through the machine. I told him that his counterparts at the other airports told me that it was considered a tablet. Oh well. So he re-scanned my backpack and the Surface separately. While in the terminal, I bumped into a couple of Marathon Maniacs. We talked a bit about marathons before we each boarded our separate planes.

On my way back home I had another layover at the Salt Lake City Airport, so I ate at my favorite spot, Squatters. I started things off with a Wasatch Polygamy Nitro Porter. I then ordered the Ute Burger. It had beef, pastrami, cheddar, tomato, and fry sauce slaw. It tasted good, but it was cold. They must have left it sitting on the counter. I think it would've been a hundred times better if it was hot or at least warm!

Wasatch Polygamy Nitro Porter

Ute Burger