LA Marathon 2012 and pub crawl

Saturday expo
Saturday morning, I made the dreaded drive out to Dodger Stadium. I love the Dodgers, but I hate LA traffic especially around the stadium. No matter the time of day, it's always a pain in the butt to navigate. Since it was also raining, I was expecting the worst. I got there around 9am and ran into a lot of traffic from those finishing the 5k race. The rain wasn't that hard when I first got there, but it started to really pour.

Raining cats and dogs!

Welcome to Dodgertown!

Go Dodger Blue!

Expo time

I was glad to see that they had improved the bib and shirt pickup process. They each had their own separate tents to accommodate the people picking up their race packet as well as those running inside to get out of the rain. The tent with the official race merchandise was a mess. It was not their fault that the tent was faulty. It was leaking a lot of water which ended up forming a nice big river right through the middle of the floor.

Bib Pickup

A river runs through it!

After picking up my stuff and buying a pair of LA Marathon gloves, I went outside to check out the booths. There wasn't much to see as there were quite a few empty booths, either from no-shows or abandonment due to the down pour.

Before heading home, I stopped by Little Tokyo to buy some snacks. I bought some beer to help me get some rest. The worst of the cold was over, but I was still dealing with sinusitis and bronchitis which made it hard to breathe and have a nice restful sleep. I was still coughing up a storm with the occasional phlegm.

I sifted through my expo haul and noticed that I had Dodger Suite Access! I totally forgot that I had signed up as a charity runner with Train 4 Autism. They are one of the charities I support each year.

Carboloading with Japanese beer and snacks

Expo haul

Dodger Suite Access!

My Team in Training coaches always told us, "nothing new on race day!" I must frustrate my coaches since I never really did follow their good advice. For this race, I had put together my Superman costume. I never did do a test run with any of it. So I ran with a new singlet, arm sleeves, shorts, shoes, and cape!

Everything you see here is new for race day!

Race day
I woke up at around 1:30am to get ready and felt horrible. I felt exhausted and just plain miserable. But I've felt worse before so I got ready anyways and headed out to Santa Monica to meet up with my Coyote friends and ride their special chartered bus to Dodger Stadium. There was a mix-up with the pickup spot, so the bus driver was late.

Waiting for the Coyote bus to Dodger Stadium

When we got to the stadium, I had to rush to the suites to take care of "business". My GI system usually gets jacked up when I drink too many beers. But it was a small price to pay to get some sleep. After exchanging pleasantries with my charity friends, I headed over to the gear check area to meet up with my friend who had decided last minute to run in costume with me. We bumped into more of our friends.

Sam (Operation Jack) being interviewed

Train 4 Autism Dodger Suite

Wonder Woman and Superman

We headed over to corral C, the sub 5 hour corral. It was definitely not as chaotic as being in the free-for-all Open corral. One of my friends wasn't able to sneak in with us. Bummer.

Starting line

Corral C

Goal A: 5:30 and have fun
Goal B: 5:45-6:00 I did not know how hard it would be to breathe

The race
We took the first mile or so really easy. I increased the pace a bit and the right ankle was again coming up sore. After a few miles, I decided to ditch the plastic rain poncho. The clouds were breaking up and the weather was looking nicer as the race went on. We separated for a while since my friend needed to adjust her costume. I jogged along for the next couple of miles until she caught up. It was pretty difficult running with sinusitis and bronchitis. I just had a hard time getting enough oxygen. I even had to duck inside a pho restaurant to get some napkins so I could blow my nose! Also with the GI issue, it was a rather uncomfortable run. My friend caught us and passed us around Hollywood.

Around mile 14, we stopped into the Saddle Ranch Chop House to get some drinks. My legs were feeling really heavy at this point so I welcomed the break. After the drink, I was able to run a little bit better since it numbed my ankle a bit. We found Jesus in West Hollywood.

We found Jesus!

I then started putting the crawl in the pub crawl. As much as I could, I made it a fartlek run. I put in a lot of speed bursts especially when running around corners. I was definitely pretty cranky and whiny when I'm sick. But my friend really kept things fun and helped me along. The spectators loved the costumes. Around mile 18 we stopped by a liquor mart to get another drink. We sat down at a curb, which I'm well known to do from time to time during a marathon. Then the next drink was at the VA where the going usually gets tough. My legs were sore and I kept looking forward to the next drink stop. For our last drink, we took a shot of bourbon at a Cheesecake Factory in Brentwood. It helped with the cough. :)

Those SRLA shirts must be made of Kryptonite
photo taken by Denise Taylor

I was struggling a lot in the final miles on San Vicente and had to take a lot of walk breaks. I was just having a hard time breathing. Even when I could see the finish line, my legs, my entire body just did not want to go. I finally forced myself to charge for the finish line, but I was running on fumes. I kept telling myself that the faster I ran, the sooner it'll all be over. I remember having to lean on my friend after crossing the finish line. I guess I was way more exhausted than I'd thought.

