I had an evening flight out of LAX. Traffic can be a total crapshoot in LA County. I tried to time it so that I would arrive at the usual LAX Economy Parking structure at about 7 pm. When I got ready and hopped in the car, initially the navigation was telling me that I would arrive at about 7:30 pm. I thought that that was odd, but I normally would build enough of a buffer to arrive with plenty of time even when unforeseen variables were introduced. The freeway definitely was quite congested in the usual spots along the 605 and 105 freeways. However, I arrived and parked at about 7:15 pm. After noting my parking spot, I grabbed my bags and boarded a shuttle for a ride over to terminal 4.
LAX Economy Parking
Dodgers swept the Brewers to win the NLCS!
The first leg of my trip took me out to Phoenix Sky Harbor PHX Airport to catch a red eye flight over to Ronald Reagan Washington National DCA Airport. For the short trip from LAX to PHX, I watched some live TV on their inflight stream. When I got seated for the trip from PHX to DCA, I tried to watch The Accountant 2. However, I kept falling asleep since it was way past my bedtime. Eventually, I gave up and opted for a nap. I will have to try again on another trip.
LAX > PHX
PHX > DCA
The Accountant 2
Saturday 10/18
When I got off of the plane at DCA, I started looking at my food options for breakfast. Eventually, I decided on Starbucks. It would appear that they were down to 1 location in terminal 2. As to be expected, the place was pretty slammed with hungry and thirsty travelers. Per the usual, I placed my order on the mobile app. My order was for a bacon, sausage & egg wrap and a grande blonde vanilla latte. The food came out rather quickly. Then it was a lengthy wait for my drink. Once I got my entire order, I found a spot to sit down to eat my food.
DCA terminal 2
Grande blonde vanilla latte and bacon, sausage, egg wrap
Earned bonus stars
Earned even more bonus stars
Chick-fil-A being remodeled
The second leg of my trip took me out to Bangor BGR Airport. The last time that I was there was to run the Bay of Fundy International Marathon up in Lubec. On the flight over, I caught an English Premier League match between Brighton and Newcastle. It was also reported that Forest had sacked Ange. Not much surprise there as he did not have a squad that fit his style of play which resulted in pretty much nothing but losses.
DCA > BGR
Brighton v. Newcastle
Forest sacked Ange
After getting off of the plane and using the restroom, I headed down to the baggage claim area to get in line to pick up my rental car with Budget. Since my reservation was for 12:30 pm and the plane had landed early, I wasn't in a rush to get in line. When it was my turn, I was given a free "upgrade" to a Hyundai Kona. Per the usual, my reservation was for a economy car. Once I took care of all of the paperwork (I cannot believe that they were still using a dot-matrix printer!!!), it was time to hop in the car and drive down to Bar Harbor.
Picking up my rental car
"Free" upgrade to a Hyundai Kona
I followed the Google Maps directions and arrived at the Days Inn in Bar Harbor after about 1 hour and 15 minutes of driving. It was a pretty nice leisurely drive. I stopped in at the front desk to see if I could get checked into my room a bit earlier than the normal check-in time. The hotel manager seemed to be a bit defensive. I did tell him that I'll come back if it can't be done. Thankfully, his response was that my room was ready. I was checked into room #103. My main reason was that I wanted to use the restroom!
I needed to pick up my race packet over at the Mount Desert Island YMCA. It was less than 2 miles away, so I decided to just leave the car parked there and walk over. There was a lot more traffic than I had expected, but it was still a nice walk over. There were several cool Halloween decorations that I saw along the way.
Bench
One of several funny Halloween decorations that I saw!
The race expo was very tiny. I first picked up my race bib, followed by the long sleeve quarter zip pullover. There were a few booths. One was for race information and the bulk of the space in the gymnasium was for a vendor to sell running stuff. I used the restroom before heading out. As I was holding the door for the person behind me, I noticed that it was a fellow Marathon Maniac, Michelle. We chatted a bit before going our separate ways.
YMCA
Race packet pick-up in the gymnasium
Drawstring bag
Race goodie bag contents
Long sleeve quarter zip pullover
Back side
On my way back to the hotel, I swung by the start line area at the Village Green so that I knew where to go for tomorrow's race. Then I made my way over to the Hannaford Supermarket to buy some drinks for the weekend. I thought about buying some salty snacks, but decided not to since I had already brought along some leftover snacks from my trip last weekend. I bought the usual bottle of grape Powerade and a gallon of spring water. Back at my room, I laid out my flat runner while snacking and drinking water to stay well hydrated.
