New Year's Race Los Angeles

The expo was at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel located at 5th and Grand. I got into the Downtown area around noon time and drove around a little bit to scope out my parking options. I ended up parking in a parking structure at the corner of Flower and 8th for $5. The race expo was well organized. We picked up our race packet downstairs in the Regency room before going upstairs for the expo. They clearly did their homework and did a great job controlling the flow of people.

After going through the expo, I decided to hike up to Daikokuya in Little Tokyo for a bowl of ramen. I bumped into a few of my friends on the way out. It's always good to see my friends at races. Man, it was a long walk. The only thing longer was the wait to be seated. Be in mind that I was dining solo. Usually you can get a spot at the bar right away. I had to wait over an hour and it was not during prime lunch hour. When I was finally seated, I ordered the Daikoku ramen with ikura (salmon roe) rice bowl combination. It was definitely worth the wait.

Long line at Daikokuya

Keeping hydrated

Daikoku ramen with ikura rice bowl combo

Even though with a late lunch, I still had several hours to kill before the 9pm race start. I stopped by the expo again and bumped into more of my friends. I was headed for LA Live and one of my friends insisted on giving me a ride at least part of the way since they were headed for the freeway anyways. Originally I thought about killing time watching a movie, but instead I tried to find a good spot to watch the Packers v. Vikings game. I ended up at the The Mixing Room inside the JW Marriott. I thought perhaps it was appropriate to drink a couple of Racer 5 IPA's.

Racer 5!

Another Racer 5 and some water

As it got closer to race time, I walked back to my car to get ready. I then met up with my friend who parked nearby before walking over to the starting area. Gear check was right up the street on Flower between 7th and 8th. After dropping off our gear bag, we made our way to Macy's. It was a little chilly outside so it was a nice place to hang out until they started kicking people out. At which point, I wished my friend a good race and we parted for our separate corrals. I started out of corral 3. The race was supposed to start at 9pm, but the first wave wasn't released until about a quarter after 9. You could feel that everyone around you was getting a little antsy.

Starting corral

When our wave was finally released, I ran a bit harder than I know I should since I found myself running with the 1:45 group. After about a mile with the group I slowly fell back to a more comfortable pace. Being a Dodger fan, I knew exactly that it was an uphill climb to the Stadium. There were good size hills the whole way. I tried to run hard but not blow it on the climbs. Roughly miles 4 through 8 were very difficult miles because all we did was run every inch of the Dodger Stadium parking lot. It felt forever before we entered the Stadium. It was unfortunate that the field was a bit torn up due to recent ongoing renovations. My legs were starting to feel shot on the downhills back towards Downtown. They cramped up starting around mile 11 to the finish. The last out and back to San Pedro on 11th was a little hard to run. It was super dark and you could hear the finish line in the other direction. I really had to force myself to jog the last two miles to get it in under 2 hours.
1: 7:58
2: 8:22
3: 8:57
4: 9:45
5: 8:45
6: 8:50
7: 9:40
8: 8:27
9-11: 27:34 (9:11)
12: 9:54
13: 10:40
13.1: 0:49
Finish: 1:59:41

Tour de Dodger Stadium parking lot

They were passing out water and a bunch of drinks in the finishing chute, more than I could carry. I bumped into my friends as I was exiting the chute. I met up with them in the beer garden after I picked up my gear bag and put on my jacket. After having a Sierra Nevada beer and shooting the breeze with them, I had to get on home. I said goodbye to my friends and headed back to my car because Cinderella had to get back by midnight. I thought that I needed to exit the garage by midnight, but I was a few minutes late, so actually I didn't need to rush. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

Beer garden!

Sweatshirt

Finisher's medal

This course was nice and challenging. There's something rather appealing about running through the streets of Downtown. Although it was rather dreadful covering those miles in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium, I thought the race as a whole was well designed and managed from start to finish. I'm pretty sure the city limited them as to where the course could go. The medals were really nice and a sweatshirt was a nice touch. It was definitely a race designed by runners. I would love to run this race again next year.

