Rock n Roll Las Vegas Marathon 2013

Saturday
I guess that I was pretty eager to get to Vegas as I got pulled over doing 91 mph shortly after crossing the State Line. I knew that it was a speed trap zone, but my foot was extra heavy that morning. The highway patrol officer was just shooting fish in a barrel that morning. After he was done with me, he nearly clipped my car to go catch another speeder just as I was pulling back into traffic. Oh well, this was one ticket I definitely deserved. I was hauling ass the entire way. Mini Coopers are very fun to drive especially while cutting through traffic.

I drove straight to the expo... mostly because I need to find a place to pee. I parked at the LVH parking lot and walked over to the Convention Center. Per the usual, it was your typical Rock n' Roll event expo... only this time one thing was missing. It was the sign giving you a discount for signing for next year's race. Makes me wonder if this race could come to an end at any year. I ended up buying a Flip Belt. It looked interesting and might be a better way for me to carry my ShotBloks. I then left the expo to eat a late afternoon, early supper with my friend at the Wicked Spoon. On the way out, I bumped into a couple of my Marathon Maniac friends and their adorable baby.

I'm sure that I've mentioned it several times before... the Wicked Spoon is my favorite buffet in Vegas. I ate enough to skip eating a real dinner. I just ended up snacking and drinking water.

Plate#1

Plate#2

Plate#3

Plate#4

Before checking into my hotel, the Hampton Inn, I drove to the usual nearby Albertson's to buy some snacks and drinks. I don't have a sweet tooth, but I do love eating Mallomars when they become available during the Winter season. Always something to look forward to every year. If I remember far back enough, I believe that I started to eat Mallomars because they were mentioned in the movie, When Harry Met Sally.

While resting in my room, I went through the expo haul. I found some of my running friends in the Disney brochure. My friends are famous! Later I got my race gear ready even though the race didn't start until early evening the next day. I prepared to wear the arm sleeves since the weather does get colder as the race goes on, but it would turn out to be a bit warm to wear them.

Mallomars!

Expo haul

My friends are famous!

Race gear

Sunday
After checking out of my room, I ate a pre-race lunch meal at my favorite ramen shop in Vegas or even the entire United States, Fukumimi Ramen. Unlike last year, I remembered to not eat a bowl of spicy ramen! After lunch, I drove over to park at the Planet Hollywood parking structure. It's near one of the exits for the finishing chute and close enough to the starting area for me to walk. I walked over to the gear check area and hung out in the shade until it was closer to the starting time before checking my bag.

I love edamame

Best ramen in Vegas!

Gear check

I met up with a couple of Marathon Maniacs and bumped into one that was dressed up as Forrest Gump. He was pretty cool and happened to be deaf. We went into our separate corrals. I sort of decided to start with the 3:30 pace group just to get a few faster miles in. While waiting for the start of the race, I bumped into a Maniac named Eddie. He was just taking pictures of all the Maniacs that he came across. Both the half marathoners and marathoners started at 4:30pm this year.

Maniacs!

Forrest Gump!

Corral ahead

Corrals behind me

I do believe that some of those mile markers were misplaced for some of the later miles. I started the race running with or around the 3:30 pace group for the first 5k. Then I let them pull ahead of me during my first walk break. By the 10k mark, I was already getting tired and not liking the time of day. I always prefer running early in the morning. Also I was still having problems with my left ankle. The best section of the marathon course last year was running down Fremont Street. This year we ran it twice, once going out around mile 10 and again at around mile 22 while heading towards the finish line. Running up on MLK Blvd to about mile for the first out and back took forever. Then the second out and back on Carey Ave was pretty quiet and dark. Once you make that last turnaround at about mile 16.5, you knew that it was mostly all downhill to the finish. It wasn't until about mile 24, right around Stratosphere where we finally merge with the half marathon course on The Strip. I still think that running on The Strip is way overrated!

Course map

1: 8:00
2-3: 15:47 (7:54)
4: 8:27
5: 8:34
6: 8:42
7: 8:55
8: 10:06
9: 9:13
10: 8:56
11: 11:03
12: 10:00
13: 9:32
14: 13:36
15: 10:32
16: 14:30
17: 11:33
18: 12:10
19: 11:13
20: 14:53
21: 8:53
22: 12:41
23: 13:25
24: 13:36
25-26: 25:58 (12:59)
26.2: 1:41
Finish: 4:41:54

I was hoping to finish under 4:40... but hey close enough, I'll take it! I like this year's medal. I always prefer a more traditional round medal over any other shape.

Finish!