10k: 59:35
20k: 2:07:59
30k: 3:33:00
40k: 5:16:28
Finish: 5:34:03 Wonder Woman really did not want to run a 6 hr marathon :)
I didn't spot the majority of the mile markers, so I didn't have my mile splits. That was probably a good thing, which really forced me to run by feel.

Post race
Although I was feeling pretty run down and ragged after the race, I had a ton of fun. So much fun, we might have to make it a pub crawl every year! Wonder Woman and I parted ways as she needed to check out of her hotel and I had to meet up with my friend who had finished over an hour earlier. I met up with my friend and a few others at the Ye Olde King's Head. We tried to eat there, but the service was slow. We left and went our separate ways. We then went to a Coyote post marathon party near the morning bus pickup spot.

After hanging out for a while, my friend and I got cleaned up and went to Mastro's Steakhouse in Beverly Hills. It was my first time. I heard great things about the place and was excited to finally eat here. I was super exhausted and surprised I didn't just fall asleep in my food. I was so tired that I really didn't touch the steak. Probably a good thing since I was dozing off on my drive home. I should've pulled over and gotten coffee. I guess that's what happens when I've been up since 1:30am, sick, and just ran a marathon. I'm definitely not a machine or the energizer bunny. :)

The house salad was very good. I've been eating a lot of salads lately instead of heavy foods and I feel much better. The ahi tuna tartare was also very good. I love ahi tuna. The lobster mashed potatoes was what I was really craving. It was every bit as good as described on Yelp. Then came the Chef's cut ribeye chop. It was a good steak. I don't know if this makes sense, but I was just too tired to eat anymore. But I had the leftovers 2 days later and it was still very good. Sorry to say I did not get a picture of the steak. Yes, I was that tired. :)

House salad

Ahi tuna tartare

Lobster mashed potatoes

Inaugural San Diego Half Marathon at Petco Park

Expo and other pre race stuff
The expo opened at 9am on Saturday. I got to downtown San Diego a little after 9am. The race organizers definitely did their homework. For an inaugural race, you could tell that they've paid attention to every race detail starting with the expo. I picked up my bib, bag, and race shirt. I was already feeling under the weather so I wasn't really in the mood to go through a race expo. But a pair of socks did catch my eye on my way out. I thought about buying it. :)

Expo at the Petco Park

Packet pickup

Nice socks! :)

The Pony Express rides again!

On my way back to my car, I stopped at Ralph's to buy some Odwalla, Coke, and water. I guess loading up on Superfood wouldn't hurt. I headed over to Kearny Mesa for some lunch. I decided to try out a new restaurant, Izakaya Sakura. This place was a bit strange. There was no restaurant sign on the outside. I guess they do well enough through word of mouth that they don't even need a sign. The parking lot for this little plaza loads up really quickly, so you'll have to get here early. I tried to order their chirashi, but their sushi chef doesn't show up until later in the afternoon. They also did not have my second choice, ramen. So I went with my third choice, katsudon. I also got some natto. As I was leaving, I bumped into a college friend that I haven't seen for about 15 years. Wow, how time flies. The food at this place was definitely good. I'll have to come back and try the rest of their menu.

I love Odwalla!

natto

katsudon

After lunch, I stopped at the nearby Mitsuwa to buy some snacks before heading over to the Red Roof Inn at Mission Bay. This hotel was cheap for a reason. It was one of the noisiest place I've stayed at in a while. There was also some high school or college age neighbors carrying in cases of cheap beer. I brought in my 6 pack of premium beer. I guess when you get older, you start drinking better beer.

Red Roof Inn at Mission Bay

Snacks

Carboloading

After taking a break from snacking and watching TV, I went back out to Kearny Mesa for dinner at Yokohama Yakitori Koubou. I've kind of been on a skewer kick lately. Good stuff here. I wanted to try a lot of other stuff on their menu, but had to cut myself off so I can run a half marathon the next day. I got back to my room, polished off the rest of the beers, and laid out my gear before going to sleep.

chicken cartilage, beef tongue, chicken skin, quail eggs

jidori karaage (free range chicken)

more chicken cartilage and chicken with leek

Go Team!

