The LaceUp Race series used to have free race day race packet pick-up. However it seemed to have been quite chaotic with so many people needing to pick up their bibs on race day that they started charging $5 this year for that convenience. I guess that's a small price to pay, but I decided to drive there after work. The pick-up location was at the overflow parking lot over at the Palos Verdes City Hall. Most of the slow driving was on the dreaded 405. Once I got onto the 110, it wasn't as bad. Waze had me take the Seaside Freeway where I got to drive over the Vincent Thomas Bridge. I've always seen this bridge from afar, so it was actually pretty cool to drive across.
As I turned from Hawthorne Blvd onto the small street leading up to the City Hall, they had a person station there to direct you over to the overflow lot as there wasn't any signage designating the lot. At the very end of the lot were the familiar pop-up tents. Per the usual, the packet pick-up process was very quick and easy. After I got my bib, race shirt, and a sturdy Lexus tote bag, I used a portapotty before heading on home.
Packet pick-up
Race shirt
Swag
Good thing I used one of the portapotties as the drive home was a crawl at an excruciatingly slow pace. It took about 2 hrs to cover the 50 miles.
After dinner, I laid out my flat runner. Lately I've been making it easy and just going with the race shirt from my last race. However on this occasion, I decided on wearing one of my Disneyland Paris race shirts. The sublimated graphics pretty much guaranteed that there wouldn't be any nipple chafing.
Flat runner
Saturday 11/16
Before heading out to Palos Verdes, I stopped at the gas station to fill up the tank. Unlike yesterday, it took just under 1 hr to get there. This year, I opted to park at St Peter's by the Sea Presbyterian Church. Although I was there at about 5:45 am, they had already blocked off the left turn into the church parking lot so I had to drive further down and make a u-turn. It was still early and pretty dark when I had arrived, so I relaxed a bit in the car. I didn't have to be at the start area too early as I had already picked up my bib and I wasn't planning on checking-in any gear.
Parking at St Peter's by the Sea
It was nice quiet walk over to the start area. Once I got there, I was able to use one of the portapotties without having to wait. Once there was more daylight, it was nice to take in some beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean.
Pace car
Beautiful views
As the 7 am start of the race approached, I headed into the start corral on Palos Verdes Dr. As I was waiting, my friend that had moved out to Arizona shouted out my name. That was a pleasant surprise as I didn't know he was in town let alone running in this race.
Start line
I was hoping to finish in just under 2 hrs like last year, but by mile 2, I already knew that that goal was pretty much out the window! This course had plenty of rollers and I might have pushed too hard on some of the early ones as my pace started to slow after the 3rd mile. I tried to salvage the race, but the left hamstring felt sore. Also by mile 9, the usual discomfort in the right arch and ankle forced me to slow down even further. Just to top things off, the weather also got pretty warm. All in all, I was okay with my finishing time, as I didn't need to completely wreck myself in this race with another half marathon tomorrow.
Find me in the crowd
Downhill stretch
Finish line
Finish: 2:05:11
Click here for my Garmin data.
This course really chewed me up this year. To be honest, I didn't start the race with the mindset of saving my legs for tomorrow night's race. I just didn't have a spring in my step which made those rollers feel unrelenting. Besides the first 3 miles, the entire race was a grind.
After crossing the finish line, I got my finisher medal, a Kind bar, and a small bottle of water. Before getting my complimentary food from one of the food trucks, I stopped by the Lexus area to get a nice black water bottle. Once again I went with a gaucho bowl from the Piaggio truck. This time they had steak available as one of the protein choices.
Post race food
Post race goodies
I wanted to wait for my friend, but I needed to hit the road for Vegas. So after finishing my food, I took a picture of my medal with the ocean in the background before leaving. I also used a portapotty just in case there was a lot of traffic driving home. I only stopped at home long enough to take a shower.
Finisher medal
Before hopping on the freeway for Vegas, I stopped at the Chevron gas station to top off the gas tank as it normally takes nearly a full tank for the drive. The drive was free-flowing until about halfway between Barstow and Baker, the drive slowed to a crawl. I turned on Waze to see what's up ahead. There was a major crash. The damaged cars looked pretty bad, but it looked like everyone was okay. The highway patrol was able to move the cars off of the freeway so that most of the slowdown was from people rubber-necking.
I arrived in Vegas before 4 pm. Waze had me take an unfamiliar route over to the Las Vegas Convention Center. It had me exit at Highland Dr where I took that over to Desert Inn Rd. That was a nice route to take, but I messed up and got in the left turn lane at Paradise Rd. Luckily for me it wasn't too bad driving past the Silver Lots via Silver Dr to get over to the free Bronze Lots. The expo was held in the South Halls.
Las Vegas Convention Center
Per the usual with Rock n' Roll races, the race packet pick-up was very well-organized and streamlined. After getting my bib and race shirt, I briefly checked out the official merchandise. The only item that remotely interested me was the shirt with the participants' names. However since I have way too many race shirts already, I wasn't about to purchase yet another one. They even had a magnifying glass to help you find your name.
Expo
Race shirt
Participant name shirt
Found my name
I then proceeded to visit all of the vendor booths. It was a pleasant surprise to bump into one of my fellow Disneyland Half Marathon legacy friends handing out flyers for the Lake Havasu Half Marathon!
Before leaving the expo, I did sign up for next year's half marathon for $99. They gave me a free, nice looking t-shirt for doing so. Normally they go straight into the donation bin, but I might actually keep this one.