After the race, I bumped into and hung out with Eddie who I had just met earlier before the start of the race. We chatted for a while just shooting the breeze about our upcoming races and drinking our post race beer. It turned out that we both had the Tokyo Marathon coming up. Then it was time for the drive back home because I had work the next day that I couldn't skip out on. I cleaned up a bit in the hotel restroom before hopping into the car and making the long drive home.

New York City Marathon 2013

Friday
This race almost didn't happen for me. I was all set to take a red eye flight with Virgin America on Friday night after work out of LAX. But that morning there was a fatal shooting in Terminal 3 at LAX. What a horrible time that we live in! At first I was hoping that they would be able to reopen the terminal before my flight, but all flights out of that terminal was canceled indefinitely until investigation has been completed. The phone lines were tied up with Virgin airlines and the two closest airports with that airline were San Francisco and San Diego. I could attempt to fly out of San Diego, but I did not bring my bag with me to work. I would still need to go home to get my bag and the only available flight was not late enough. I eventually found a JetBlue flight out of Long Beach airport, but it cost a good amount because all of the JetBlue flights out of LAX terminal 3 were diverted to LGB airport. As I milled over the idea of whether to go or not, the price of the ticket kept fluctuating. One major deciding factor was that I booked my original flight with points. Eventually I decided to go since it's hard and very expensive to get into the NYC Marathon. So I bought the one way ticket with a stop in Boston Logan airport.

So after work, I drove home, picked up my bag and headed over to the LGB airport. I must say that I love this small airport! With the recent renovations having been finished, this is now my go to airport every time I want to fly over to New York or Boston. The TSA lines were very short and less of a pressure packed ordeal here.

Saturday
I landed in Boston Logan airport and ate "breakfast" at Boston Beer Works. I sat at the counter and the place was super busy. The bartenders and waiters were all reeling from the wave of costumers that had hit before I got there. There were dishes everywhere and they were all just ignoring me. I was still sleepy from the uncomfortable little sleep that I got on the flight so I didn't care. Once they finally got caught up they started to wait on me. I started with a Boston Commons and ordered the Sunday Burger followed with a Fenway Pale Ale. Sometimes I love drinking beer in the morning and not have a care in the world since I don't have to drive anywhere.

Boston Commons

Sunday Burger and Fenway Pale Ale

After landing in JFK, I took the subway over to expo at The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Out of all the marathons that I've run, this marathon is by far my favorite marathon. Besides just having an awesome race course having you run through all five boroughs, this race from start to finish is world class and arguably second to none! It is no wonder that everyone wants to run this marathon!

This marathon has the best expo! It is very well organized. I resisted buying some of the official race merchandise because I had so many races that I still have to run. All major big city marathons should strive to have their expo like this one.

After picking up my race packet and going through the expo, I hoofed it over to my hotel, Hotel Carter, which was located in the Theater District . It was super cheap, but you pretty much get what you've paid for here. There was no soap or shampoo. Good thing I always bring my own. The room was super cramped. The shower was tiny even for a skinny guy like me, but hey at least you get a private bathroom instead of having to use shared bathrooms. Besides being pretty old, it was clean.

Spiderman!

I went through the expo haul and found one of my Marathon Maniac friends quoted in one of the pamphlets. That's pretty awesome!

Friend made it in print! Save your juice!

For an early dinner, I walked over to Totto Ramen. I ordered their Paitan ramen with pork add soft boiled egg and a bottle of beer. The bowl of ramen was excellent. Just the way that I like it. The noodles were firm, the pork was delicious, and the broth was very tasty was not overly greasy. If we're talking about the ramen only, I would rather come here than Ippudo. Their service is not spectacular, but not bad. They are a victim of their own popularity. You'll definitely feel like they're trying to rush you out of there throughout your dining experience. They could improve in this area, but there's really no point... they have a huge line of eager customers outside all the time. They definitely do not have a shortage of hungry bellies to fill. Try not to come here on a warm summer day. Oh dear God, this place is tiny and hot! But then again, on a warm summer's day you might have a shorter wait for a seat. Overall, they serve excellent ramen here, perhaps the best in Manhattan. Bring your patience as it will be a long wait! Oh yeah, remember to sign the waiting list as soon as you get there and bring cash.

