I got up early to get ready and left my house at about 5:40 am for my morning expo volunteer shift for the Los Angeles Marathon over at Dodger Stadium. I had considered running the 5k, but ultimately decided not to as I was starting to have hip discomfort. Plus it would be wise to save money and to start paying down my loans a bit sooner rather than later. I arrived at the Sunset entrance at about 6:30 am. Contrary to the volunteer instructions that was emailed to us, they were not letting us enter through the very right lane. They coned off that lane just as I had arrived. I followed the car in front of me and ended up parking in the lot F which was really close to where I needed to go. When I entered through the fence like we were told, the lady that was in charge of the volunteers was shouting at me to not enter as she thought I was a runner in the 5k. Once I told her that I was a volunteer, she had me sign in and gave me my bright yellow volunteer shirt. Since our shift didn't begin until 7 am, I milled around until more of the volunteers showed up. I tried to catch some of my friends running in the 5k, but I never saw any of them walk by.
Dodger Stadium Parking
Volunteer Check-in
Volunteer shirt
Back of volunteer shirt
Snacks and drinks
Eventually, they grabbed a bunch of us and walked us over to the tents for the Open Corral bib assignment. They had a hands-on demonstration on how to use the tablet to assign bibs to people for several different scenarios including those with or without a confirmation QR code. It's nice that more and more races are now assigning bibs on the spot instead of the old method of pre-assigning numbers. I imagine that that would cut down on the cost of bibs being assigned to no-shows. I paired up with my friend, Dexter. He volunteers a lot at races, so it was fun to volunteer with him. It was non-stop action once the 5k race was over and everyone started showing up! My shift ended at 1 pm. The coordinator had me take a break to eat lunch right before ending my shift.
Dexter!
Food for the morning shift
Deli turkey
Once I was done with my lunch, I took off my volunteer shirt and went to pick up my own race packet. Since I had submitted a time good enough to be in corral C, I headed over to the seeded corral tent to get my bib. I was currently on a 3 year streak, so in addition to receiving a LA Loyal bib, I was given a LA Loyal pin. Then I got into the long queue for the medium sized race shirt. With the race shirt, I received a clear bag for gear check as well as a race program. After receiving my shirt, I went into the official merchandise area to check out the participants name wall. After locating my name on the wall, I checked out all of the vendor booths. I received samples from a few of the vendors.
LA Loyal and open corral
Seeded corrals
LA Loyal pin
Race shirt pick-up
Race shirt
Race program
Flyers
Race expo
Participants name wall
Found my name
Kenya
Angel City Pit Bulls
Yakult
Expo freebies
Good luck!
Sunday 3/17
I don't ever like the stress of dealing with race day traffic so more often than not, I would arrive early. I left the house at about 2:30 am to make the drive out to Century City. As with last year, I decided not to prepay for parking and just park at Westfield Century City. The max cost this year was $32. I tried to scan my Westfield app barcode, but as the employee that was stationed there to provide assistance said, it didn't work. I ended up pulling a paper ticket. The parking garage was a bit weird this year. They had taped off all of the first floor and directed the flow of traffic up to the 4th floor. I opted to park near the escalators so that it would be easier to find after the race. I then took the elevator down to the first floor to walk over to the buses over on Olympic Blvd. I bumped into a fellow participant asking if I knew where I was headed. Of course I did and I always welcomed the company especially when walking around in the dark at that time of day. His name was Alex. Today's race was his first marathon. However, he didn't attend the expo to pick up his race packet. We rode the shuttle over to Dodger Stadium and I took him over to the hospitality tent. We found someone there that told us that the solutions tent would be right outside. Once he got in that line, I then went on my way to take care of my pre-race routine. As Dodger Stadium wasn't opened yet, I used one of the portapotties and then went inside the stadium to wash my hands. I then found a place to sit down. Eventually, I ran into several of my friends, Louis, Marcia, and Mitch. I would bump into Alex as well. He told me that they charged him $50 for race day pick up. That's actually not too bad and good to know in case I'm not able to make the packet pick-up for a future race.
Parked at Westfield Century City Mall
Dodger Stadium field level
Mitch
I headed over to the pre-race food tent to see if they had put out some gels as they were not available earlier. Along the way, I bumped into my friend, Willie. The queue for the food was quite long, but they had it moving fairly quickly.
