I had an early afternoon flight with Southwest Airlines out of Long Beach Airport. I arrived at the airport at about 10 am. After finding a parking spot in Parking Structure B, I made the short walk over to the terminal. There was a bit of construction along the way. Per the usual, it was a breeze getting through TSA security screening at this airport compared to LAX.
Long Beach Parking Structure B
It was just about lunch time for me and the airport was packed! Instead of eating an expensive meal at the airport, I decided to just get some healthy snacks at the Long Beach 562 Experience store. I bought a bag of raisin, almond, cashew mix and a bottle of water. That should tide me over until I landed in Chicago.
Long Beach 562 Experience
Snacks
Water
Nutritional info
The original schedule for my flight into Chicago Midway was for a departure at 11:25 am from LGB and an arrival in MDW at 5:20 pm. It was initially delayed for 30 minutes, I believe due to the inbound aircraft being late. While waiting, I bumped into my friend Almi. She introduced me to her friends, Phil, Kevin and his family. Both guys will also be running in the marathon. At about 11:30 am, they started the boarding process. Normally, I like to board from the rear door of the aircraft at this airport. However, this time I was in the B58 position. I went through the front door just in case they were already low on overhead compartment space. I was able to get a window seat near the front of the plane. Just as I was getting into my seat, I heard the pilot make an announcement from the flight deck. He reported a mechanical issue which required it to be looked at by the local airport mechanic and cleared with headquarters in Texas. If I wasn't already before this flight, I'm starting to really dislike flying on Boeing 737 MAX planes. The inspection and required paperwork tacked on an additional 2 hours to the delay.
During that delay, I pretty much watched the entire movie, Young Woman and the Sea. Honestly, this wasn't a movie that I really wanted to see. It was a Walt Disney Pictures production starring Daisy Ridley as Trudy Ederle. Lately, Disney shows or movies in general had been leaving a rather sour taste in my mouth. They had a rather extreme liberal agenda that they just incessantly would shove down the viewers' throat. However I'm glad that I ended up watching this movie. It was based on a true story and very well done. This was more organic than what they had been putting out in recent times, probably because it wasn't 100% fiction. The movie showed how women were indeed strong and able to overcome seemingly impossible goals despite unfair prejudices and obstacles placed by men. Here's a Times article about the story behind this movie.
Young Woman and the Sea
When we were finally up in the air, they served the usual inflight drink and snacks. I watched some news before ultimately deciding to try and take a nap. What was supposed to have been about a 4 hour flight, ended up being about 6 hours. When we landed in Chicago at about 7:30 pm local time, I really needed to go to the restroom!
After I took care of that, I followed the signs for ground transportation and headed to the CTA-Midway Station to catch a train on the orange line. I took that over to the Chicago Loop and got off at the CTA-Harold Washington Library Station. From there, I headed east on Van Buren St over to Michigan Ave. Then I headed north a couple of blocks to pick up dinner at Chick-fil-A. It was already 8:30 pm, so some of the sketchy pot-smoking people were already out and about the streets of Chicago. On the mobile app, I ordered a Honey Pepper Pimento Sandwich w/ Grilled Filet meal. I got it with a Berry Parfait w/ Granola and a Banana Pudding Milkshake for my drink.
Chick-fil-A
Banana Pudding Milkshake
Honey Pepper Pimento Sandwich w/ Grilled Filet and Berry Parfait w/ Granola
I then walked down to Harrison St to check into the Travelodge hotel. I was assigned room #1031. This room had 2 double beds and was much bigger than the one I had last year. Yet, it cost me the same amount of Wyndham Reward points. I ate my dinner while catching the last few innings of the NLDS game 5 where the Dodgers beat the Padres 2-0 to win the series. I'm really digging the honey pepper pimento sandwich. It had a good blend of sweetness and spiciness. They should make it a permanent item on their menu. There wasn't a channel guide available, so I had to do a little bit of channel surfing and noting down the channels that I wanted to watch on a napkin.
