Friday 12/19
After working a half day from home and eating lunch, I hopped in the car for my drive down to San Diego for this race. Originally, I was going to drive down and right back up just to pick up my race packet, then drive back down for the race the next morning. That felt quite tiring just thinking about it. So a couple of days ago, I decided to book a one night stay at a cheap hotel in the San Diego hotel circle area. The drive over to the Road Runner Sports took just a little over 2 hours. Per the usual, the whole process was really quick. I really liked the color scheme for the race hoodie. This might be a keeper!
Race packet pick-up at Road Runner Sports
Pacing assignments
Flyer and coupon
Race info
Long sleeve race hoodie
Back of long sleeve race hoodie
After picking up my race packet and using their restroom, I hopped back in the car and drove down to Formoosa to eat an early dinner. My friend had bought me food from here when I was sick with COVID during a work conference back in 2022. It was time for a do-over with healthy taste buds. The parking lot was ridiculously packed even at 4 pm. I drove about a block and a half away before I found street parking on Ruffner St. As to be expected, the place was pretty empty inside at that hour of the day. I ordered their heavily hyped beef noodle soup. I got it with wavy noodles as it seemed to be their thing. I also ordered their popcorn chicken as the waiter said that it was happy hour, making it $9 vs. $13.50. For the restaurant being rather empty, it took a long time for the food to come out. Food preference is subjective, but traditional foods are quite established. Right off the bat, the broth was too sweet. Their noodles were a poor substitute for knife-cut noodles. For some reason, they included a soft boiled egg, but didn't have any pickled mustard greens (酸菜). Unfortunately, for Taiwanese food, this was pretty terrible, best described as ABC food. I supposed if you were new to this food, it would be fine and you might actually like it. Just don't call it Taiwanese food. The popcorn chicken was also not very good. They really do not deserve to have such a high rating on Yelp. This was clearly an unauthentic Taiwanese restaurant getting artificial rave reviews from unknowledgeable customers and social media influencers. With the extremely limited parking, there will definitely not be a return visit for me.
Dinner at Formoosa
Popcorn chicken
"Taiwanese" beef noodle soup with wavy noodles
The fog was quite thick and there was a ton of traffic as I headed down to the hotel circle area via surface streets. There were even homeless people walking or wandering in the street as I neared the motel. It was as if they were asking to be run over. My one-nighter was at the Howard Johnson. I checked in and was given room #218. The guy at the front desk was pretty friendly, but didn't seem to understand English too well. While I found everything in the room to be pretty clean, there were a lot of unprofessional patchwork done. A couple of the stuff I noticed was that the power outlet wasn't aligned properly and the shower head wasn't even screwed on all the way.
Howard Johnson at the Hotel Circle
After settling into my room, I went through the race packet and laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race. I caught some of my favorite episodes of Two and a Half Men before taking a shower and calling it a night.
Flat runner
Two and a Half Men: Santa's Village of the Damned
Saturday 12/20
I got ready and checked out of my room just before 5 am. Originally, I was planning to charge the car at the Tesla Supercharger station at the Scripps Ranch Marketplace at a cheaper rate. However, during the drive over, I noticed that the station was showing on the screen as closed. Also unlike Arizona, not all of the charging stations had off peak charging rates. With that info, I decided to just drive over to Starbucks and get my pre-race routine started early. Per the usual, I parked at my preferred spot next to the Geek Squad vans. On the mobile app, I ordered my usual blonde vanilla latte. Since I was cashing in some of my stars, I got it in Venti size. I drank it with my CLIF bar.
Venti blonde vanilla latte
Normally, I would meet up with my friends coming down from Escondido. However, they were running late, so I ended up heading over to the start on my own. As I arrived at the starting area, I saw that the race organizers were having a difficult time keeping the start line arch upright! Not before long, I starting finding my friends. I tried to get as many selfies as I could with each of them. One of their friends even gave me a homemade Christmas bracelet! Way to spread the holiday cheer! We certainly need more of that in this world!
