Rock n Roll Denver Marathon 2013

Saturday
I took an early morning flight out of John Wayne Airport. I knew that the flights for this trip would be much more enjoyable since I would be flying with Southwest and they had just sent me some free booze tickets! I don't normally drink coffee, but I do love me some coffee with Baileys! Plus the flight had complimentary live TV via DISH for your mobile device.

Coffee and Baileys

To save some money, I took the RTD bus into downtown instead of renting a car. I went to the RTD counter in the airport and bought a round trip ticket for $20. After taking the bus into downtown, I walked over to the Colorado Convention Center to pick up my race packet at the expo.

Colorado Convention Center

Expo

After the expo, I walked over to eat lunch at Sakura House. I came here wanting to try their tonkotsu ramen, but they were already out. So I went with the umani ramen and also ordered their karaage. The bowl of ramen overall was ok. The broth and noodles were both decent. Nothing to write home about. The karaage was a bit overcooked and dry. But seriously I didn't come to Denver expecting to eat an excellent bowl of ramen. I would still want to come back to try their tonkotsu broth. Service was friendly and appeared to be a family operation. The restaurant was sort of tuck away in a corner. Not very noticeable from the street. It was located north of the downtown cluster of restaurants. A great place if you want a quiet place away from all of the action and there was quite a bit of it that weekend with some event for the upcoming Halloween day. Practically everyone was dressed up (horribly) as zombies.

Kaarage

Umani Ramen

After lunch, I made the long hike to my hotel, the Ramada on Colfax. I kind of booked last minute and this was the best that I could find. I even used one of my free nights so I only had to pay for one night. Every little bit helps to make the trip a bit more affordable. During my hike, I saw lots of unsavory folks lined all up and down the street. It was in the middle of the day and it felt rather unsafe.

Ramada

For dinner, I walked down the street to eat at CityGrille. I ate there only because earlier in the day as I was walking to my hotel I saw their sign that said that they had the city's best burgers. I had to check it out to see if they were right in making such a bold claim. I sat at the end of the bar and started with an Avery IPA. I had their CityGrille burger. It was a pretty darn good burger! So I would say that they can stand by their claim. They have my vote for the best if not one of the best. It also helped that the service was excellent. I had a Ranger IPA to finish off the meal.

Avery IPA

CityGrille burger

Ranger IPA

After dinner, I went through the stuff that I picked up at the expo. Then I got my race gear ready for the race. They don't give out too much samples these days at expos or even fill up your goodie bag. I've noticed that exhibitors tend not give out whole samples anymore. Instead they'll open them up and cut them into smaller pieces for people to sample. Goodie bags are now filled with flyers for other races and info on race related products. Oh, the good 'ol days when they actually had goodies in your goodie bag.

Expo haul

Race gear

Sunday
After getting ready, I made the long trek down to the starting area. Luckily there was another runner making the same walk. Colfax Ave was not a very nice street especially when it's still dark outside! As I approached the starting area, you could see all of the other runners converging in on the same spot. I sat down on the curb across from the gear check area. As the starting time slower grew closer, I checked my bag, used the portapotties for one last time, and headed for the starting corrals.

I talked to a couple of Marathon Maniacs while waiting inside the starting corral. The weather was pretty cold, but not too bad. I loved this course, it did not change much since the last time that I ran it. They definitely made some improvements. But between the altitude and the rolling hills, it was a pretty challenging course. There were also a few out and back portions which allowed me to see a bunch of my friends.

Starting line

In one of the parks, I was already moving a bit slow so I stopped to take a picture of some geese. They were everywhere and they were definitely not afraid of humans. There were some late hills in this race. I had to walk a good majority of them since my right foot was just feeling weak.

Wow, another race with mile markers all over the place! After realizing that the markers were more than a little bit off, I just used them to estimate where I was along the course.
Finish: 4:41:57

Finish line

Bringing in every last runner

I waited around for my friend to finish as she was pacing her friend who was running her first marathon. I went with them to eat a post race meal at Smashburger. It was my first time at a Smashburger. I liked that they served beer for a fast food type restaurant. The burger itself didn't look very spectacular but it was decent tasting. Afterwards, the people that I ate with were kind enough to give me a ride back to my hotel so I didn't have to make that long ass walk back down dirty Colfax.