Operation Jack Marathon 2012

The race took place once again on 12/26, the day after Christmas. This year it fell on a Wednesday. The weather forecast predicted significant rain in the morning and tapering off later in the day. Every time I re-checked the forecast, they predicted that the rain should end sooner rather than later. But I was prepared for a race in the rain. Boy was it pouring when I got to the entrance to the parking lot at the end of Imperial Highway. I paid the $6 and drove up north a few parking lots to park next to the starting area. The parking lot was somewhat flooded.

When I got out of my car to pick up my race packet, the rain had begun to relent. I bumped into a lot of familiar faces and I eventually went back to my car to relax. The race was scheduled to start at 7:30am. I gathered my stuff and made my way to the starting line around 7am. The volunteers had to bag some sand and use a couple of folding tables to build a bridge over the flooded area which happened to be the way to the starting line. We were given some last minute instructions before we all lined up all along the bike path.

Packet pickup

I don't think Sam's legs has seen the sun in a while

Maniacs!

My first goal was to finish the marathon this year and not drop out at the half like the past two years. My secondary goal was to finish under 5 hours. It was kind of crowded during the first mile, but it quickly cleared up. My legs felt good in the first mile as it usually does, but I knew better so I slowed it down until I got the miles around 9 minutes. The concrete bike path would eat my legs up. By mile 9 and the turn around at the most southern part of the course my legs were done. I felt really beat up by the time I got to the halfway point in just a couple minutes over 2 hours. I decided to take a break and jog to my car to drop off my arm sleeves. This confused the people timing the race as I was originally recorded as dropping at the half. Never mention the word "drop" as you're running through the finish line even if you're dropping off something.
1: 8:12
2: 8:35
3: 8:58
4-5: 18:26 (9:13)
6: 8:55
7: 9:26
8: 9:07
9: 10:02
10: 9:58
11: 10:19
12: 10:07
13: 8:56

Nice place for a race!

I went back on the course and switched to a much slower pace. I just wanted to finish the second half in around 2:50. It got very sunny and pretty warm during the second half. I started each mile with a few minutes walking and then jogged to the next mile marker. The left IT band got really sore during miles 24 and 25. I had to slow it down and take extra walk breaks. This was the first time in a while that my left leg was giving me problems. The finish area was a sight for sore eyes and legs. Thus concluded my last marathon for the year.
14: 12:52
15: 12:22
16: 11:51
17: 12:00
18: 12:58
19: 12:28
20: 13:26
21: 13:05
22: 13:37
23: 13:34
24: 14:32
25: 14:11
26: 12:58
26.2: 2:02
Finish: 4:52:59

Heading back for the win!

Finally finished the marathon

That's a lot of marathons among these 4

After waiting for all of my friends to finish, I got my stuff ready and drove out to Gardena to eat a bowl of ramen at Asa Ramen. It was my first time here and they served a very delicious bowl of ramen. Their fried chicken was good as well. I will definitely have to come back here again when I'm in the area. Unless you're eating over $20, bring cash.

Karaage

Kotteri ramen with egg

Hoover Dam Marathon 2012

Friday
It was a rainy day. I left work and drove out to pick up my friend who made a last minute decision to run the race. We drove through rain, sleet, and a little bit of snow to get into the Vegas area. Thank goodness my car had AWD, it certainly felt a lot safer. We took a short potty break at Primm. Also we drove through the McDonald's drive-thru because my friend wanted a McFlurry. I guess we all have our pre-race rituals or habits. As for mine, we had to hurry to make it to Fukumimi Ramen before they closed at 11pm. Apparently I got the last bowl for the night at about 10:30pm. They turned away a customer that came in shortly after us. It would be hard to find a better bowl of ramen in Vegas than here!

Fukumimi ramen

We then drove to check into our hotel. When I first booked the room it was called Blackstone Inn, but they were transitioning to their new name, Baymont Inn & Suites. It was conveniently located on Flamingo, just east of Paradise Rd.

Saturday - Race Day
The weather forecast predicted early rain and should taper off before the start of the race. Boy, sometimes those forecasts are very accurate! It was drizzly as we were driving out to the starting area, but it cleared up just in time for the race. We stopped by the Hacienda to pick up our friend Marathon Mitch. I guess it was a great sign when there was a rainbow off in the distance. Most of the Marathon Maniacs gathered together shortly before the race to snap a group photo.