Tracy
Amador and Rose
Fellow runner gave me a Christmas bracelet
Brent and Rachel
Ginny
Willie
Paul
Dan and Karen
The race started at 7:30 am. I ended up starting out near the back of wave 1. I didn't want to position myself too close to the front and impede any of the speedsters. For the most part, the course remained the same. However, the race organizer had notified us via email that they had changed the course. They moved the finish line out of the Torrey Pines parking lot over onto Sorrento Valley Road in order to alleviate traffic congestion between buses, cars, and runners near the finish line. Also the course would remain primarily on the bike path.
My goal coming into this race was to run about a 1:45. Near the end with a few miles to go, I knew that I was on the bubble. I thought that I was slightly slower and was going to miss it by less than a minute as I just couldn't keep each mile at 8 minutes flat. However, the finish line came a bit sooner than I had expected as my GPS watch had measured it short by about a tenth of a mile. Either way, I liked this new course and how my legs responded to all of the hilly hikes around the neighborhood. For once, the legs felt strong during those closing miles.
After receiving my finisher medal, I was chatting with someone about how the 1:45 pacers went out too fast. Well, one of the pacers overheard my comment and took offense. She started defending their pacing. She even told me that I needed to warm up so I don't get left behind on that early big climb. I wasn't going to have a debate with her. The numbers don't lie. I finished at 1:44:35 and they had crossed the finish line minutes ahead of me. To me, that counts as poor pacing.
Finisher medal
Post race goodies
After getting some post races goodies and waiting for some of my friends, I looked to get out of the congested finisher area and go catch a bus ride back to my car. Unfortunately, there was no signage for the bus pick-up location for a ride back to the start. The website was also useless. The only sign that I saw was the pre-race pick up for the 5k that was blocks away. It would turn out that the pick-up spot was pretty much right across the street from the finish line.
After getting dropped off, everyone started what seemed to be a mad dash back to our cars. I went back to my car to put on my jacket before heading inside Starbucks for brunch. I first used the restroom before placing my order on the mobile app for a grande salted caramel cream cold brew, a bacon, sausage & egg wrap, and a ham & swiss on baguette. I had to order at least $15 before taxes to earn some bonus stars. While I was eating my food, there was a bunch of commotion outside. It would turn out that someone had run into the fire hydrant. It unleashed quite the geyser! Eventually, the police and fire department came by and shut off the water to that hydrant.
Finisher medal and brunch at Starbucks
Ham & Swiss on baguette
Someone hit a fire hydrant
Once I was finished, I hopped in the car to start my drive home. On the way home, I made a quick pitstop at the Outlets in San Clemente to charge the car at the Tesla Supercharger station. I wasn't there that long as I only needed just enough juice to get home where I would finish charging the car to 100%.
Friday 12/12
I left the house at about 5 am for my road trip out to Arizona for a marathon double in preparation for the upcoming Dopey Challenge in January. Per the usual, the first stop was at the Indio Towne Center. It was my preferred usual spot to charge my car at the Tesla Supercharger station and to get breakfast at Starbucks.
Tesla Supercharger, Indio, CA
On the mobile app, I ordered a bacon, sausage & egg wrap, bacon & Gruyère egg bites, and a grande blonde vanilla latte. I found a vacant table to wait for my food. After I was done with my food, I got the code for the restroom to empty the bladder before heading back to my car and wait for it to finish charging.
Grande blonde vanilla latte, Bacon & Gruyère egg bites
My second stop was at the Tesla Supercharger station out in Quartzsite, AZ. It was the one next to Terrible's where there's now also a Starbucks as well. After plugging in the Tesla for a charge, I walked over to use the restroom. Instead of buying more coffee or some snacks, I opted for some unsweetened iced tea.