Long wait

Paitan Ramen with pork add soft boiled egg

Sunday
Woke up early, got ready, met up with a friend to take the subway down to Battery Park to catch the Staten Island Ferry. It was a bit warm on the subway while wearing a full spandex suit. Once we got off of the ferry, we walked over to the buses and took a ride down to Fort Wadsworth. You definitely notice the heightened security. My friend had a blanket that almost didn't pass security check. We were given a bag either to check or a non-checking bag to bring into the starting village. Those that opted to not check a bag were also given a pink wristband to wear so they could bypass the gear bag lines after the race. Eventually we found a place just inside the tent to stay out of the wind as it was a chilly brisk morning. I went to go fill up my handheld with Gatorade. Then later I went to meet up with a good friend who was starting out of another starting village to take our customary pre-race photo. Then she went off to start in wave 1.

Staten Island Ferry Ride

Spandex in the starting village

My friend and I were both in wave 2. Once the start of our wave got closer, we hit the portapotties for one last time and headed for our corral. I waited until the waves started moving into position before I ditched the sweatshirt and sweatpants. I've had both for about 18 years, so I guess they qualified for throw away clothes. Besides they were both sized XL... loose fitting clothes were "in" back in the days.

Starting line

It was pretty crowded going across the Verrazano Narrows bridge and we got split up. I had originally planned to run with her or more accurately keep up with her for as long as could. My fault, I got a little too pumped going down the bridge. But I made sure to not dip down into sub 8 min miles especially after having calf issues in last weekend's half marathon. During my first walk break, I saw her pass me but it was super crowded and she was on the other side of the street. I realized that there was no way I could keep up with her, so I plodded along and ran my own race. I stuck with my plan with getting to the half way point at about 2:05, then cruise it in after that and also to save it for the Queensboro Bridge.

Picture from Mideleon

My friend who lives in New York spotted me at around mile 22 or so. It was pretty cool to hear my own name being shouted after hearing "Go Spider-Man!" for the entire race. Running through Central Park was great and pretty much meant that the end of the race was quickly approaching, but my legs were also quickly cramping up. During the last mile or so, I was passed by a runner who exclaimed how happy he was to have beaten Spider-Man. :)
1: 9:16
2: 8:10
3: 8:49
4: 9:02
5: 9:21
6: 9:03
7: 9:08
8: 9:27
9: 9:39
10: 9:29
11: 10:00
12: 9:46
13: 9:37
14: 10:26
15: 11:06
16: 11:14
17: 11:01
18: 10:31
19: 12:00
20: 12:12
21: 12:50
22: 12:04
23: 11:54
24: 13:08
25: 12:08
26: 11:59
26.2: 2:12

5k: 27:16
10k: 55:42
15k: 1:24:59
20k: 1:55:16
13.1: 2:02:27
25k: 2:28:54
30k: 3:03:22
35k: 3:41:44
40k: 4:19:45
Finish: 4:35:36

After the race, even though you didn't check a bag, we still had to walk many many many blocks before we were allowed to take the "early" exit to leave the park. Once we're on Central Park West, we had to walk a while still before we got to the volunteers that were handing out those awesome orange ponchos. Despite the long walk, I knew that they had to do that to control the crowds. It's also a good thing to keep on walking shortly after finishing a marathon. After I got my poncho, I actually found a bench to sit down and text my friend to check on her post race plans.

Finisher medal

Superhero's closet

I hoofed it back to my hotel room, got out of my costume, and got cleaned up. While I was resting in my room, I checked into my flight home. Then I got on the Prime Time shuttle website and booked a ride from LAX to LGB. Eventually I dragged myself out of my hotel room and met up with my friend and her family to eat dinner at Emmett O'Lunney's Irish Pub. We traded race stories over a few beers and my traditional post-race burger.

Post race Guinness

Bacon Cheeseburger

Blue Moon

After a while, we decided to start pub-crawling back to our hotels. We stopped at Hard Rock Cafe to have another drink. They were pretty busy, so the service wasn't that great. I guess that goes with the place being such a tourist trap.

Shock Top

For our next and final stop, we ended up at Croton Reservoir Tavern. It was right next door to my friend's hotel so it was quite convenient. They were actually already ready to close, but kept the place open because they had a couple of patrons there celebrating their marathon achievement with an expensive bottle of wine. They were quite amazed that the two of us were Marathon Maniacs and have run so many marathons already. I switched from drinking beers to drinking a nice glass of Chianti. I've been wanting to make the transition from beer to only wine.

Chianti Ruffino Superiore

Monday
After checking out of my hotel room and before heading to the airport, I stopped at Go! Go! Curry! to eat an early lunch. The Grand Slam is one of my favorite meals to have after the race. Plenty of protein to start repairing the leg muscles for another marathon!