Marathon Maniacs

My goal for this race was to take it easy and finish around 5 hours. Having run this race before, I knew what to expect. This race course comprised of two out-and-backs for a total of 13.1 miles and obviously we get to run it twice for the marathon. The first couple of miles was mostly a gentle climb before getting to the gravel section where we run through the tunnels. I always get a bit disorientated running in the darkness. Then we get to the rolling and winding part where there was a decent hill. I sped up a bit approaching the Dam since I was following a girl running the 10k. The switchback going down to the parking lot is my least favorite part of the course. It is just a pain in the butt. After taking a short loop around the top floor of the parking structure, we head back retracing our steps. On the way back, one of my fellow Marathon Maniac friend Chris caught up to me. We ran several miles together to the halfway point before he left be behind and powered ahead. Before heading to the halfway point, we had to run about 3/4 mile past the turn for the start/finish line for an out-and-back to add the appropriate distance to the course. Although I had to deal with cramping and a sore right ankle during the second loop, I could tell that the ankle is getting better and the endurance is beginning to improve.
1: 9:50
2: 9:52
3: 9:35
4: 10:56
5: 9:34
6: 8:28
7: 11:33
8: 10:20
9: 10:38
10: 10:48
11: 10:05
12-14: 34:31 (11:30)
15: 12:54
16: 12:18
17: 15:00
18: 14:38
19: 11:18
20: 17:21
21: 14:10
22: 14:18
23: 11:46
24: 11:29
25: 10:07
26: 12:20
26.2: 1:54
Finish: 5:05:44*
*Official time: 5:04:33... their timing system was inaccurate. I always wear a regular stopwatch. There are no lost signals or whatever to throw off the timing. I'm always only off by a second or two. Never has my watch been off by over a minute!

I hate the Dam switchbacks!

Running a few with MM Chris

Nadia at around mile 22 heading back to the finish line for the win!

A nice bench with a beautiful view

The famous tunnels!

Yolanda, the Walking Diva!

Post-race
This race was challenging and definitely not a PR course, but I had a fun time out there seeing so many of my friends and a lot of familiar faces. Out and back courses certainly make it easier to do that throughout the race. I also got to meet my friend's beautiful dog. A lot of the Marathon Maniacs hung around to wait for everyone to finish. After shooting the breeze for a while, we all started dispersing and parting for our separate ways.

I love black Labrador Retrievers!

The Dam medal!

We dropped off Mitch at his car before heading back to the hotel. My friend had to get cleaned up before going to the airport to catch a flight back home. The resort fee included shuttle service to the airport. I met up with Mitch to eat dinner at the Buffet at the Bellagio. This buffet is great if all you're eating are meat from the carving station and king crab legs. But if you like to eat other items, this place is somewhat lacking. You're better off trying the other many choices all along the Strip.

Overcooked prime rib and king crab legs

More king crab legs, rack of lamb, and something that's definitely not Kobe beef

Salmon, some other fish, prime rib, cocktail shrimp, and a spinach salad

After dinner Mitch and I walked over to Paris to meet up with some of the Marathon Maniacs from the East Coast. I had to bail pretty early as I was very tired and they were all still going strong. After taking a group photo, I walked back to my car and drove back to my hotel to crash for the night.

Hanging with the MMs from the East Coast

Sunday
I ate an early lunch at Japanese Curry Zen before heading back home. The owner/head chef continues to train one of his employees on preparing the plate of food while he makes the curry. Curry has a lot of spices that are good for your health and it tastes good too! I wish I could've stayed longer. There are so much good food to be eaten in Vegas.

Curry is good for you!

White rice curry with chicken katsu, kurobuta sausages, and ebi

Honolulu Marathon 2012

This marathon is one of the marathons that I look forward to all year for a couple of reasons. One is that it's in Hawaii. Another is that I love all of the excellent food that's available within walking distance of Waikiki. Also this is one marathon where you do not get a participant shirt unless you actually finish the race. I like that fact that you have to earn it just as you would with the medal.