Tesla Supercharger, Quartzsite, AZ
Pure Leaf iced tea
I rolled into the Phoenix area at about 12:15 pm. Originally, I had planned to park at the East Garage parking. However when I arrived, I saw that there was a sign at the entrance that said it was $20 for event parking. I aborted and decided to go over to the parking garage over at the Arizona Center on Fillmore St. The rate was way more reasonable at $5 for an hour. I parked at an EV parking stall and started heading down to the Phoenix Convention Center.
Found my country radio station, KNIX FM 102.5
Arizona Center parking structure
Beautiful Christmas tree at the Arizona Center
The race expo was over in the Southern Building of the convention center. Per the usual with REVEL races, the race packet pick-up process was very well streamlined. First, I got in line to pick up my bib based on my assigned number. I got a gear bag with a bunch of swag and flyers before moving on to pick up my race shirt.
Heading over to the Southern Building of the Phoenix Convention Center
Race expo
Bib pick-up
Gear bag
Swag
Flyers
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Next, I moved on to the participants name wall to find my name before moving onto the section with the vendor booths. As I was gathering the vendor codes on the mobile app for points toward a free race, I bumped into my buddy, JC. He was in charge of the pacers. I grabbed a quick selfie before continuing on with the rest of the expo.
Participants name wall
Found my name
JC
When I got back to my car, I noticed that there was a violation notification on my windshield. Apparently, my car needed to be both plugged in and charging in order to park in one of the EV stalls. I seemed to only recall the 3 hour time limit. However, there was a sign that was clearly posted stating that the car needs to be charging. Thank goodness the note was a warning as with the next violation, they will boot my car to collect a $100 violation fee. This was my first time seeing such an aggressive stance on parking rules. They must be hurting for money!
Parking violation!
Warning!
From there, I drove out to a Target in Mesa to buy drinks and snacks for the weekend. I bought 2 bottles of Midnight Ice Gatorade and 2 bags of Boulder Canyon potato chips. I picked this location as it was practically across the street from the restaurant where I wanted to eat a late lunch.
Chips and drinks
After paying for my items, I drove across the street to eat at Pacific Rim & Sushi. For this visit, I ordered their Pacific Rim Combo which came with beef teriyaki, char-siu chicken, kalbi ribs, rice and mac. I got a can of Hawaiian Sun guava nectar to go with my meal.
Hawaiian Sun guava nectar
Pacific Rim Combo
Before driving over to my hotel, I decided to go pick up my race packet for my Sunday race as well. I had received an email that the Phoenix pick-up at the Aravaipa Running location would not start until 3 pm. I wasn't aware of this option without that email. Prior to finding out, I was already set to pick up my packet down in Tucson on Saturday. They had drive-thru packet pick-up, but I was already parked when I saw that that was what they were doing.
Race shirt
With that out of the way, I drove over to the nearby Red Roof Plus+ to check into my room. I was given room #314. This was one of the few times that I strayed away from staying at a Wyndham hotel. It was pretty similar to a Super 8 or Days Inn in terms of quality and amenities.
Red Roof Plus+
I went through my race packet and laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's marathon. Later that evening, I went through one of the bags of chips instead going back out for dinner. I took a shower and caught the usual WWE Friday Night SmackDown! before calling it a night.
Flat runner
WWE Friday Night SmackDown!
Saturday 12/13 As I was getting ready super early in the morning, I waffled a bit on driving over to the Arizona Mills shopping mall to charge the car during off-peak hours for the significantly cheaper kW rate. Eventually, my frugalness won out. I got ready and checked out of my room at about 3 am. I drove over to the Tesla Supercharger station that was located in the Arizona Mills parking lot. Sure it was a bit sketchy with a bit of trash dumped around the area, but there were a few cars there charging when I arrived. I wasn't the only cheapskate!
Tesla Supercharger, Arizona Mills
Shortly after 4 am, I unplugged the car and drove over to a nearby Starbucks that was thankfully open at 4 am. I placed my order for the usual grande blonde vanilla latte on the mobile app before getting into the drive-thru lane.