Everyday Joe's, reminded me of the Milwaukee Brewers
More fun Halloween decorations
The Village Green
1 gallon of spring water
Mmmm... one of my favorites, Cap Cod chips!
Flat runner
At about 4:30 pm, I walked over to the nearby Jack Russell's Prime Steakhouse to eat an early dinner. I wanted to check it out mostly because of the restaurant's name and that my last dog was a Jack Russell Terrier. I thought it would be crowded, but it looked pretty empty. I guess that's to be expected when dining at senior citizen hours. Since I was dining solo, the person at the door asked if I was okay sitting at the bar. That was perfectly fine with me. I believe their main dining area was up a flight of stairs. I started things off with a non-alcoholic beer. It was the Upside Dawn Golden by Athletic Brewing Company. For my meal, I ordered their NY Strip house cut 12 oz steak cooked medium rare with asparagus and roasted potatoes as my 2 sides. I was given a pretzel bread stick with Dijon mustard while I waited for my steak. The steak was not bad, but it was a bit overcooked to be medium rare. As I was finishing up my meal, an older couple came in and sat at the bar. When ordering, the gentleman specifically asked that no asparagus either touches or comes close to any of his food. I had to chuckle a bit. I love asparagus! To each their own!
Menu
Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn Golden with complimentary pretzel bread stick
NY strip house cut 12 oz steak with asparagus and potato of the day, roasted potatoes
Overcooked, but good enough
Back at the hotel, the weather had turned a bit colder. There was a draft so the room felt quite chilly. I turned the air conditioning unit to blow hot air. However, the heated coils had a burnt smell that I wasn't willing to tolerate so I turned it off. As soon as I was done taking a hot shower, I jumped under the covers and called it a night.
Sunday 10/19
The race was scheduled to start at 8 am. That was a nice "late" start as it was 5 am for someone from California. I got ready, grabbed my handheld bottle and mylar blanket before heading out the door at about 7 am for the walk over to the start line. Once I had arrived at the Village Green, I headed straight for the portapotty line for one last emptying of the bladder. I was in line right behind a lady wearing a Marathon Maniacs shirt. We chatted a bit while waiting in that line.
Caught a view of the beautiful sunrise
Another funny Halloween decoration
After taking care of that, I headed over to the start line. I waited near the front, but not too far in front to impede some of those speedsters. I positioned myself off to the side to take a selfie, also so that I could easily dispose of the mylar blanket prior to the start of the race.
Start line
Start line selfie
This was my 3rd marathon in 3 consecutive weekends, so I made sure not to go out too fast. Prior to the race, I had seen the elevation profile for this race course, so I knew that there would be a lot of hills! The course was quite scenic as mentioned by everyone that had ever run this race. The pictures that I took during some of my walk breaks does not do it justice! I was feeling a tad warm by the 10k mark, so I took a walk break and put away the arm sleeves. When I resumed running again, I made sure to pull back on the pace a bit so I don't wear myself out too quickly like I did last weekend at Chicago.
1: 9:06
2: 9:26
3: 9:36
4: 9:05
5: 9:24
6: 9:34
7: 10:34
8: 10:19
9: 10:31
10: 11:09
11: 10:40
12: 10:24
13: 10:03
1st Half: 2:11:54
~6.75 miles
~7.6 miles overlooking Rhodes Cliff
I ran a little bit with MM #903. We chatted a bit about our accomplishments. He had completed a marathon on all 7 continents and in all 50 States. Eventually, I took a walk break as I could not keep up with him! I focused on maintaining my effort throughout the rest of the race. However, the miles after mile 20 had a bunch of lengthier climbs. However, thankfully, we had a good stretch of downhill for the last mile. During the last stretch to the finish line, I had one of the post race buses on my tail! I must say that that definitely helped motivate me to run all the way to the finish line without stopping!
14: 10:57
15: 10:21
16: 10:53
17: 10:40
18: 10:35
19: 10:24
20: 10:52
21: 11:29
22: 12:01
23: 12:04
24: 12:00
25: 12:36
26: 9:59
2nd Half: 2:27:11
~15.3 miles
Finish line
Finish: 4:39:04
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line and receiving my coveted lobster claw finisher medal, I went inside the tent to pick up some post race drinks and snacks. I ended up chatting with a few of my fellow marathon finishers while eating some of those snacks. I was quite content with my race today. I finished right around where I wanted and was over 25 minutes faster than last weekend at Chicago! I checked out some of the street vendor booths before heading over to the shuttle line for a ride back to Bar Harbor. One of those vendors was Chad's Hot Sauce. I took one of their cards for my brother as he's a bit of a chili pepper enthusiast.