Willie
Long queue for the pre-race food
Naruto's 8 trigrams seal
We were supposed to have our Marathon Maniacs pre-race photo in front of the hospitality tent. However, it would seem that everyone that I had texted was still on one of the race shuttles en route to Dodger Stadium. While I was waiting, I ran into Andrew, who paces pretty much every race that I run. I ended up only seeing 2 fellow Maniacs, Lea was running her 100th marathon and Deo was running his 555th! After grabbing a selfie with them, I then waited in a portapotty line that was near the gear check trucks. It wasn't moving fast enough so I got out of line and went to go check my gear bag before they closed. I definitely did not want to run a marathon while carrying my gear bag like my friend Luis did. I went back inside Dodger Stadium to use their urinals. Thankfully, there were no lines! On the way in, I bumped into another one of my friends that always paces! On the way out, I once again I bumped into my friend Louis. Since we were both going to start out of the Open Corral, we headed over there together to meet up with our mutual friend. I was planning to run with her as our goal times were pretty similar. We both only wanted to finish in just under 5 hours.
Pacer Andrew
Lea running her 100th marathon
Deo running his 555th marathon
Gear check
Pacer Almi
SRLA
While trying to find our friend, I bumped into my friend Eddie. He was trying to find the entrance to his corral. The race was about to start in 20 mins and the areas around the corral entrances were a bit chaotic. It's been a while since I had started out of the Open Corral. The vibe was definitely more relaxed. I believe that there quite a bit of virgin marathoners in that corral. I could barely hear the singing of the national anthem from way back there!
Eddie
Louis and Yvonne
First Half
The race started as scheduled at 7 am. However, we didn't cross the start line until a little over 9 minutes later. Since I knew that my body had not fully recovered from last weekend's marathon, I made sure that we started slow and tried to keep it to around a 10:30 min per mile pace. The course was pretty crowded the entire time, so my friend and I would just try to stay within the same general vicinity. After reaching mile 5, we made a right turn onto Edgeware Rd to cross over the 101 freeway and make a left turn onto Bellevue Ave. It was nice to see that the chili cheese dog stand had finally returned! One of these years, I'll have to eat one! After a short climb, the course had a nice stretch of downhill leading to a right turn onto Glendale Blvd with Echo Park to our right.
Here we go!
Maricris
Mile 3.5 Deo and Sherry on Los Angeles St, almost to 4th St
Mile 6 Running by Echo Park
I ran into my friend Robert and his son while running through Silver Lake. Eventually we caught up to our friend, Allan, who was pacing the 4:50 group. I ran a bit with that pace group. My hips were starting to give me trouble as we ran through Hollywood. A combination of the road camber and a downhill stretch on Orange Dr was doing a number on my hips. We got through the 1st half in around 2:20.
Mile 7 Robert and his son on Sunset Blvd, almost to Silver Lake Blvd
Mile 8 Marcia on Sunset Blvd and Sanborn Ave
Mile 11.7 passing TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd
Mile 11.75 turn onto Orange Dr from Hollywood Blvd
Second Half
I let me friend know that I was having hip issues. I stayed with her, but I didn't want to slow her down. I ran through mile 14 with her before taking a walk break and falling behind. Although my body did rally once the roads flattened out a bit, that would be the last time that I saw her. Most of the second half was just making sure that I took it easy as the day kept getting warmer. When I reached the part of Santa Monica Blvd on the other side of the finish line, the course was quite crowded with spectators. Although, I was a little bit tempted to make a pitstop at the McDonald's near mile 19, I decided to continue on with the race. The next 2 miles would be a slow, but steady climb up to the VA Medical Center. Once I made my way onto San Vicente Blvd, I knew that there wouldn't be any more climbing until the last mile. During the final stretch, I was surprised to receive some Tottenham love from the spectators.
25k on Doheny Dr at Dorrington Ave
Mile 17 Rodeo Dr and Brighton Way
Finish line just up ahead
Finish: 4:52:28
Click here for my Garmin data.
It wasn't my best LA Marathon performance, but I was content to get it done in under 5 hours without feeling like death during any part of the race. It was my 19th time completing this race. Next year will be my 20th LA Marathon at the 40th running of the race!
After receiving my finisher medal, I continued down the finisher chute where I received a lot of post race goodies. This year's medal was a very nice design. As for the snacks, I loved the Siete chips and Pocky sticks! Since I had prepaid for race photos, I made sure to get in line for a post race photo with my medal.