Grande blonde vanilla latte
With my pre-race coffee in hand, I drove over to the parking lot to the west of the Phoenix Municipal Stadium. From there I would catch a shuttle ride over to the start line at the Deer Valley Towne Center. The guy that was parked next to me was signed up for the half marathon. He almost followed me onto a marathon bus. Sorry buddy, I thought you were running in the marathon as well!
Parking and busing map
Bus ride from Phoenix Municipal Stadium to the start
After getting dropped off near the Deer Valley Mall, I headed towards the long cache of portapotties. I bumped into JC and his family. It was one of the rare times where the whole family wasn't on pacing duty. Thankfully, I was able to use a portapotty before the crowds had arrived as the lines had gotten quite longer. I spoke to MM#1667 right before we starting heading towards the corrals as she was wearing a familiar long sleeve neon yellow Palm Desert race shirt to stay warm. I ended up queueing the corral with my friend that was pacing the 4:20 group. While waiting, I bumped into another familiar Marathon Maniac, Jessie. We chatted a bit while waiting for the start of the race.
Deer Valley Mall
My friend Rachel pacing 4:20
Jessie
Marathon course map
While I started with my friend pacing the 4:20 group, I ended up falling behind as I noticed that her pace was a bit too fast for that finishing time. I believe that she was pacing that way as there were some significant climbs near the end of the race. I stuck to running at around a 9:30 mins/mile pace. At about mile 7, we went onto the Arizona Canal Trail. While on that trail, we got quickly acquainted with running those underpasses! I don't know about others, but after a few of them, I was pretty tired of them! My pace started to dip a bit after mile 8. I was fine with that as I needed to take it easy with another marathon tomorrow.
1: 9:35
2: 9:28
3: 9:31
4: 9:25
5: 9:27
6: 9:29
7: 9:38
8: 9:42
9: 9:56
10: 9:43
11: 9:56
12: 9:51
13: 9:50
1st half: 2:06:25
After reaching the halfway point, I knew that I needed to slow down some more. There was very little shade and my heart rate was starting to creep up. At about mile 16, we actually had a little bit of a respite from running on that trail and hopped onto the road heading south on 24th St. At about mile 17, we turned onto Camelback Rd heading east. Shortly after reaching mile 19, we hopped back onto the Arizona Canal Trail. I couldn't get the heart rate to come down, so I ended up taking a walk break when I reached mile 20. For the last 10k, I decided to take a walk break after reaching each new mile marker. Thankfully, after less than a mile back on the trail, we went back on the road at 48th St heading south. With about half a mile to mile 23, we turned onto McDowell Rd heading east towards Papago Mountain. That was quite the spot for the steepest climb on the entire course! It wasn't too bad, but it was a steady climb up to mile 24. With the climb, we were treated to some beautiful views, followed by a nice downhill stretch on the Eliot Ramada Loop down to Galvin Parkway. Unfortunately, with the finish line in sight, they sent us out west along Van Buren St for one last out-and-back for the final mile.
14: 10:00
15: 10:09
16: 10:12
17: 10:01
18: 10:29
19: 10:33
20: 10:55
21: 11:30
22: 11:44
23: 12:01
24: 12:08
25: 11:12
26: 10:56
2nd half: 2:23:41
Mile 24
Inaugural Phoenix Marathon Finish: 4:30:06
Click here for my Garmin data.
Although my finish time was right where I was expecting to finish, I cannot say that I enjoyed that course. It wasn't too difficult, but there were just too many narrow underpasses that we had to navigate. It reminded me of the course used for the Every Woman's Marathon as a bulk of it was on the Arizona Canal Trail or a trail next to a golf course. Also both races gave you a peek of the finish line before sending you on an out-and-back section to get in the necessary distance.
After crossing the finish line, I received my finisher medal. I also received a bunch of the usual post race goodies and drinks. I grabbed one of the Creamies before I got in line to get a printout of my race results. I had plans to meet up with my friend for a late lunch, so I didn't stick around the post race area for too long before I started heading for my car.