Finisher medal
Race results
Finisher medal and post race goodies
Finish line book sale
I took a selfie with the finish line in the background before getting in the long line for bus ride back to the Village Green. During that ride, I sat next to a guy named Stephen. After we went over how our races went, we actually had a nice conversation concerning the absurdities of US politics in recent days. :)
Finish line selfie
Long queue for a bus ride back to the Village Green
Walking back to my hotel felt long. I was glad that my legs held up and actually felt quite decent after completing a rather hilly marathon. I finished off the snacks before jumping in the shower to get cleaned up. I must have been pretty wiped out as I dozed off while watching some TV. I awoke suddenly thinking that I had slept through dinner! Thankfully, it was only just past 5:30 pm. I got ready to go get dinner at Jack Russell's again. I just didn't have it in me to walk all the way back into town. Once again, I sat at the bar. This time, I ordered a slightly larger steak, the NY Strip butcher's cut 16 oz steak. To make it a surf and turf, I also ordered a bowl of the lobster stew. It wasn't cheap, but it did come with 1 full lobster! This was definitely a better way of eating lobster instead of with straight butter which always reminds me of Jim Gaffigan's standup, Obsessed. The steak tonight was much closer to medium rare. After I paid my bill, I had to call it a night right away as I had an early flight to catch tomorrow.
"Friends" coffee shop closed for the season
Bowl of lobster stew
NY strip butcher's cut 16 oz steak
Monday 10/20
I got packed, showered, and checked out of my room at about 3 am. After dropping off my keys at the front desk, I hopped in the car for the drive up to Bangor Airport. For the most part, it was a nice quiet uneventful drive. As I got closer to Bangor, I noticed that there were a pair of headlights in my rearview mirror. It kept getting closer and closer. I wasn't comfortable with how fast that driver was going, so I allowed that vehicle to pass as soon as I got to a turnout lane. I pulled into the Shell gas station that was near the airport at just after 4 am to fill up the gas tank.
Shell gas station
Can you spot the creeper?
I parked the car in the return area for Budget cars. I noted the mileage on the odometer before grabbing my bags and heading inside the airport. Since they weren't open until 8 am, I used the drop box to return the car key as well as the rental agreement form with the information that they had requested. I found a seat nearby to finish off my water before heading over to TSA security screening.
Q 106.5 Maine's #1 for New Country
Noting the mileage during return process
My flight home took me over to Philadelphia PHL Airport for a layover. During the flight, it was pretty cool to see that the news was already reporting about the upcoming TCS New York City Marathon taking place in a couple of weeks! I also had a chuckle seeing that there was a heist at the Louvre!
BGR > PHL
My favorite marathon is coming up!
Danny Ocean strikes again!
Since I had a couple of hours to pass in PHL, I made the rather lengthy walk over to the Starbucks near gate C31 to pick up breakfast. However, with the AWS outage, the mobile app wasn't working. I had to actually stand in line and place my order with a terrible employee that should be fired as he was constantly on his phone. It reminded me of a quote from Two and a Half Men, "your cellphone is like your penis. While at work, you keep it in your pants." Since it was a hassle, I decided to just get the coffee. With coffee in hand, I walked over to the food court to drink my coffee and to charge up my devices.
Grande blonde vanilla latte
Food court
On the flight from PHL to LAX, I resumed watching the news on their inflight live TV stream. Most of the news was sad stuff since it was a New York channel. I eventually switched over to USA to catch the EPL match between West Ham and Brentford. During the buildup, it was reported that Forest had hired Sean Dyche as their new manager in their continuing manager merry-go-round drama!
Abandoned baby found at Penn Station subway platform
Forest hires Sean Dyche
West Ham v. Brentford
Once the plane landed at LAX, it was time to catch a ride back to my car at the LAX Economy Parking. As I approached the gate, I noticed that it had scanned an incorrect license plate and wanted me to pay $1,120. Yeah, no. Nothing changed when I scanned the QR code. The employee that was stationed there came over to help. I told her that it was reading the wrong plate. She told me to back out and try one of the other gates. The second one that I tried did the same exact thing. She asked me for my pre-paid confirmation number and pressed the help button. She spoke with the guy on the other end. Once that got taken care of, the gate was raised for me to exit.
Catching a shuttle ride back to LAX Economy Parking
Wednesday 10/22
Here was a post race article in the Mount Desert Islander. It had a link for a YouTube video of the race. I found myself at about 6:21 into the video.
No comments:
Post a Comment