Free shirt for early registration
Expo stuff
After I was done with the expo, I hopped in my car and drove over to the nearby Jollibee for dinner. It was located inside the Seafood City Supermarket over on Maryland Parkway. You can't miss it as it's near the entrance and they have a huge sign. I got in line and ordered the usual palabok fiesta with 2 pc Chickenjoy and pineapple juice. Once my food was ready, I found a booth to enjoy my food. I had already started eating my food before I noticed that they had forgotten to give me gravy for the chicken. I was too lazy to get up and ask for it, so I made do without it. It was still delicious without it. On my way out, I was pestered for money from someone that appeared to be strung out on drugs. Have this become the norm in Vegas? I'm always being solicited for cash which I hardly carry on me these days. Why carry cash or even credit cards when I can just pay with Google Pay?
Palabok fiesta with 2 pc Chickenjoy and pineapple juice
I then drove over to the Target across the street to buy some snacks and water. After perusing the aisles, I ended up purchasing a 20 oz bag of pistachios and a 3 liter jug of Arrowhead water.
After paying for my items, I drove over to the La Quinta Inn located on Paradise Rd to check into my room. These days, this is probably the closest I'll get to staying near The Strip whenever I'm in Vegas. I prefer to have peace and quiet over being near all of the action. The check-in process was slow mainly because everyone at the front desk was already helping other people. Once it was my turn, everything was pretty quick. They must have issues with unwanted guests here as all of the doors to the hallways on the ground floor were locked. You had to have a room key in order to get inside.
After I was unpacked and settled in, I laid out my flat runner. Although I didn't have to wake up early tomorrow with an evening race, I still turned in pretty early as I was pretty tired from the morning race and the drive up.
Flat runner
Sunday 11/17
After checking out of the hotel at about 10:15 am, I drove over to the Cracker Barrel next to the Silverton Casino Hotel to get some breakfast. I'm not sure why I come to this location as it's probably the busiest Cracker Barrel in the entire country! Lots of newbies come here for their first visit not knowing that there's really nothing special about the food. It's just good ol' American comfort food. If it has to be explained to you, then you probably should eat elsewhere. After putting my name on the wait list, I passed the time while perusing their gift shop. After I was seated, I ordered the Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast with the country fried steak as my choice of meat and an iced tea.
Passing time at Cracker Barrel
Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast
After I was done with my meal, I started heading over to the Planet Hollywood parking structure off of Audrie St. I was told by one of the ladies at the information booth at the expo that that parking structure would be available for race parking. Unfortunately, that was not so as the cops had closed off E Harmon Ave. I was unable to make a left turn from Koval Ln. The closure of Harmon caused quite the backup of traffic. I kept going on Koval until I made a left turn at Sands Ave to park at Treasure Island. It was one of the resorts that still had free self parking.
Parked at Treasure Island
Since I had a couple of hours to pass, I went up the escalator to check out the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. (Scientific Training and Tactical Intelligence Operative Network). I didn't pay for the tour. I only went through their merchandise area which was pretty cool enough. Once I was done with that, I walked around the casino a bit and watched a little bit of the NFL games at the sports book.
Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N.
Non-Disney Mermaid
At about 2 pm, I got my stuff ready and started walking over to Planet Hollywood. I went inside to the Miracle Mile Shop to wait for my friends for the pre-race photo. However there turned out to be a little miscommunication, so that was eventually canceled. By happenstance we bumped into each other in the starting area where they had pre-race entertainment. At about 3:30 pm, we waited for them to open the gates leading to the start corrals located out on Las Vegas Blvd. The wait was somewhat lengthy, so a bunch of us went to use the nearby portapotties. Once the gate was opened, we walked to the corrals via a small street between Paris and Bally's.
Waiting for them to open the start corrals
I positioned myself on the left side of corral 2. Eventually my friend the Latino Heat would join me after he was done taking his traditional pre-race selfies with all of his runner friends.
Latino Heat
I almost never do well with evening races and this one was no exception. I usually deal with some sort of GI issue as I do most of my runs early in the morning. The first mile was the only mile that I ran with no problems. Then it got progressively worse. I surmised that it mainly had to do with my poor choice of eating a country fried steak for brunch earlier in the day! I stuck to jogging a mile and taking a walk break at every mile marker. That only got me through mile 6. I had to take more frequent walk breaks as I was starting to feel pretty nauseated. I thought that I was going to lose my brunch for sure! I felt the worst at about mile 10, but thankfully it got slightly better from there after a few burps. I kind of liked that they were passing out potatoes instead of gels for race fuel. I always looked forward to eating salted potatoes instead of sugary gel packs during ultras.
Here we go!
Course map
Finish line
Finish: 2:28:48
Click here for my Garmin data.
I was so glad to see and cross that finish line! My race didn't go quite as planned, but I got it done. It was a rare half marathon double for me. Other than the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World every year in January, I really don't like running more than 1 race per weekend.
After grabbing a bunch of post race goodies, I started making the long trek back to my car. I took a quick pit stop at The Venetian. I decided it was a good time as any to take a post race picture of my medal. Unlike the actual location, this representation of Venice wasn't flooded at all.
Post race goodies
After getting back to my car, I exited the parking garage and turned left onto Spring Mountain Rd to hop on the 15 freeway. I exited Blue Diamond Rd to fill up the gas tank at the usual Chevron Terrible Herbst.
Gas up the car
Before heading home, I drove out to the Jollibee on Rainbow Blvd to eat dinner before the long drive home. I ordered the usual palabok fiesta with 2 pc Chickenjoy and pineapple juice. Man that meal really hit the spot! After polishing off that delicious food, I made sure to make a quick pit stop in the restroom in case there were any traffic delays. Thankfully there weren't many cars on the road with me heading South. I think going forward, I would want to only run this race for the weekend so that I could actually enjoy it!
Palabok fiesta with 2 pc Chickenjoy and pineapple juice
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