Shortly after 6 am, I hopped in the car to start my road trip up to Monterey. My first pit stop had me out to the Five Points Shopping Center out in Santa Barbara to charge the car at the Tesla Supercharger station and for me to get a coffee at Starbucks. That stretch took about 2 hours which was about the average limit for my bladder. After plugging in the car, I started walking over to the coffee shop. Along the way, I came across two Asian girls coming out of the Smart & Final followed by an unkempt homeless guy closely behind them. I got in between them to allow for the girls to get away. I asked if he needed anything. He was mumbling a bit, but it sounded like he wanted money. After I told him that I do not have cash, he asked if I could buy him food. I personally would never give out cash, but I would be more than happy to buy someone food. He looked like he had not been eating regular meals. First he had me walk with him over to Subway. I told him that it was only 8:30 am and that they weren't open yet. He wanted to make sure. Then we turned around and headed back to Smart & Final. Along the way, he saw Starbucks and went inside. I thought he would grab maybe one or two items from the prepackaged food area. However, he ended up grabbing over $60 worth of sandwiches and drinks. I wish I had paid more attention and told him to limit the number of items, but at that point, the cashier had already scanned everything and I'm not sure they would be able to sell any of it after he had touched all of them. After paying for his items, I went to use the restroom. When I came out, I found an open table and placed my order on the mobile app for a grande blonde vanilla latte. This turned out to be quite an expensive stop. I noticed that their ordering sticker had a new larger font.
Tesla Supercharger Santa Barbara
Grande blonde vanilla latte
After I was done with my coffee and the car was done charging, I continued on with my trip. The second leg took me up to the Golden Hills Plaza out in Paso Robles. The onboard navigation had me take the 154 instead of the 101. This route took me past Lake Cachuma. The last time I was there was a couple of decades ago with a couple of college buddies to do some lake fishing. This stretch also took about 2 hours. After plugging the car in at the Tesla Supercharger station, I walked over to the Starbucks to get some more coffee. This time I ordered a grande salted caramel cream cold brew. I used their restroom before returning back to the car.
Tesla Supercharger Paso Robles
Grande salted caramel cream cold brew
The last leg took me into Monterey. The car still had plenty of charge, so I drove over to the Travelodge Monterey Bay to see if I could check in a bit early. Thankfully they had a room ready for me. I got checked in and relaxed a bit in my room. I was assigned to room #132.
Travelodge Monterey Bay
View of the pool from my room
I then headed back out to go pick up my race packet over at the Monterey Conference Center. Since it wasn't too far, I decided to just walk. The walk took about 40 minutes. It was nice to walk around after a lengthy road trip. The venue looked nice for a race expo. The signage had us first go upstairs to pick up our bib and bus transportation ticket. Before heading downstairs, I stopped by the questions booth to ask if I needed to be a hotel guest in order to park at the Embassy Suites, the bus pick-up location that I had selected. Both of the guys there didn't know for sure.
Monterey Conference Center
I then went downstairs to check out the vendor booths as well as to pick up my race shirt. My friends from San Diego spotted me while I was picking up my race shirt. We chatted for a bit before going our separate ways.
Bananas!
Banana and bus ticket
Long sleeve race shirt
Back of race shirt
Dan and Karen
Originally, I was planning to just get some burgers at McDonald's or In-n-Out for lunch. Eventually, I decided to go check out The Crown & Anchor. The moment I stepped inside, I noticed that the entire waitstaff here looked to be swamped and not ready for the influx of out-of-towners. All of the male waiters were grumbling about something and making darn sure to not make any eye contact with me. Only one waitress gave me the time of day and asked if I had been helped. She seated me at a small table in the bar section. Their menu was pretty standard for a British pub. I went with their bangers and mash.
Crown & Anchor
Most likely a tavern for supporters of those lame Gooners! :)
Bangers and mash
After I was done eating and had paid for my meal, it was time to head on back to my motel. On the walk back to the motel, I took a longer more scenic route by hopping on the Monterey Peninsula Recreational Trail.
Monterey Peninsula Recreational Trail
As it got closer to 5 pm, I started thinking about where to go for dinner. I was feeling pretty tired, so I didn't want to go too far from my motel. I looked up the restaurant across the street, but it didn't look too appealing. I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race while I checked for food options on Google and Yelp. I eventually decided to stick to my normal usual prerace meal and headed out to the nearby In-n-Out which was only about a mile away. The parking lot was pretty packed with cars. There was also a long queue for the drive-thru lane. I was glad that I walked instead of driving over. Per the usual, I ordered 2 Double Doubles, both with onions. I decided to just eat my burgers there instead of taking back to my room.