Spandex

Ranger IPA

Bacon cheeseburger

Monday
After checking out of my room, I walked across the street to eat an early lunch at Irish Snug. The girl taking my order actually carded me for ordering a Guinness. I think I can still count on one hand how many times that I've been carded in my whole life! Besides the Guinness, I ordered their corned beef and cabbage. It was good... I love me some good corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. I wouldn't mind coming here again to try their other menu items and drinks at night. I loved that they had a sign at the bar that says, "The liver is evil and must be punished!" :)

Breakfast Guinness

Halloween decoration

Corned beef and cabbage

I then walked all the way to the Bus Center at Curtis and 19th St to catch the bus to the airport. At the airport I had enough time for a beer at Rock Bottom before catching my flight home. Then another coffee with Baileys for a nice flight home with DISH TV. I would love flying with Southwest if it was always like this trip.

Red ale

Southwest flying home

Coffee and Baileys going home

Free live TV via DISH

Long Beach Marathon 2013

Friday
It was a last minute decision for me to register for this race. Traditionally I've run my worst at this particular marathon. It was at this marathon where I became infamously known for sitting down at a bus bench because my legs hurt and I just didn't want to keep moving forward anymore. Anyways so once I decided to run the race, I drove up to the Long Beach Convention Center after work. I parked for free at the parking structure just east of Pine on E. 3rd Street and walked on over to the expo. There was a short line just as you entered the expo for late registration. It turned out to be cheaper to register in person versus online since there was no convenience fee doing it in person. Unfortunately the majority of the kiosks were not functioning properly. It took our credit card information but was not printing out our registration information for them to issue us a race bib. They finally gave up on trying to get their computer system to work and just used pieces of scratch paper to write down our information.

Expo

Late Registration

The rest of the expo was pretty much ho hum. Nothing to buy, no interesting race to register for and not much else to see. Maybe it was because my mind was a little preoccupied with other stuff. Despite my lack of interest, the packet procedure and expo was well organized.

Sunday
I pre-purchased parking for the same lot that I normally park to attend the expo. It was just a short walk to the starting area. I hung out at the Hyatt Regency for a little bit before actually heading to the corrals. Why use portapotties when you can use flushing toilets and wash your hands with soap and water?

I ran this marathon last year wearing pink in support of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month. This year, I did the same thing only this time it was a bit more personal since one of my good friends is currently going through her fight with breast cancer. I didn't announce that I would be running this race, but some of my closer friends knew that I would since it's hard for me to stay away from a marathon especially a local race. One of them was pacing the 4:15 pace group. I said hi to him before heading up to the 4:00 pace group. I wanted to run some "faster" miles before finishing somewhere in the 4:30 range.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

That's quite a time range for wave 1!

4:00 pace group

The mile markers were all over the place, so I did not have any reliable mile splits. Also I do not trust the splits from the official results. I'm absolutely sure that I did not run a 1:50 for the first half. As usual, I ran the first 10k at a faster pace only because I know that I would slow down during the beach path. I just wanted to get through the first half in about 2 hrs. That's usually the point where I feel discomfort in my left ankle and my right foot.

Rocco leading the 4:15 pace group

One thing that I like about this course is that it takes you through the campus of Cal State Long Beach before you head back to where the race started. But beware of the hills on campus! They aren't too bad, but they're big enough that you'll definitely feel them. My friend pacing the 4:15 pace group would pass me shortly after we left Cal State Long Beach as my legs had started to feel very heavy. My legs were also beginning to cramp up so I had to slow it down. The legs felt better on the run down Ocean Blvd but I knew that I was sort of running on fumes. The legs held up enough for me to finish with my fastest time at Long Beach. I will try to lower that time again if I run it next year in 2014, but I doubt that I will be back since I'll be trying to complete a marathon in a couple more new states in 2014.
5k: 26:08
10k: 52:23
Half: 1:49:58
20mi: 3:16:42
Finish: 4:37:48

Bib and medal

Rock n Roll San Jose Half Marathon 2013

Saturday
I took an early morning flight with Virgin America out of LAX to San Jose. I love flying into the San Jose airport. You can take the free VTA#10 bus over to the Metro Station and catch the light rail into downtown. The fare for single ride is only $2. I got off at the Convention Center and went straight to the expo. As per the usual, they were offering next year's race at $15 off. I passed on this good deal since I was planning on running more out of State marathons next year so that I can make some progress on completing a marathon in each of the 50 States. After going through the expo I headed over to my hotel.

Expo deal

I stayed at the Four Points Sheraton in Downtown on South 1st Street which was close to the expo as well as both the starting and finish lines. I liked that they were giving out complimentary bottles of water at the check-in and for the duration of the stay.

As part of check-in process, they gave me a card good for one free beer. But during my short stay I never saw the bar open for me to get this free beer. Oh well. I think they were only open when I was trying to sleep. I only checked during lunch hours.