Thursday
I flew out on a Thursday morning out of LAX. Once again I paid a little more to fly with Hawaiian Air for their better service. They are one of the few remaining airlines that still serve meals on their flights. Unfortunately their Boeing 767 did not have individual TV screens. In fact their video screens were malfunctioning. As we were close to landing, the flight attendants went around serving complimentary cups of mai tai. As with every visit, I filled out the Plants and Animals Declaration Form.

Once we landed, I made my way to the bus stop to wait for the bus to Waikiki. It takes roughly an hour to get there but it only costs $2.50. After getting off of the bus, I walked straight over to Ramen Nakamura to eat lunch. It's on the pricey side for ramen, but I love their ox tail ramen.

Ox tail shio ramen with fried rice

I then headed over to the expo at the Hawaii Convention Center. I picked up my bib, timing chip, and bag. I'm not sure who designed the graphics for the official souvenirs, but they were downright ugly. There was only one that was worth buying, but I passed. As with the years prior, there was nothing much to see.

Honolulu Marathon expo

No trouble here

Drawstring bag from Docomo, Japanese cell service

I left the expo and headed over to my hotel, Hawaiian Monach Hotel, located at 444 Niu Street. I think I only saw one other Asian at this hotel during my entire stay. I'm guessing there was too many 4's in the address. 4 sounds like death in Japanese and Chinese, so it's a very unlucky number to have so many 4's. :) My room was pretty spacious. However the bed was old and lumpy. It had an old CRT TV with a gigantic remote, a microwave oven, and a small fridge. It also had a nice view of the Ala Wai.

Lumpy bed

Microwave oven and an old CRT TV

Big TV remote

Fridge

Restroom

Ala Wai

For dinner, I walked over to Gomaichi Ramen to eat another bowl of ramen. However they were closed and had a sign up that said their noodle cooker was broken. So instead I had to go to plan B and walk over to the Ala Moana Center to eat at Goma Tei Ramen. I ordered their popular tan tan ramen and tatsutaage. The portions were pretty big. The ramen wasn't bad, but the fried chicken wasn't good. On the way back, I stopped by the nearby Walmart to stock the fridge with some drinks for the weekend.

Tan tan ramen

Tatsutaage

Friday
My Maniac friend, David, picked me up to go visit the USS Arizona Memorial since it was the 71st Anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. There was a huge ceremony.

USS Arizona Memorial

I love black German Shepherds

After the ceremony, we drove over to Mitch's Fish Market for an early lunch. I ordered their sashimi special. They had some of the freshest fish that I'd ever tasted anywhere. I would've ordered the Chef's Special for $75 but you need to have at least 2 orders and my friend wasn't ready to drop that kind of money for lunch.

Mitch's Fish Market

Sashimi special

We went to the airport to pickup his wife before driving over to Da Kitchen to eat some more. I ordered two appetizers, the shrimp shumai and their famed fried spam musubi. The shrimp shumai was way too dainty. Don't bother ordering it. The musubi was very tasty, but they used way too much rice for such a thin slice of spam. The appertizers were good enough to tide me over to dinner.

Fried spam musubi

For dinner, we ate with a bunch of Marathon Maniacs from Singapore. We ate at one of our favorite places, Side Street Inn. Most people that have eaten here will agree that their Kim Chee fried rice is the best out there. No, it's not Korean style, but a Hawaiian fusion style. The plate is big enough for two people, but I was able to finish it all on my own. I also ordered the spicy garlic chicken, but I was only able to eat the salad and a few pieces before having to take the rest to go.

Kim Chee fried rice

Saturday
In the morning, I polished off the remaining spicy garlic chicken. Mmmmm mmmmm, good! For lunch, I walked over to the nearby Yotteko-ya to eat another bowl of ramen. I got there around 11:30am when they should've opened, but for whatever reason, they didn't open until 12pm. There was a nice line of hungry people outside the restaurant waiting to get in. Once they opened, I sat at the counter. The solo waitress was really scrambling around to get to everybody. When she finally got to me, I ordered the ebi mayonnaise and the kakuni paitan ramen.

Prevents aging of skin and joints!