Flat runner
Double Double x2
Sunday 4/28
I got ready and left my room at about 4 am. I drove over to the nearby Embassy Suites to catch a shuttle ride to the starting area. Before hopping on the shuttle, I went inside the hotel to use their restroom. We were dropped off at a grassy field near the corner of Rio Rd and Cabrillo Highway, across the street from the Crossroads Carmel shopping center. The perimeter of that field were lined with portapotties. It was pretty cool to run into the usual suspects! A couple of them had just ran the London Marathon last weekend!
Shuttle ride to the start
Start line staging area
Marathon Maniacs!
At about a quarter to 6 am, my friends and I gathered with the race volunteer that was carrying the sign for corral A. He would walk the group of runners over to the starting corral. I went to the front to say hi to my race announcer friends. I then tried to head to the back of the corral, but it had already gotten quite packed. I was only able to get behind the 3:40 pacers.
For most of the first half, I ran just behind a Boston to Big Sur runner who was running around my pace. Like a lot of those runners, she wore her Boston race bib on her back. After the race, I looked up her finishing times for both races. Her Boston time was 4:31:12 versus 4:26:28 today. I had resisted stopping for pictures on the outbound. However, once I had reached the turnaround at just before reaching the Rocky Creek Bridge, I pulled out the cellphone to start taking pictures.
Mile 12.25, shortly after the turnaround
Mile 13.75, Notleys Landing Vista Point
JC!
Mile 14.55, Kasler Point
Mile 15, Garrapata Creek
Garrapata Creek Bridge
Garrapata trail down to the beach
Mile 16.25
Mile 19, China Vista Point
At about mile 22.5, I made the left turn for a short out-and-back section at Point Lobos. I had to walk a good portion as my legs were on the verge of cramping up. I took the time to start eating my CLIF protein bar to reset the leg muscles. Thankfully, my legs recovered just in time for that last mile climb up to the finish line!
Mile 24.8, unicorns near Monastery Beach
Finish: 4:55:54
Click here for my Garmin data.
Finish line
1 free race photo
My buddy Mitch didn't finish too far behind me. We waited for Dan as we thought he wasn't too far behind. Later we would find out that he had suffered from some very debilitating leg cramps during that last uphill mile. Was glad that he was able to still get to the finish. After we got our post race goodies, we went our separate ways. He wanted to check out the post race festivities while I wanted to start my drive home. There were several busses headed to various locations, so it took me a while to locate the one that was headed back to Embassy Suites.
With the course being modified due to road slippage, we didn't even get to run across the famous Bixby Bridge. This was supposed to be a one-and-done marathon for me, but I will have to decide if I want to return to run the normal point to point course from Big Sur to Carmel. According to the race history on their website, this was only the 4th time that there was a course change due to weather related road issues. The other years were 1995, 1998, and 2011.
Finisher medal and post race goodies
Taking a bus back to my car
I dropped off my stuff at the car and used the hotel restroom to get cleaned up a bit before heading for home. My first stop had me out at the Tesla Supercharger in King City. It was located in the Burger King parking lot. Since I was feeling a bit hungry, I decided to get something to eat. On the mobile app, I saw that they had a BOGO deal for the Original Chicken Sandwich. It was a blast from the past as I had not eaten one of these sandwiches since back in high school! I used their restroom before heading back to the car.
Tesla Supercharger King City
The Original Chicken Sandwich BOGO deal
I rolled up to Jocko's Steakhouse in Nipomo at about 3:30 pm. I made much better time than I had anticipated. Although my reservation was for 5 pm, they were able to seat me at a small table near the corner of the dining area. I ordered a 20 oz New York steak with baked potato and coffee. Man, that steak was good and perfectly grilled! However, I guess I had ruined my appetite by eating at BK. I simply didn't have any room in my stomach for the beans and toast. I checked out their BBQ pit on the way out. They used red oak coals to cook their meats.
20 oz NY steak with baked potato
BBQ pit with red oak coals
Unfortunately, the car did not have enough charge to get all the way home, so I made a pit stop at a smaller Tesla Supercharger station in Montecito. It was tucked into the corner of a small valet parking lot for the Rosewood Miramar Beach hotel, right next to a gate leading to the All Saints By the Sea Church. Although this was one of the older charging stations that I had been to in a while, it was the cheapest per kW in the area. The final leg took a little over 2 hours to cover.
