Labor of Love Half Marathon 2021

Friday 3/19
After eating lunch from one of my favorite spots during the pandemic, Golden Noodle & Grill, it was time to hit the road for Las Vegas. Per the usual, I rolled into the Chevron gas station to fill up the gas tank before hopping on the 60 freeway.

#40

People are definitely traveling more these days, as the drive took about an hour longer compared to just a few months ago. I arrived at WorldMark Tropicana at about a quarter after 5 pm. I was checked-in by the same lady that checked me in about a month ago. She thought that was I quite familiar looking to her when I mentioned it. I was assigned unit #11106. That was again followed by a visit to the concierge table where the lady tried her hardest to get me to attend another owner update. She continued to increase the gift card amount, but I was just not interested.

WorldMark Tropicana

After I got settled in, I went back out to pick up dinner. Originally, I was going to get something from McDonald's at the nearby location at the corner of Tropicana Ave and Jones Blvd. However, their lousy app was having issues again, so I showed up at the restaurant to see if I could order in person. However I came to find that the restaurant lobby wasn't even open. They wanted you to call in your order or go through drive-thru. Both options sounded like such a hassle as I don't know if they would take an app deal while ordering through the drive-thru kiosk, so I hopped back into my car and drove to the nearby Chick-fil-A. I never have any issues ordering off of their app. I ordered the usual Cobb salad with grilled nuggets and a Chick-fil-A sandwich. I picked up my food via drive-thru and ate it back at my unit.

Cobb salad with grilled nuggets and Chick-fil-A sandwich

After dinner, it was the usual routine. I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow, took a shower, and got ready for bed.

Flat runner

Saturday 3/20

I got ready and left my unit at about a quarter after 6 am. The drive over to the Lovell Canyon Road took about 30 minutes. When I got there, the start area was already pretty packed, so I had to drive down a little bit further to find a spot along the side of the 160. Once I parked the car, I walked over to the start area to pick up my race packet as well as to see those running in the marathon or the 50k start their race at 7 am. My friend, Robert, was running the marathon and my other friend, Deo, was walk/jogging the 50k.

Lovell Canyon

Race swag

Race shirt

Back of race shirt

Robert and Deo

Marathon & 50k start

After I saw my friends start their race, I used the portapotty and headed back to my car to get ready for my race. It was a bit chilly and breezy while waiting for the start of the race. I was glad that I wore a long sleeve shirt as I remembered it being colder here than back at the Vegas area. After the usual pre-race photos with a couple of my local Vegas friends, it was time to run my race!

Start line

Karen

Mike

The race stared at 7:30 am. Man, my allergies were kind of out-of-control especially with the strong wind gusts! The tree pollen count is always higher here than back at home. My legs definitely did not feel fresh from the get-go. They had not fully recovered from having to cover 50k, 2 weekends ago. I didn't have too much power in my legs for the climbs, so I made sure to conserve energy early on in the race.

I believe that there were SRLA kids out there either running the marathon or a shorter distance to replace the LA Marathon that would've taken place this weekend. That's rather a shame as the atmosphere for the LA Marathon would've been perfect for someone's first marathon. It would've been totally opposite of this small quiet race especially with so many people lining the course to cheer you on in a big city marathon.

There was a young female runner that was quite strong running the uphill sections. She would always take off and run ahead of me. I think that eventually wore her out as she had to walk when we both reached the aid station at around mile 9 after the last major climb. I was able to keep on going as it was mostly downhill all the way to the finish line, but she couldn't keep up. While I was able to open up my stride a bit, I wasn't going too fast as the impact was quite jarring to the hips on the downhills.

Race photo

Finish: 2:14:15
Click here for my Garmin data.

After I crossed the finish line, I received my finisher medal. I hung out around the area for a bit. I cheered on my fellow finishers and saw the young lady that basically paced me for the first 8+ miles cross the finish line about 2 minutes behind me. The old wise man won this round. :)

Finisher medal

Fellow finisher

Finish line

I then headed over to the post-race table to pick up a banana and some salty snacks. I also got to chat a little bit with Joyce, the race director about some of her upcoming races.

Post race snack table

Finisher medal and post race snacks

As I was getting ready for my drive back to my timeshare rental property, I noticed that the concierge had texted me, asking me if I wanted to attend an owner's update today. Since I wasn't planning on attending, I figured that I would wait until I got back to respond. She's so dang persistent! Since my gas tank was pretty empty, I stopped at the Chevron gas station on the way back to fill it up.