Race day
I checked out of my room and got into Downtown way too early at around 4am to get free street parking. Most people were drunk and climbing into cabs to go home and sleep. I put on the iPod and took a nap in my car. I got out of my car at around 6am and headed over to Petco Park to use the portapotties. I crossed the Hilton Hotel bridge to wash my hands. I bumped into my running friend just shortly after taking a picture of Petco Park. I ended up just hanging out in the hotel lobby to stay out of the cold.

Petco Park at dark o' clock

Starting line

I warmed up a bit by jogging around in the wave 1 corral. I tried to look for my faster friends, but I didn't spot anybody.

The race
The first mile felt ok. I wanted to run a bit harder to see what I had. What I didn't have was my lungs. The cold that I picked up definitely did not help. I started backing off 30 seconds per mile for the next several miles. Funny how you can do that without wearing a watch that gives you your pace. This was again another fartlek run. I just put in short periods of faster running among a bunch of jogging. I'll let you guess which mile had the big long hill. I only ran about 2/3 of that hill. Good thing, we ended with a couple of downhill miles. The finish on the warning track of Petco Park was a very nice touch. It was much more exciting than doing a run through at Angel Stadium during the Disneyland half marathon.
1: 7:58
2: 8:32
3: 9:00
4: 9:29
5: 9:09
6: 9:22
7: 10:06
8: 9:38
9: 10:29
10: 12:53
11: 11:06
12: 10:07
13: 9:11
13.1: 0:48
Finished: 2:07:48

Post race
A good majority of this course was the reverse of the AFC half marathon. I liked this course. But I'm somewhat biased towards anything San Diego. I will definitely try to run this race again every year. I finished with an upset stomach, probably because 6 beers was 6 too many to drink the day before a race. But when I'm sick, I tend to use beer instead of Nyquil to go to sleep.

Finish line on the warning track

Shirt and medal

Medal

It was somewhat very crowded when I tried to leave Petco Park. We finally funneled out at the expo area. My stomach settled down, so I decided to head over to good 'ol Roberto's on Miramar to eat an early lunch. I haven't been here in ages. I ordered the usual, a carne asada burrito and 3 rolled tacos with guacamole. It was as good as I remembered. It was a good nostalgic experience and a nice break from eating another bowl of ramen or a steak. :)

Good 'ol Roberto's

The usual: carne asada burrito and 3 rolled tacos with guacamole

Little Rock Marathon 2012

Pre-race and Expo
Late late Friday evening, I took a red eye flight from out of LAX headed for Little Rock, Arkansas with a layover in DFW. Originally it was a 2 hr layover, but that got changed to almost 5 hrs. I played a whole lot of Angry Birds and read some of my magazines. It was a very short flight from DFW to LIT. Eventually I got to Little Rock. I barely slept on the flights. I took the #12 bus for $1.35 instead of renting a car.

After getting off at the River Cities Travel Center in downtown, I hiked it over to the Statehouse Convention Center to attend the race expo. I saw some of the usual people at the expo, the Marathon Show and Bart Yasso. I guess you go to enough race expos you'll end up being one of them.

Waiting for the #12 bus at LIT Airport

Statehouse Convention Center

They love their Bill Clinton in Arkansas!

Expo

The Marathon Show in progress

The legendary Bart Yasso

What I used to look like before I got fat :)

After picking up my race packet, I was pretty hungry. I wanted to try a place called Doe's Eat Place where they serve big steaks (2 lbs minimum). I walked several blocks only to come up to a closed restaurant with a sign that says they're only open for dinner starting at 5:30pm on Saturdays. So I hiked all the way to the River Market and went to plan B, Flying Fish of Little Rock. There was a long line out the door. From listening to the people in line and looking inside, it kind of had a tourist trap feel. Since the line barely moved, I decided to go to plan C, Flying Saucer. It was only a few buildings over so off I went. I've been to the one in Houston, so I knew what I wanted to eat and drink.

Flying Saucer

Diamond Bear Paradise Porter

German plate

Diamond Bear seasonal IPA

Diamond Bear IPA

After eating lunch, I stopped by the River Market to pick up some drinks. I then hiked about 10 blocks to the hotel over on Broadway and 6th. This La Quinta was pretty nice.

Just let me tell you that it is not good to stack the deck against yourself. Eventually you'll fall. Literally. While taking a red-eye flight saved on costs, it made me really tired since I barely slept a wink on the plane. Then I drank 3 beers for lunch. When I stepped into the bath tub to take a shower, I took a bad step with my bad ankle on the slippery tub, lost my balance, and fell out. It sounds funny, but it happened very quickly and I could've hit my head on the toilet. Lucky for me my fat butt took most of the fall. I guess that officially makes me old, because I've always wondered how old people fall and break their hip. Well, there you go.