Finisher medal
Post race goodies
I checked to see that my friend had finished 3:23 ahead of me. Originally, I was going to meet up with her to check out the finisher festival area. It was a bit too crowded for my taste just on the walk over, so I decided to bail and go get lunch at Ramen Nagi. I texted her to let her know of the change of plans and went into the mall garage to drop off my stuff. The mall map was somewhat confusing, so I got to see more of the mall than I had wanted. Eventually, I found it and got in line. It was my first time at this location and the line was short. It was so unusually short that I joined the line at the wrong end. My brain was still a bit foggy from running a marathon, so many thanks to the guy at the front of the line for pointing that out to me. The wait was very minimal as the marathon had disrupted the normal amount of customers. I was seated at the counter so I got a good view of the action in the kitchen. Since I had not have the Black King version, that was what I ordered with the usual thin firm noodles, added tamago, and an order of edamame.
View on the final stretch from the 4th floor
View of the kitchen
Black King added tamago
Black King added tamago and edamame
After I paid for my food, I headed back to my car to go home. As recommended per the signs all around the parking garage, I paid for parking before getting back to my car. I pulled out and sat in a line of cars trying to exit the garage for about an hour with almost no progress. I eventually pulled into a parking spot as I needed to use the restroom. As soon as I parked, the cars started to move. After using the restroom, I took this delay to go get my medal engraved over by the atrium. It was located near the Tesla store. It was a short 5 minute wait for them to do the engraving.
So I returned to my car to continue the wait in the long queue of cars trying to get out. By the time I had reached the gate arm to exit, the machine was wanting me to pay another $18! The employee that was stationed there saw that I had already paid the max amount, chuckled and pressed the override to let me exit.
Got my medal engraved
Monday 3/18
Just as with last year, I took Monday off of work for a celebratory and "recovery" day at Disneyland. I was dragging a bit in the morning, but I left the house right before 7 am to make it in time for rope drop. When I arrived at the Toy Story Parking lot, I opted to just park in a regular spot instead of asking for EV parking. I have yet to plug into the charging station even when I do park over there. The one time that I tried, the machine wasn't receiving a strong enough signal for it to work.
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, per the usual, this was my first ride for the day. No matter how out of shape people looked, everyone power-hiked it over to this ride. The ones that have done this before all take the longer route via Frontierland taking the Big Thunder Trail. Even though it was a longer distance-wise versus going through Adventureland, coming through the eastern entrance into Galaxy's Edge puts you right at the end of the queue. If you come through the western entrance, you still need to get to the end of the line which more often than not will put you all the way at the eastern entrance. After I got off of the ride, I decided to head towards Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain. Along the way, I passed by the Millennium Falcon and the Wilderness Expeditions and Delivery Service stagecoach.
Medal Monday in space!
Millennium Falcon
Wilderness Expeditions and Delivery Service
- Sleeping Beauty Castle, along the way, I stopped here for a quick selfie. Lately, I've been trying to take pictures of anything inside the park that I've not noticed before. Most of the time, I'm walking through the park to the next ride or attraction and missing a lot of cool details. Today, I finally noticed a 40th anniversary Time Castle was buried here in the front of the castle on July 17, 1995. It's to be unlocked on the 80th anniversary of Disneyland in 2035. Hey, only about 11 more years to go!
Medal Monday
Time Castle
- Space Mountain, for once, I decided to knock out this ride before it had gotten too busy. Even for a second ride of the day, there was a relatively lengthy wait. Somehow, I ended up in the vehicle with only a young couple sitting behind me. I looked like their driver/chaperone!
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, pew pew pew! LGM is slipping for me to take #5 on the leaderboard with such a low score! I'm so used to seeing his initials from top to bottom every time that I'm here. Disney really needs to shut down this ride and spend some money to update the ride photo at the very least!
- Matterhorn Bobsleds, per the usual, I got into the single rider line. I got placed into a bobsled with what I assumed to be a Taiwanese couple. I made that assumption based on the girl's jacket. It read, "Taiwan personal protection gear." I'm not sure why I keep getting on this ride. It's so jarring!
Taiwanese couple
- It's a Small World, I got in line for this ride because the wait time was just perfect before I had to head back to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge for my lunch reservation at Oga's Cantina. This is probably the one ride where I kind of actually wish that I had kids. I know that there's a lot of people that find the song to be annoying, but it has such a good message.