Gas

Back at my unit, I got cleaned up and just vegged out while eating my snacks. The Spurs v. Southampton match got rescheduled due to Southampton playing in the FA Cup. However, I did catch the afternoon EPL match, Brighton v. Newcastle.

I eventually got myself out the door to go pick up a very late lunch. I went to the usual Jollibee. While I did get my favorite items, palabok fiesta, pineapple juice, and a peach mango pie, I didn't get any Chickenjoy. Instead, I got their Amazing Aloha Yumburger. To my surprise, that burger was actually pretty dang delicious! It's good to try something new every now and then.

Amazing Aloha Yumburger

Palabok fiesta

Pineapple juice

Later that evening, I contemplated whether I should skip dinner. I ended up deciding on getting food from Chick-fil-A mostly because I was craving a frosted lemonade. Using their mobile app, I placed my order for a Spicy Southwest salad with grilled nuggets to go with the frosted lemonade. Even if I'm not very hungry, I can always still eat a salad.

Spicy Southwest salad with grilled nuggets and frosted lemonade

Sunday 3/21

I was all packed and ready for an early drive home. I was checked-out of my unit and on the road at about 7:30 am. The earlier I leave, the less traffic I would encounter along the way. I made good time and got home before 11 am.

For lunch, I got lunch at Chipotle. In addition to the usual chicken burrito bowl, I also ordered their new quesadilla to give that a try. It wasn't bad, but not really worth it. For the price, I would rather just get a second burrito bowl. Overall, this made for a nice recovery meal.

Quesadilla and chicken burrito bowl

Elder Creek Trail Runs 2021

Friday 3/5
While planning for this race, I had thought about staying at the Cahuilla Casino Hotel. It was located really close to the venue for this race, but the daily room rate was a bit pricey, so I ended up booking a one-nighter at a hotel in nearby Temecula. I wasn't feeling really confident going into this race as I wasn't really in shape to be running a 50 mile race. However, most of my lingering injuries or running issues have finally been resolved with the time off from running so many races. Prior to the race, I waffled between downgrading to the 50k or sticking to the 50 miles. In the end, I just decided to go with the 50 miles and play it by ear.

As soon as I was done with work on Friday, I threw my bags into the car and started heading out to Temecula. Before hopping on the 60 freeway, I filled up the gas tank at the usual Chevron gas station. At first, the traffic wasn't too bad until I got onto the 71 freeway. It got worse when I got on the 91 as it was clogged with stop-n-go rush hour traffic. I thought it would ease up on the 15, but it was still bad. The traffic finally cleared up during the last stretch before I had arrived at my exit in Temecula.

Since it was already kind of late, I headed over to the nearby Chick-fil-A to pick-up dinner before heading over to my hotel. The drive-thru line was incredibly long when I got there, so I parked in one of the curbside delivery spots. I placed my order on the mobile app and waited in my car for an employee to bring out my food. I ordered my usual Cobb salad with grilled nuggets and medium sized waffle fries.

Chick-fil-A "curbside" delivery

After getting my food, I drove over to the nearby La Quinta hotel to get checked-in. I was given a small packet of hand sanitizer during check-in. I was assigned room #218. It was quite spacious and definitely more than adequate for a one-nighter.

Hand sanitizer

After getting settled it, it was time to polish off my dinner. Sorry McDonalds, but the Cobb salad from Chick-fil-A is starting to become my pre-race meal before a race. I guess it's never too late to start eating a bit healthier. After dinner, I laid out my flat runner, took a shower, and got ready for bed.

Cobb salad with grilled nuggets and waffle fries

Cobb salad

Flat runner

Saturday 3/6
I got ready, packed everything up, and left the hotel at about 5 am. It turned out to be a nice beautiful drive out to the race venue as dawn was just breaking when I reached the gate off of Cahuilla Rd at about 5:40 am. From the gate, it was a short drive along a dirt road to the Cahuilla Ballfield where I was directed to make a right turn. Then I parked my car along the right side of the road right behind the long line of cars that were there before me. Parking was $10. I walked up the road to check out the starting line area as well as to use one of the portapotties.

Aid station

The 100 mile/24 hour race started at 6 am. I got there just in time to see the group take off. Next up was the 100k race at 6:15 am. I bumped into my buddy, Mitch. We were both wearing our INK-n-BURN's Out-n-Back shirt. He took a quick selfie of us before we went back to our cars to get ready for our race. He was running in the 100k race.