Finisher medal
Finisher medal, results card, and post race goodies
Creamies!
After making it back to my car, I changed out of my sweaty and salty shirt for a clean one. I also swapped out my running shoes for my regular old kick-around shoes. Then I drove over to the nearby Portillo's to meet up with my friend for lunch. They had a table at the entrance where they were giving out samples of Italian beef sandwiches and pasta. Eventually, I took a half sandwich sample to go with my 3 Chicago dogs.
Portillo's
3 Chicago dogs and chocolate malt
Chicago dog
After we were done, I hopped in the car for the drive down to Tucson. The drive took about 1.5 hours. I pulled into the Super 8 just south of Marana. I checked in at the front desk and was assigned to room #226. The guy said that he would put me in a higher floor so it would be more quiet. I got settled into my room and relaxed a bit before heading back out to pick up dinner from the nearby In-n-Out.
Super 8 at Cortaro
When I arrived, I got in line and ordered my usual, 2 Double Doubles with raw onions. Normally, I would just eat it there, but I took it back to my room to enjoy. I was feeling pretty wiped out from the marathon and the drive down to Tucson. I was definitely ready to call it a night after eating dinner, laying out my flat runner, and taking a shower.
In-n-Out
Double Double x2
Flat runner
Sunday 12/14
I got ready and checked out of my room at about 3:45 am. Once again, I had allotted time to go charge my car before heading over to catch the race shuttle. I guess I wasn't quite awake yet, but I drove over to the Tesla Supercharger station at The Marketplace. The other charging station that I wanted was also on River Rd, but about 4 miles away. I charged about halfway before unplugging and driving over to the other Tesla Supercharger station. I wanted to charge at this station as it had a Starbucks for my pre-race coffee.
Tesla Supercharger, The Marketplace, W River Rd
Tesla Supercharger, 95 W River Rd
After the car was done charging, I placed my order for my usual grande blonde vanilla latte on the mobile app and got into the drive-thru lane to pick up my coffee. With coffee in hand, I drove up to the Oro Valley Marketplace to park near the Olive Garden. The school buses were queued up just across the street from where I had parked.
Grande blonde vanilla latte
I got on one of the first buses at about 5 am. The drive over to the start at the Biosphere 2 was pretty much a straight shot up highway 77. It took about 30 minutes even with the driver having to do a u-turn after missing the turn onto Biosphere Rd. I was there early enough where there were no lines for the long cache of portapotties. After using one, I ended up wandering inside the Biosphere 2. It wasn't advertised, but we were allowed to be inside. I had brought a mylar blanket with me which I ended up not using. I put it in my pocket and saved it for a future race. While waiting inside, I bumped into my fellow Marathon Maniac friend, David. We chatted a bit, but eventually went our separate ways to get ready for the race. We all have our own pre-race routines.
Taking a bus ride over to the Biosphere 2
At about 6:45 am, I headed outside. I used one of the portapotties to empty the bladder one last time before heading over to the start line for the scheduled 7:15 am start time. I ended up positioning myself next to the 4:20 pacer in the starting corral. Once the majority of the runners had gathered at the start, he went over his pacing strategy for this specific course. He warned us that the first 3 miles will have some decent climbs.
Heading to the start line
The start of the race was delayed by about 5 minutes. Once we were off, I made sure to take it easy. Having run a marathon yesterday, my legs were certainly not itching to run very fast in that first uphill mile! I was lagging behind the pacer until after mile 3 when we made the left turn onto highway 77 heading southwest. Since it felt like more work to stay with the pacer, I decided to take advantage of gravity and ran at a pace that felt more comfortable. That pace ended up being about 9:45 - 9:50 mins/mile. Everything felt relatively good until I reached mile 10. I slowed a bit for the next 3 miles, but it still felt like work as there was zero shade.