Ebi mayonnaise

Kakuni paitan ramen

After lunch, I swung by Don Quijote to maybe buy some snacks. They sell a lot of nice Japanese snacks here. But I ended up just buying some coconut water. I then walked over to the Hawaii Convention Center to check out the expo again. I then went back to my hotel room to relax. I came back out later that evening to eat some dinner. I walked over to the Zippy's at the Ala Moana Center. It was pretty hard to find since it was tucked inside Sears near their automotive department. I ordered their Zip Pac and a large Orange Bang. The Zip Pac has chicken, fish, teriyaki beef, spam, white rice sprinkled with furikake, and a slice of takuwan. Good stuff!

I laid out my race gear before going to sleep. I think I had a red, white, and black theme going on here.

Zip Pac and Orange Bang

Race gear

Sunday
Since I stayed closer to the starting line this year, I walked over to the Ala Moana Beach Park instead of taking the bus from Kapiolani Park. I headed over to the not-so-secret beach restrooms near the starting line. It seems to be more crowded each year. It's still better than using the portapotties. After meeting up with my friend, we headed over to the tennis courts for the Marathon Maniacs pre-race photo. Since I was not wearing the MM colors, I didn't jump into the picture. Instead I headed over to the starting area to get into the crowd of runners itching to start the race. I didn't bother pushing my way to the very front.

2008: 4:49:34
2009: Did not run
2010: 5:00:33
2011: 6:04:05

Goal A: 4:30
Goal B: sub 5 hrs

Starting line

The Race
The first mile felt smooth and easy. But I decided to slow it down over the next two miles to prevent overheating and also I definitely do not have the endurance to hold that pace for many miles. It felt hot already and the sun hadn't come out yet. I eventually settled into a 9-10 min mile pace. There wasn't too much crowd support in the first few miles. But we got some at the Ala Moana Center and a lot running through Waikiki. Miles 8 through 9 had some nice dark climbs up Diamond Head. Then we got on the Kalanianaole Highway to be on our way to Hawaii Kai.
1: 8:06
2: 8:33
3: 9:12
4: 9:19
5: 9:14
6: 8:59
7: 9:51
8-9: 19:32 (9:46)
10: 10:36
11: 9:57
12: 9:58
13: 10:39
Half: 2:05:00

For the second half, I took my extra walking breaks, took my time and enjoyed the race as much as I could. There was some nice views out at Hawaii Kai. My pace slowed down a bit during the gentle uphills as my legs started feeling like they were filled with lead. After running back up Diamond Head towards mile 25, we got treated to a nice view of the ocean. Then it was all downhill to Kapiolani Park and the long straightaway towards the finish line. The finishing chute for this race is one of the best out of all of the marathons that I've run.
14: 11:17
15: 12:13
16: 11:53
17: 11:43
18: 12:23
19: 11:26
20: 12:42
21: 13:02
22: 13:28
23: 14:05
24-25: 26:50 (13:25)
26: 10:49
26.2: 1:54
Finish: 4:47:44

Post-race
I was very satisfied with my run. It was rough, but I can't wait to come back again. Having run this race 3 other times really helped. It's always a bit easier when you know what to expect. I picked up my puka shell necklace and bumped into some of my friends. After taking a picture with them, I just wanted to get back to my hotel which was many blocks away. Apparently just like last year, I bypassed the line for the malasadas. I made a beeline for the finisher's shirt and medal. Along the way I got in line to take a picture with a hula girl. They also gave us a cloth that could be used for a bandana just for taking a picture. This year they gave us a medal instead of the usual keychain. The medal was nice, but I prefer the keychain. After picking up the shirt and the medal, I headed out on my long hike back to my hotel. With this being my fourth year, I knew that the best way to get back was by cutting over to Kuhio Avenue and Ala Wai Blvd where there was significantly less foot traffic.

Annual photo with the hula girl

Finisher medal, puka shell necklace, shirt, cloth

After I got cleaned up and took a little nap, I met up with my Hawaiian friends for some post race beers and food at Pint + Jigger. I had a Deschutes Chain Breaker, Gösser Dark, Merry Mischief, and Deschutes Jubelale. For food I got the beer braised brats. Afterwards, my friend dropped me off at the Big City Diner at the Ward where I met up with my international Marathon Maniac friends to eat another dinner. Since I had eaten already, I only ate some of the fried rice from one of the Maniacs. The fried rice was good enough that I will need to come back here to eat an appropriate meal.