Tesla Supercharger Montecito
Monday 4/29
I was definitely dragging this morning and feeling pretty wrecked from yesterday's challenging marathon. I arrived at the Toy Story Parking Lot at almost 7:45 am. Since I never actually plug in to charge the car, I decided to forego asking for parking over at the EV section of the lot. During my walk over for security screening and to catch a shuttle over to the amusement park, I knew for certain that I was going to miss rope drop this morning.
Disneyland Park
It was actually not as stressful entering the park about 5 minutes after rope drop. There were hardly any lines to get through one of the turnstiles. There were no crowds rushing to get to The Galaxy's Edge to get in line for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
Pixar Fest!
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, I made it all the way past the interrogation room before the ride broke down just as we were loading into the transport. I was given a lightning pass, but they made no promises that the ride would come back up.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, I made it all the way to the loading area. I was given a lightning pass that was only good for this ride. Yikes, my Disney day was not off to a good start! That made it 2 for 2 for rides breaking down!
- On my way by, I checked out the popcorn buckets that were being sold at the cart in New Orleans near the Haunted Mansion. I just could not pass up buying Dug, a popcorn bucket for Magic Key Holders. To be honest, if I hadn't found Dug, I probably would've bought the Pizza Planet truck! I will only allow myself 1 popcorn bucket purchase per trip!
Pizza Planet popcorn bucket
I'm your best friend!
Dug and I in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle
- Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, the new transition screen with the Mandalorian and Grogu was pretty cool. It was also nice to see a new location with the purrgil also known as space whales!
- Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway
- Autopia, I had not been on this ride in ages! It was every bit as slow as I remembered them to be! I had heard rumors that they will be updating the vehicles to be electric which would make perfect sense for Tomorrowland or Today-land! :)
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, I cashed in my lightning lane pass. Finally, I got a decent gun! I was able to hit the higher value target on Zurg's chest and get the max score. Unfortunately, I could not find my photo to claim a possible high score on the leaderboard.
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, I also cashed in my lightning lane pass for this ride. I noticed that the part where Kylo cuts into the roof of the elevator with his lightsaber was missing. This ride isn't even that old and those physical moving parts are already breaking down on a regular basis!
- Blue Bayou Restaurant, I went up and talked to the cast member that was checking people in for reservations. I asked him what the best time was to try for a walkup. He asked how many were in my group. When I said only one, he asked if I didn't mind waiting for about 20 minutes. Just like that, I finally got a table at this restaurant! Apparently, only Club 33 was harder for someone to get a reservation in advance! I was hoping that they would have steak on the menu, but my waiter told me that they only serve it for dinner. He mentioned that they do have a prime rib, so that's what I ordered. I also ordered the chicken gumbo and coffee. I had ordered the prime rib to be cooked medium, but unfortunately, it was brought to my table, medium-well at best.
Coffee
Chicken gumbo
Prime rib
Pixar Fest display in the middle of the esplanade
Disney California Adventure Park
Along the way to my favorite ride over at the Pixar Pier, I took a picture of the Pixar Fest display near the Carthay Circle.
- Toy Story Midway Mania! This was one of the few times where I sort of caught fire. I was able to trigger the special bonus features for each game. Although I had managed to reach the highest bear level, it was not quite a personal best.
I hopped back here mainly to get some Dole Whip before heading out.
- It's a Small World
- Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, I wanted to see if there were other new transition screens or locations. Unfortunately, it was the same as the ones that I had seen earlier in the day.
- Star Wars Launch Bay, I went and met Darth Vader again. I kind of love messing with him. I told him that I was bringing him Yoda since I knew that he was hunting surviving Jedi.
Darth Vader
- Tropical Hideaway, I wanted to get a Dole Whip before leaving, but the line here was insanely longer than I've seen in a while!
Before heading home, I got dinner and a drink from my usual spots.
- Starbucks, I ordered one of my usual drinks, a grande blonde vanilla latte.
- Earl of Sandwich, I ordered a pastrami sandwich, but wasn't able to find an open table. I ended up walking back to Starbucks to eat my dinner. I had a brief chat with a couple that was sitting next to me. They stood out because they were more nicely dressed than the average Disneyland guest. I commented on how this was a good spot for people watching. They agreed and told me that they were there as volunteers. They were a bit vague on what exactly they were volunteering for, but they mentioned that they were there helping people cope with family issues. I'm pretty sure they were there evangelizing as there was a table nearby. I've seen that table before and they usually rotate people in and out.
Grande blonde vanilla latte, pastrami sandwich
No comments:
Post a Comment