- Oga's Cantina, I finally made a reservation here to check this place out. I checked in on the mobile app and was then sent a text when my "table" was ready. I was offered a place either at the bar or at a shared long table. While I opted for the bar, either choice was going to have you rub elbows with strangers as they really packed the place. The menu was mostly alcoholic drinks and some snacks. They did have some non-alcoholic drinks. If you're coming here to eat a meal, I would suggest going elsewhere. The only item that was substantial enough for a meal was their Batuu Wilds Bounty, so that was what I had ordered. It was basically an open faced pastrami sandwich. I got a Jabba Juice to go with it. Unfortunately, the glass was filled with mostly ice so I only got about 2 gulps-worth of juice. The bartender noticed and asked me how my drink was. When I told her that it was a bit heavy on the ice, she did refill it for me at no extra charge. For me, this was definitely a one and done type of place especially for those that do not drink alcohol. I must of looked pretty wiped out as one of the bartenders asked if I was okay. I was pretty sure that he thought I had been overserved. Nope, I was just plain tired from yesterday's marathon. I took a picture of Rex on the way out.
Mobile app check-in
Oga's Cantina
Jabba Juice
Batuu Wilds Bounty
DJ R-3X aka Rex!
- The Tropical Hideaway, I was on my way out of the park until I realized that I needed to stop here for my Dole Whip fix! I got in line to order and when it was my turn, I was going to order a pineapple mango swirl. However, my tired brain checked out and my mouth was on autopilot telling the person that I wanted a pineapple strawberry swirl. No harm since it was one of my favorite flavor combinations. I found an open table to enjoy my Dole Whip.
Pineapple strawberry swirl
Stitch!
After taking a picture with Stitch, I went over to the Hyperion Theater to check out the Magic Key Photo Op event with rare characters. In addition to those photos, they were giving out an exclusive keepsake magnet. I was there at about 1 pm and it was scheduled to open at 2 pm and end at 7 pm. I thought about doing one ride or attraction before getting in line, but since I've done them all numerous times before, I decided to just get in line and wait. It was quite hot and warm for that wait. With my tiredness, it had me feeling like I was going to faint. I drank most of my water to make sure that I didn't. Once inside, I picked up my magnet and went to get a photo with the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. After that, I got in line for a picture with Ping and Li Shang. As I got to the front of the line, they were swapped out for Mushu. The other line swapped out the White Rabbit for Tweedledee & Tweedledum. Unfortunately, all of the characters were pulled as there was a lightning storm approaching. Apparently, if a storm was within 6 miles away, they have to evacuate the characters. We were told that we could wait around for them to return, however there were no guarantees. They had Johnny Ace Palmer there doing magic tricks. It was funny to see him there as he was doing magic at my place of work about a year ago.
Magic Key photo magnet gift
White Rabbit!
Johnny Ace Palmer
Since I saw the dark clouds forming and that the cold winds had picked up, I decided to call it a day and head home. The rain really started coming down as I used the restroom near the park entrance/exit. Since I didn't have my umbrella with me, I had to take shelter and wait for the rain to die down a bit because joining in on the exodus. When the rain finally let up, I exited and got in line for the Toy Story parking lot shuttle. We were told that the wait for a shuttle would be about 25 minutes. Since it looked like the storm had passed, I hopped out of line, went back through security screening and re-entered Disney California Adventure Park. I got back in the line to go inside the Magic Key event area. Once inside, I got in line to take a picture this line with only Ping. While waiting, they had a guy juggling while riding a unicycle. When I finally got to the front of the line, Ping was swapped out for Li Shang. He totally reminded me of my cousins. Once again, the cast members were warning us that the storm was returning. I decided to bail for sure this time after getting that picture. On the way out, I stopped in the Off the Page store to do a little window shopping. They always have really cool items. This time there was no wait for a Toy Story shuttle.
Raining!
Waiting for the rain to let up
General Li Shang
Dr Facilier
On my way home, I stopped at What's Up Men for dinner. Along the way there, the rain came down pretty good including some hail near the Fullerton area. I have not been to this particular ramen shop in a long time. I ordered a bowl of their Kuro shoyu ramen and edamame. Not much had changed except for the music that was played and the prices. Instead of reggae music, it was now the oldies.
Kuro shoyu ramen
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