Travelodge
"Is this live?" :)
Sorry Padres, enjoy that humble pie and try again next year
No channel guide
Shortly after all of that, I took a shower and went to sleep as I needed to wake up pretty early for my volunteer shift for the 5k tomorrow. I was scheduled to be at the finish line area and needed to check in by 6 am at the intersection of Jackson Blvd and Wacker Dr.
Volunteer email
Saturday 10/12
I got ready and left the hotel at a little after 5:30 am to head over to the finish line area for my volunteer shift. I arrived a few minutes before 6 am. I checked in with my QR code and was given my volunteer credentials, t-shirt, and last year's 5k beanie. They also provided breakfast from Dunkin. They seemed to be a bit unorganized as no one was telling any of us where to go or what to do.
Volunteer check-in
Volunteer swag
Breakfast was provided
Eventually, I went over and started helping another volunteer with unwrapping and preparing the finisher medals for distribution. Out of all of the times that I've volunteered, this crew was the worst. The coordinators were pretty clueless. The girl in charge of medals behaved as if it was her first time. Then we had a "key" volunteer that wouldn't stop bragging about herself. The spotlight needed to be on her. She kept mentioning that she's some lead volunteer for the NYC Marathon and that she was a "key" volunteer for tomorrow's marathon. Oh, and she runs ultras. Even though Ms. "key" volunteer pushed her way to be the first volunteer that the finishers saw, I was able to award finisher medals to a few of my friends.
Finisher medal rack
Ready for finishers
1st female, Emma Coburn
My friends!
Gabe!
After the last of the participants came through and our shift was over, I started heading over to Target to buy some snacks and drinks. Unfortunately, the store was pretty much wiped out of all of their electrolyte drinks and water. I was only able to buy water because my arms were long enough to reach the 2 last remaining bottles that were at the very back of the top shelf.
Snacks and water from Target
View from my room
I dropped off my items in my room before walking over to the CTA-Harrison Station to catch a red line train for a ride down to CTA-Cermak Chinatown Station. From there, I hoofed it over to McCormick Place for the race expo. I exited the station onto Archer Ave, where the walk was a few blocks further than from the green line CTA-Cermak-McCormick Place Station.
Taking the red line to the expo
Per the usual, the car and foot traffic just outside of McCormick Square and Hyatt Regency was insane! They always have people out there directing traffic and making sure cars aren't parked where they shouldn't. There was definitely a lot of yelling and shouting. Once inside, I followed the crowds as we all walked towards the Abbott Health & Wellness Expo over at the Lakeside Center. Once I got past the welcome arch, I went to an open station where the guy scanned my QR code. Then he sent me to a station for me to pick up my bib. After getting my bib, I headed into the expo. Before checking everything out, I headed towards the very back to first pick up my race shirt and the gear check bag. It was much easier to move around this year as I didn't have my bags with me.
McCormick Place
Headed over to the Lakeside Center
Packet pick-up station
After getting my race shirt, I proceeded to check out the rest of the expo. I picked up a few flyers for some races that I wanted to run. One of the vendor booths that I checked out was Go Brewing. They had some pretty dang good non-alcoholic beer! I stopped by the pacer booth to see if my friend Heather was there. She was not and I mistakenly called her friend, Mark when his name was Mike. I would say that I was close, certainly in the ballpark. :) I had to pretty much go through all of the booths until I finally found the one for my charity, Organization for Autism Research. Lastly, before leaving, I checked out the official merchandise. It was super crowded in there and really not worth the aggravation as I found the design and color scheme for every item to be very uninspiring. Yet, they all came with a hefty price tag. The one item that remotely tempted me was a smaller version of the race medal. I put it down since the medal after my race completion on Sunday would be more than sufficient.