Annual photo with Ryan

Beer braised brats

Monday
Maniac David picked up me and the Maniacs from Singapore to go on a "recovery" hike up the Koko Crater Railway Trail. As usual I went out up the stairs too hard and had to sit down about 3/4 of the way up and drink my coconut water. I guess I was pretty tired from the marathon the day before. It was pretty windy up at the top, but we were treated to some gorgeous views. Going down was pretty scary as my right ankle was already sore from the marathon plus I had worn a very worn-out pair of shoes. Also wearing cargo shorts was not ideal for this kind of hike. On top of that I didn't wear my belt so it kept sliding down. This wasn't my idea of a recovery activity, but I was glad that I went. If I hadn't gone, I would've just stayed in my hotel watching TV.

Koko Crater Railway Trail

Only halfway up... too late to go back

View of Hawaii Kai from the top

Hanauma Bay

Other side of the crater... Hawaii Kai Golf Course

On our way back, we stopped by McDonald's to eat lunch. I got my usual 20 piece chicken McNuggets and a taro pie. I'm not too sure where else in the world you can get a taro pie at a McDonald's. It was pretty good, very similar to an apple pie, but not as sweet. It appealed to the Asian in me. :)

Chicken McNuggets!

Taro pie

Before we went back to our hotels to shower, we stopped by the Kapiolani Park to pick up our finisher's certificate. I forgot to bring my bib, so they had to look it up and write it on a piece of paper. They won't take your word for it even though you had a picture of your bib on your phone!

Finisher certificate

After getting cleaned up, we were all picked up again and headed out to Kahuku for some garlic shrimp. Along the way, we made quick stops at the Halona Blow Hole and the Chinaman's Hat. My friend really likes the shrimp from Romy's Kahuku Prawns & Shrimp shack over Giovanni's Shrimp Truck, so that's where he took us. I got the garlic butter shrimp just as they were about to close up shop. We had to get our orders from the back of the shack since they had already closed up the front after taking our orders. They were pretty delicious, but next time I'll want to try the famous and heavily hyped shrimp from Giovanni's.

Chinaman's Hat

Romy's Kahuku Prawns and Shrimp Shack

Garlic butter shrimp

We stopped by Leonard's Bakery, where my friends got some malasadas. But I passed since I'm not fond of sweets. For a late dinner, we drove out to Chinatown to eat a bowl of ramen at the Lucky Belly. Chinatown doesn't look very nice or safe late at night. It turned out that this place was an Asian fusion restaurant which explained why the ramen didn't taste like any traditional bowl of ramen. The belly bowl that I got was dominated by the smoked pork. Even the broth tasted very smoky. I also ordered the shrimp gyoza. They were pretty large and was topped with edamame purée. Definitely not your run of the mill Japanese gyoza. They were very tasty. I think they should give you more than just 3 pieces.

Lucky Belly

Shrimp gyoza with edamame purée

Belly Bowl

Finishing up the big bowl

Tuesday
After 5 nights of food-filled fun, it was time to go home and get back to work. But before making my way to the airport for a late afternoon flight, I had to go get one last bowl of ramen. So after packing up and checking out of the hotel. I hiked it over to Menchanko Tei. It was getting kind of hot having to carry all of my stuff with me, but it actually started to sprinkle just as I got to the restaurant. I ordered their Seafood Menchanko ramen and the mentai gohan. This bowl was much different from the ramen that I normally eat. It was a nabe style and it was loaded with seafood. I love seafood! The mentai gohan was good as well, but then again it's not something that you can really mess up.

Seafood Menchanko Ramen

After eating, I hiked it over to the bus stop at the Ala Moana Center to catch the bus to the airport. As usual it was a crowded hour long bus ride. Luckily I was able to get a seat. We flew on an Airbus 330 for the flight back home. Fortunately for me, unlike the Boeing 767, this plane had individual TV screens. They also had an USB port for me to charge my phone.

Aloha ʻOe... until we meet again!

Time to go home

Yay for individual TV!