Free beer

Expo haul

For lunch, I attempted to check out Orenchi Ramen over in Santa Clara. I walked up to East Santa Clara St to catch the #22 bus. I took the Rapid #522 bus which runs the same route but with fewer stops. But during the weekend there were no buses that stopped near the restaurant. So I got off at the El Camino & Bowers stop and walked many blocks down Kiely Blvd and turned on Homestead Rd. I finally got to the restaurant after many more blocks. I was sweating up a storm. They opened at 11:30am and closed at 1:30pm. I didn't get there until 12 something. There was already a humongous line at the restaurant. They had a sign that said that they'll close as soon as the broth runs out. I went inside and looked at the sign-in sheet and it was many pages long. It was a total fail. So it was time for plan B and to head back to find some other place to eat near my hotel. I hoofed it over to the Stevens Creek & Casa View bus stop and caught the #23 bus. That was quite an adventure for $2 bus ride each way.

I got off the bus at the San Carlos & Guadalupe River stop and I walked over to Konjoe Burger Bar to get a late lunch. If I can't have a decent bowl of ramen, a good burger or two will have to do! Since it was a short trip and I wanted to try more than one burger, I got both their signature Konjoe Burger and the Pork Belly Burger. Their beef is grass fed and range free. Both included an order of potato wedges. I took them back to my room and could not wait to eat them! Since it was way past my usual lunch hour, the meal had to be considered my early dinner as well. Both of them were very good. I would definitely eat here again!

Konjoe Burger counter

Menu board

Konjoe Burger

Pork Belly Burger

After eating, I got my race gear ready and relaxed while watching TV.

Race gear

My friend who lived nearby was so nice to pick up some Powerade for me and insisted that I go out to eat some yogurt at Yogurtland. She even picked me up and also treated. It was only a few blocks away and I was willing to walk over there. I think it's only the second time that I've ever stepped foot inside a Yogurtland.

Yogurtland with a good friend

Sunday
My hotel was located right next to the finish line and just a few blocks from the starting line, so it was an extremely convenient central location.

Starting corral

The race started at the corner of N Almaden Avenue and W Santa Clara Street with us heading East. I kept the first three miles at a pretty even pace. I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep that pace, but wanted to test out the legs a little bit. My right foot would eventually start to give me problems as it still gets a bit achy. I held it together for about the first 10k and then per usual, I slowed it down and basically trotted it in. This course was fast and a great course if you have friends running in the race since there were several out and back portions. I love being able to see those ahead of you as well those that are behind you. I would definitely recommend this race as the race to set a new half marathon PR.
1: 7:45
2: 7:51
3: 7:51
4-5: 17:20 (8:40)
6: 8:20
7: 8:43
8: 9:30
9: 9:30
10: 9:38
11: 10:10
12: 9:53
13: 9:20
13.1: 0:48
Finish: 1:56:41

5k: 24:23
10k: 50:49
10mile: 1:26:31

What a boring lookin' medal!

I ran my 10th Rock n' Roll race for the year at Montréal, so I wasn't sure why they notified me via email as well as attached a note to my bib telling me to pick up my Rock Idol medal after the race. Originally they had emailed saying that they could not hand out that heavy medal at Montréal, so they would mail it to me. Oh well, I guess they changed their mind. Since I had not received it yet in the mail, I stopped by the tent after the race and picked it up. It was a sweet hefty medal and the second time that I've earned the medal.

This was one of those in and out races where I planned not to take any days off of work. So there was no time to relax that much after the race. I got cleaned up, packed up, and checked out of the hotel. However I did book an evening flight home, so I walked a few blocks over to the nearby Camera 12 Cinemas to watch the much hyped Gravity in 3D. Two words, over hyped. It was about two hours worth of Sandra Bullock panicking and hyperventilating. She's one of my favorite actresses and the special effects were nice, but it did not live up to the hype. I am not impressed with 3D especially when it's just objects appearing to come close to hitting your face over and over and over and over again.

I then walked over to Smoke Eaters to eat some wings and watch some of the Broncos v. Cowboys game. I ordered their Fiery Garlic Wings. They were nice and hot! I love their meaty wings!

Fiery Garlic Wings

I caught the light rail and headed for the airport. Got off at the Metro/Airport stop and took the #10 bus to the airport. After getting through TSA, I had a couple of Sam Adams beer at the Shark's Cage. Cheers... until we meet again!

Shark's Cage

Beer#1 and medals

Beer#2