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Expo goodies
Non-alcoholic beer
Organization for Autism Research
A smaller version of the race medal
Race flyers
Pickle juice
As I headed out, I ended up following a group of people that took an outside route instead of taking the covered walkway. It was certainly less crowded. Before hopping on the green line for a ride back to the loop, I stopped in the White Castle for a quick snack/lunch. I ordered a couple of 1921 sliders.
Marriott Marquis Chicago
Lunch #1: 1921 slider x2
The train platform was super crowded. When the next train arrived, everyone crammed into every available train car. I think next time, instead of being packed in there like sardines, I'll just walk back. I got off a CTA-Adams/Wabash Station and walked over to Flat Top Grill to get some more food. I sat in the little waiting area just before entering the restaurant and placed my order online for their Flat Top Signature Fried Rice. A couple of minutes after submitting my order, I received a call from the restaurant. They wanted to confirm my order as it looked like I had marked for them to remove all of the protein (i.e. shrimp, chicken, steak, and egg). The online form was a bit confusing. I thought that I was supposed to select which proteins I wanted! I certainly appreciated that they called to double-check!
Lunch #2: Flat Top Grill
Online ordering error
Flat Top Signature Fried Rice
I finished lunch #2 back at my hotel room. I was skeptical at first with eating at an Asian fusion restaurant, but the food was not bad! After finishing my lunch, I went through my expo haul. I had nothing to do and nowhere to be until dinner time, so I relaxed and watched some TV until it was time to head over to Harry Caray's for my charity team dinner. Just like last year, it was a buffet style dinner upstairs, catered by the restaurant. Prior to the trip, I was emailed to see if I would like to be the table captain and give a short 1 minute speech about why I was running for this charity. I agreed to do so. When it was my table's turn, I got up and spoke on how I was running on behalf of my autistic younger brother and how I paired it with my love for running marathons. It was good to hear other people's reasons for becoming a charity runner.
Charity team dinner at Harry Caray's
You are what you eat! :)
Marina City Goldberg
Sleepy Bear
Back at my hotel, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's marathon. I then took a shower and called it a night. I was feeling pretty tired as this was my third consecutive weekend of running a marathon. I was just hoping that my legs had recovered enough for me to have a decent race.
Flat runner
Sunday 10/13
Not sure what I did to it, but the 4th finger on my right hand was a bit swollen, stiff, and hurts when I try to bend it. I must have hurt it during my volunteer shift while handling all of those race medals. I was dragging a bit as I got ready for the race. Luckily, the starting line was just across the street. At about 5:15 am, I left my hotel and walked over to the fancy hotel around the corner, The Blackstone, to meet up with my charity team. As with last year, they had reserved the Crystal Ballroom upstairs for our charity. I filled up my handheld bottle with Gatorade and munched on a plain bagel. At 6:15 am, we took the first team photo.
The Blackstone Crystal Ballroom
Gatorade
6:15 am team photo
I then hurried across the street to meet up with my fellow Marathon Maniacs for the usual pre-race photo in front of the Buckingham Fountain that was scheduled for 6:30 am. At first, I tried to enter the park through Balbo Dr, but a bunch of us were turned away. Eventually, we were able to enter through Ida B Wells Dr. Initially, I couldn't locate the others as it was still pretty dark. It turned out that they had gone a bit further to the east side of the fountain than what I was expecting based on last year's location.
6:30 am Marathon Maniacs photo
Pre-race selfie at Buckingham Fountain
After the photo and exchanging well wishes to everyone, I hung out with my friends from San Diego. We were all starting around the same corrals. After they checked their gear bag, we started heading closer to our corrals before looking for portapotties with shorter lines. Dan and I used the urinals while Karen got in line to use one of the portapotties. We waited for Karen, but it looked like she had slipped past us and had already entered the corrals. I ended up queuing up on the very right side of corral H.