Twins with Mitch

The participants in the 50 mile race were split into 2 groups by alphabetical order. I was in the first group which was designated to start at 6:30 am. The second group started at 6:45 am. Per the instructions, I checked-in at the start line with the person in charge of timing by giving her my assigned number, 32. We were given a sticker to stick on our shorts. Their plan was to mark the number of completed loops on that sticker. There was also a person there taking our temperature with a contactless forehead thermometer. Once everything was in order and last minute instructions were given, we were sent off at 6:30 am. For the 50 mile race, we were supposed to be running 10 loops where each loop was 5 miles.

I took that first loop at a nice comfortable leisurely pace. The first thing that I noticed about the loop once it got off of the groomed dirt road was that it was very winding. So many turns! I was definitely feeling it in my ankles. I went through that first loop in about 54 minutes. We needed to call out our number each time we went through the start/finish line. Unfortunately, everyone realized that the loop was about 6/10th of a mile short of 5 miles.

First loop done

Loop 2

I noticed that I was feeling somewhat hungry. I'll have to make a mental note to eat more than a salad the night before! I walked parts of the second loop with a guy named Steve. I went through the 2nd loop in about 59 mins. They eventually started recording our loops on a chalkboard.

Loop 3

Seeing Robert during Loop 3

Robert

Deo

I went through the 3rd loop in about 1:04, so I was averaging about 5 mins slower per loop. They made sure to let us know that we would be needing to run an extra loop to account for the shortage for each loop.

Loop 4

Seeing Meili during loop 4

I went through the 4th loop in about 1:12.

Loop 5

I went through the 5th loop in about 1:17. I was starting to feel the distance in my legs. Also the day was starting to get warm, so I started to grab a salty snack from the aid station at the end of each loop and ate it during the incline portion of the dirt road.

I walked almost the entire first half of loop 6 with an active military guy who told me that he was planning to drop out. We talked about how somehow we were able to get into the Tokyo Marathon more than once even though the odds in the drawing weren't very good. I was caught by Robert before reaching the dirt road. We ran a bit together, but eventually he went on ahead. I went through the 6th loop in about 1:25. That would be my slowest loop and the thought of dropping out weighed heavy on my mind. I passed my friend, Stacy, as she was getting stuff from her car.

During the start of my 7th loop, I walked while eating some salty snacks. My legs were starting to cramp up whenever I tried to run or jog. My friend, Stacy, caught up to me. I ended up walking the loop with her. We were trading life stories to take our minds off of the growing discomfort that comes with the increasing mileage. I dropped out after that loop for a DNF at 50k. I went through the 7th loop in about 1:23.

Meili still going strong!

Ready to drop out

Finish: 8:14:56
Race credited for 50k finish: 8:14:51

Click here for my Garmin data.

After finishing that 7th loop, I wished my friend good luck as even though her knees were bothering her, she was intent on finishing out the race no matter how long it took. She's definitely more mentally tough than me! She is definitely not a quitter!

I can still remember when I had a hard time just completing a 50k. However, it would seem that when I moved the goal to 50 miles, the 50k distance wasn't all that bad. I definitely could've kept on going and grind out the 50 miles, but that would've definitely increased the possibility of me picking up an injury and ruining all of the progress that I've made with trying to get myself back to 100%. So in the end, I was content with my DNF at 50k.

After they've noted my status of dropping out or dropping down in distance, they gave me a finisher medal and a long sleeve race shirt. I caught up with Robert. He came with Deo, so he had to wait for Deo to finish. We shot the breeze a bit before I headed out for the drive home.

Finisher medal

Long sleeve race shirt

Time to go home!

Before I reached the gate to get onto Cahuilla Rd, I bumped into the race director. She apologized for the loop being short. I told her that it wasn't a big deal and thanked her for putting on this race. It was nice to be able to finally run a race in California after such a long break! The drive back home started off pretty decent, but then there was actually a lot of unexpected stop-n-go traffic along the 79. Unrelated to the traffic, at the Northwest corner of Anza Rd, someone had set up a pro-Trump display with huge waving flags. The election is over, bro!

When I got home and took off my shoes, I noticed that blood had soaked through the socks and into the insole of my right shoe. I guess I had a blood blister on the outside of my right foot near the heel that popped! I didn't really notice during the run because that part of my foot has really thick tough skin. I'm glad that it wasn't causing me any additional pain or discomfort during the run. In addition to the bloody heel, my arms were quite sunburned. My skin had gotten really pale with the lack of year-round racing and there was absolutely no shade out there on the course. After I got cleaned up, I ordered some Chipotle for my recovery dinner.