I took a nap and awoke to buy some dinner. The left lower back and butt was a little sore, but I guess I was okay. I walked over to the gas station first to buy a Coke and some water. Then I stopped by McDonald's to buy 2 Big Macs for $4. What a deal!

River Market

La Quinta

2 Big Macs for $4

Race Day
After the little falling incident, I wasn't too excited to get up for the race. I got ready and walked over to the convention center. It was open, so everyone went inside to stay out of the cold. It was a chilly mid 40 degrees in the morning. At 7am the Marathon Maniacs and Half Fanatics all gathered for the pre-race photo. I can't say that I know too many maniacs since I tend to run mostly for the charities that I support.

As it got closer to the start, I headed over to the gear check trucks to check my bag. It felt really chilly for some reason. I had to jog a little just to warm up. I entered corral C and tried to find people that I knew. Eventually I found some familiar maniacs and I hung out with them. A pre-race prayer was said, the national anthem was sung, and the race was ready to begin.

The first 3 miles was really crowded and we ran straight into the sunlight. I tucked behind the 3:55 group. About a mile or so in, my friend Mitch finds me. Once the crowd loosened up, the pacers sped up. I fell back when I took my walk break after about 30 mins running. I had to take off my arm sleeves as it warmed up pretty quickly. Once I started running again, I ran behind the 4:00 group. After about an hour of running, I took my second walk break and fell back. I had to control the soreness in my right ankle and calf by slowing down a little more. I got to the halfway mark at 2:09:49. Mile 15 was the Michelob Ultra mile. They were passing out 8oz cans of beer. Since I was pretty much in walking mode, I took one and chugged it. There was a big downhill around mile 16. I tried to keep all of my miles below 15 minutes. There was a lot of walking because it got really warm and very sunny. The out and back section all the way to mile 21ish was nice as I got to see some of my friends that took the early start. I kept everything slow and steady. I was very glad to finally see the finish line.
1: 9:14
2: 8:41
3-4: 18:33 (9:17)
5: 9:21
6: 8:58
7-8: 20:29 (10:15)
9-10: 21:07 (10:34)
11-12: 20:51 (10:25)
13: 11:11
14: 13:28
15: 14:38
16: 13:33
17: 15:06
18: 14:57
19: 14:45
20: 14:57
21: 16:12
22: 14:23
23: 14:50
24: 14:19
25: 14:05
26: 14:36
26.2: 2:11
Finish: 5:20:24

Post race Stuff
This was actually a very rough race for personal reasons. Our family dog passed away on 2/29. She was a 14 year old Jack Russell Terrier. During the race they passed out a lot of bananas. I ate some at first, but the bananas only reminded me of my dog because it was one of her favorite foods. When the weather turned hot and I started to have salt all over me, that also reminded me of how she would lick me for a long time after I come home after a long run. Well such is life... dying is a part of living. I was kind of glad that I had a marathon to fly off to so I didn't have to deal with it right away.

After picking up my coveted finisher's medal, I picked up some food and chocolate milk and headed over to the gear check trucks. After eating, resting, and checking Facebook, I texted and met up with Mitch. We watched some of our Marathon Maniacs finish. We went our separate ways but would meet up later at the post-race BBQ dinner.

Size matters, right? :)

Post race BBQ

Live music

We ate some pulled pork and chicken sliders and some awesome potato salad. I believe the potato salad was awesome because it had bacon in it. I had other food but decided to switch to liquids since my stomach can get pretty sensitive after about 5.5 hours of sucking down GUs and salt caps. They only had cheap beer, so I stuck to vodka drinks. While waiting in the long line to get into the dining hall, I started talking to a couple. The wife happened to also be a Marathon Maniac. We ended up sitting at the same table and had some good conversations. It's always nice to meet fellow runners. Most people that run marathons are exceptional people. The post race BBQ was a nice touch although the music was too loud. I sometimes had a hard time hearing the conversation. Again, another sign that I'm getting old. :)

Liquid recovery

Leah Thorvilson, 4 in a row winner

Mark Chepses, 2 in a row winner

The Day After
Early in the morning, I went down to the lobby to eat some of the free breakfast. After checking out of the hotel, I hiked it over to the River Cities Travel Center to catch the bus to the airport. The bus that I needed was just leaving when I got there, so I had to wait a while for the next bus. The next bus was late. It turns out the driver was being trained, probably still learning the route. After the short flight to DFW, I took the Skylink to my terminal and ate at the first place I saw. It turned out to be a bad choice. It was the Cool River Cafe. Everything was incredibly overpriced and not very good. I should've just drank a second Blue Moon. At least the salmon and salad was probably good for recovery after a marathon.

22oz Blue Moon

Salmon Caesar Salad