Corral H
Runners released in waves
Spotted my friend from Hawaii on the other side of the corral
Inching our way up to the start line
I started the race running at what felt to be around a 9 min per mile pace as I wanted my legs to get used to running at the pace that would get me just under 4 hours. With this race, I ran almost completely by feel and ignored each split that my watch was giving me as the course had us running underground as well in between tall buildings. During that first mile, I was able to spot my friend Karen on the left side of the course. For about 10 miles, I ran within the same vicinity of her. After reaching mile 10, I pulled over to the side of the course to check into my Southwest flight for tomorrow. When I resumed running, I slowed the pace down as my legs were beginning to feel pretty heavy, most likely from 2 consecutive weekends of running a marathon. After reaching mile 14, I started looking for the OAR cheer squad. I thought that I had missed them, however as I approached mile 15, they were able to spot me.
Approaching mile 15 at Skinner Park: OAR cheer squad
As I approached mile 16, I pulled over to the aid station in front of Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. I first used one of the portapotties there. Then I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade to refill my handheld bottle as I continued on with my race. I started having trouble at around mile 22 as I entered Chinatown. I had to start taking longer walk breaks. Then at about mile 24, one of my right thigh muscles cramped up. That might have been a first for that particular muscle. Since I had brought along the sample pickle juice shot, I decided to take it. That most certainly helped me get through the final 2 miles.
Finish: 4:48:48
Click here for my Garmin data.
While I was hoping to finish in well under 4:40, I was pretty content with improving on my time from last year by over 10 minutes. I tend to not do as well on courses that are pancake flat from start to finish. I prefer courses with rolling hills.
After crossing the finish line, I continued down the finisher chute where I overheard someone talking about how he wanted to finish in 4:44:44. I couldn't help but comment that that finishing time would be terrible for an Asian person as the number 4 sounded like death. Further down the chute, we received our finisher medal and a mylar blanket. It was a bit warm for wearing a mylar blanket, but I still took one to save for another race during the winter months. After grabbing a bunch of post race snacks and drinks, I started making my way out of Grant Park. Before leaving, I gave away my beer ticket to a random finisher.
Finisher medal
Finisher chute
Post race goodies
I headed over to The Blackstone to check in with my charity. As I made it up to the Crystal Ballroom, they awarded me a charity finisher medal. The food spread was similar to last year's. This time, I went with a slice of deep dish pizza and a bag of Miss Vickie's potato chips. I ended up chatting with Sarah who worked in finance for OAR and also with fellow charity runner, Kevin from New York.
OAR finisher medal
Post race pizza back at The Blackstone
Eventually, I excused myself and headed back to my hotel. I took a shower, got cleaned up, and relaxed a bit before heading back out to get some dinner. I placed an order for a bucket of BBQ rib tips with sautéed broccoli and creamed spinach as my sides. I set the pick up time for 5:15 pm. It was a pretty long walk. Along the way back, I took a picture with the South lion in front of the Ryerson & Burnham Library.
Carson's
Bucket of rib tips with sautéed broccoli and creamed spinach
South lion in front of the Ryerson & Burnham Library
Just as last year, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I was only able to get through about a third of the bucket. If I didn't have a morning flight to catch, I might have tried to put in a bigger dent to the bucket of ribs. I dozed off after dinner and missed the Dodgers vs. Mets game with the first pitch at 7:15 pm. Thankfully the Dodgers would beat the Mets in game 1 of the NLCS pretty handily with a score of 9-0.
Monday 10/14
I got ready, packed up my stuff, and checked out of my room at about 7:30 am. I walked up to the CTA-Adams/Wabash Station to catch an orange line out to MDW Airport. While waiting for my flight, I bumped into Kevin and his family. Shortly after that, Almi showed up. We were all on the same flight home.
Time to go home
Thankfully, no plane troubles for my flight home
After getting home from the airport, I had the NLCS game 2 on while I put in a half day of work from home. Unlike yesterday's game, the Mets went up 6-0 after 2 innings. The Dodger bats went quiet and the Mets would add on another run in the 9th inning, winning game 2 with a score of 7-3 to tie up the series.