Grand Slam

I flew back home on the original return flight with Virgin America. I landed in LAX and took the Prime Time shuttle over to LGB airport. It was a pain in the butt to ride with a bunch of strangers, but it got me back to my car at a reasonable price. I'm really glad that I made the decision to go through with this race and again, I hope to run this marathon every year as long as I can get in through their lottery. This marathon will forever be my favorite marathon!

Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon 2013

Saturday
Per the usual whenever I need to be in downtown LA, I take the Metro rail. So I drove out to the Sierra Madre Station and bought a day pass. Here's what I take to get there:

• Take the Gold Line and get off at Union Station.
• Switch over to either the Red or Purple Line and get off at 7th St/Metro Center.
• You can walk from there or switch over to the Blue line and get off at Pico.

It's then a very short walk over to the Convention Center. I always budget about an hour for the Metro ride. Sure it takes a little bit longer but it's a stress free way of going into downtown compared to driving.

I went through the expo and ended up signing up for two races: next year's Rock n' Roll Los Angeles for $70 and the 50th Anniversary Mustang Half Marathon for $75. They each both gave me a t-shirt for signing up. This year's race shirt was pretty nice looking. Nice to have a different color shirt besides black for Halloween.

Expo special

Shirt for signing up

Signed up for the Mustang Half Marathon

Race shirt

For lunch, I hopped on the Metro and took the Gold Line to Little Tokyo to check out Men Oh Tokushima Ramen. Since the line for Daikokuya is always insanely long, I thought I'd give this place a shot. I've heard only good things about this place. I sat at the counter and ordered their Tokushima ramen, gyoza, and a Sapporo draft. This bowl of ramen was good. The broth was flavorful but not over powering. What sets this bowl apart from others was the pork belly, mmm mmm good! The noodles were the thin straight kind and was done right. You can have them use the ones that you like. The soft boiled egg was also done right. Their gyoza was decent, but I've had better.

Men Oh

Halloween decorations

Tokushima ramen

Gyoza

Sunday
Again, instead of dealing with traffic in and around downtown LA, I took the Metro to the starting area just outside of LA Live and Staples Center. The morning started off pretty foggy which was nice since it kept the race cool for most of the race. It created a nice eerie atmosphere for a Halloween themed race.

Starting line

Foggy

I ran into a few friends while waiting for the race to start. As I headed to my corral, I saw a guy with a pretty cool costume. He was dressed as Elliott riding a bike with ET in the basket. It was one of the more original ideas that I've seen in a while. Me? I was just your boring 'ol Superman! There was about a million Supermen out there.

Elliott!

Foggy start

I ran at a harder effort for the first three miles to test the wheels. It actually felt pretty good to move a little faster. But I must have been favoring my gimpy left ankle too much and pushed off more with the right leg as I started feeling a sharp pain in my right calf. I had to walk and jog a bit to lessen the pain. I took it easy for the next seven miles until the pain practically became unnoticeable. It did hurt in a way that I thought that I would have to drop out. Anyways since the pain became tolerable, I kept going. One of favorite fun parts of this course was going through the 3rd St tunnel, but it can get a bit crowded. I also liked all of the out and backs on this course. Going slow really helped with the last big hill before the final turnaround. I was able to pick up the pace a little bit on the final downhill and was happy to somehow finish under 2 hrs. I even saw a friend that I had not seen in a while out cheering the runners.
1: 7:39
2: 7:40
3: 8:00
4-5: 18:32 (9:16)
6: 10:02
7-8: 19:48 (9:54)
9: 9:23
10: 9:08
11: 9:17
12: 8:08
13: 8:47
13.1: 0:51
Finish: 1:57:16

Running too many races too often will not allow your body enough time to recover. Eventually it will catch up to you. I'm glad that I was able to recover enough during the race to finish with a satisfactory time. I thought that it would take me much longer to finish when it first started to hurt. I'm pretty sure that it was just a calf strain.

Time to numb the soreness! I liked that the gear bag area was right next to the beer garden and the stage. I wish they would give out something better than Michelob Ultra. I saw MegaMan having a beer, one of the better costumes that I saw at the race.

MegaMan

Finish

It was my friend's birthday, so we met up for lunch at Men Oh after he was done with his medical aid station duties. This time I ordered their Tonkotsu ramen and Tokushima don. I tried some of my friend's karaage... it was pretty good, but I've had better elsewhere. Their tonkotsu broth was on the thin lighter side. I prefer it being this way rather than it being super thick and super greasy. The Tokushima don was good, definitely a good combo with the tonkotsu ramen. Between the two bowls that I've tried this weekend, you have to try the Tokushima ramen.

Tonkotsu ramen

Tokushima don