1: 10:23
2: 9:29
3: 9:25
4: 9:26
5: 9:42
6: 9:49
7: 9:48
8: 9:46
9: 9:44
10: 9:55
11: 10:07
12: 10:14
13: 10:23
Started with the 4:20 pace, Adrian
It started to get warm really quickly! After reaching mile 14, I took my first walk break. At about mile 18.5, we hopped onto the Cañada del Oro River Park bike path. Thank goodness because some of the cross traffic had impatient drivers that just were not going to wait for us! With all of the walk breaks after reaching a mile marker, I pretty much stuck to a 12 mins/mile pace. At about mile 23, after going underneath La Cañada Dr, the trail became the Chuck-Huckelberry Loop. We got off of the trail at about mile 26 at the Christina Taylor Green Memorial River Park, crossed the street at Shannon Rd, and headed for the finish line at the Pima Community College Northwest Campus.
14: 10:12
15: 11:01
16: 10:57
17: 11:39
18: 10:36
19: 11:15
20: 11:00
21: 11:27
22: 11:51
23: 11:56
24: 11:57
25: 11:56
26: 12:20
26.2: 2:42
Mile 17
Hot, sweaty, and salty!
Reached mile marker 20 along the Cañada del Oro River Park path
Finish line video
Tucson Marathon Finish: 4:38:57
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, I received my finisher medal. I ended up chatting with a guy that had finished the 50k not too far ahead of me. We talked about running trail ultras versus road marathon doubles. Eventually, I grabbed some post race goodies and made my way out of the finisher chute. I made my way over to a table so that I could get my stuff in order. I chatted with a Half Fanatic that was sitting down in the shade, waiting for her husband to finish the marathon.
Finisher medal
Finisher medal and post race goodies
I got my results printout and used a portapotty before heading over to the bus line to catch a ride back to my car. The first stop was over at El Conquistador Resort. Then the driver drove up to the Oro Valley Marketplace. However, instead of letting us off near the morning marathon pick-up spot, he drove down to the very southern end where the half marathoners had boarded their bus. I supposed it was good to walk a bit back to our cars.
Bus ride back to my car
After I changed out of my sweaty clothes and put on a clean shirt, I hopped in the car for the drive home. The first stretch took me into Mesa for a very late lunch or an early dinner at Pacific Rim & Sushi. It felt like a long drive and I was definitely dozing a bit at a few sections. This time, I ordered their Loco Moco with eggs sunny side up. For my drink, I got a Hawaiian Sun Passion Orange. I guess I had been here enough times where the older lady asked if I was from Hawaii.
Loco moco
After I finished my meal, I used their restroom before heading out. The next stretch took me out to Buckeye to charge my car at the Tesla Supercharger station. As it was a station with a cheaper kW rate, it was pretty packed when I arrived. I only charged enough to get me into Ehrenberg.
Tesla Supercharger, Buckeye, AZ
After about 1 hour and 40 minutes of driving, it had gotten dark and I was pretty tired when I rolled into Ehrenberg. I tend to opt for this Tesla Supercharger station just ahead of crossing the state border as the charging rate was cheaper than the 2 Quartzsite locations. After exiting the freeway and making a left turn at the stop sign, I nearly got t-boned. Just before that, I was wondering why the car ahead of me was inching ahead slowly and not going right away. There wasn't a very clear view of the traffic coming from that direction while stopped at that stop sign. After plugging in the car for a charge, I walked over to the Flying J Travel Center. I bought a bottle of iced tea after using their restroom.
Beautiful sunset
Tesla Supercharger, Ehrenberg, AZ
$2.99
I had to get a full charge as I wanted to use the Tesla Supercharger station in Beaumont for my last charging stop. After about 2 hours of driving, I exited the freeway at Oak Valley Parkway. After parking my car in a charging stall, the second I opened the door, I smelled marijuana smoke. Welcome to California. After plugging my car in for a charge, I headed over to the Circle K to use their restroom and to buy some coffee for the final stretch.
Tesla Supercharger, Oak Valley Village, Beaumont, CA
