After work, I drove over to the Irvine Transportation Center to catch an evening Amtrak train down to San Diego. The train arrived on time, but it was packed. Fortunately I was able to find an open seat in one of the cars. The train pulled into the Santa Fe Depot a little after 7 pm.
Irvine Transportation Center
From there, I walked over to my hotel for the weekend, WorldMark San Diego - Balboa Park. The check-in process was quick and easy. Once again they invited me to a complimentary breakfast plus an owner's update over at the Wyndham Harbour Lights location tomorrow morning at 8 am. They took a $20 credit card deposit in case I didn't show up. They would give me 18,000 Wyndham Rewards Points for attending. After that I took the slow elevator up to my room and dropped off my bags before going back out to pick up dinner from the McDonald's across the street. I used the app to order a McDouble, cheeseburger, and a large iced tea for $1 a piece.
Old and slow elevator
WorldMark Balboa Park
Ear plugs
McDouble, cheeseburger, and large iced tea
Saturday 8/18
I got ready and went downstairs for my Uber ride over to the Wyndham Harbour Lights property. My driver was a bit confused. His phone app was directing him to the correct location, but I noticed that he was ignoring the directions. I didn't say anything until he was clearly heading in the wrong direction. He actually thought I was headed to Hard Rock Hotel down at L St. Once I was dropped off, I checked in at the desk and they processed a refund on the $20 deposit. I got some hot water to make some tea while I waited for the sales rep to be ready. Then 2 other couples and I were told to grab some breakfast. Apparently they were shorthanded, so they didn't have a rep assigned to me. We were then taken up to a conference room for the presentation. I've actually attended a presentation given by the same lady over at the Mission Valley location, so everything sounded familiar. Afterwards, I wasn't given an offer to buy more credits, so this was one of the more pressure-free experiences. I was given the 18,000 Wyndham Rewards Points that was promised to me and was allowed to leave. They also ordered me an Uber over to the expo at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. I actually had a pretty cool conversation with my driver. If I remember correctly, she was a developmental psychology student and a photographer. We first talked a little bit about the field of psychology. I had been thinking about going back to school to get an advanced degree. When I told her that I would be going to Paris next month, she said that she would be traveling there as well later in the year to take pictures. I warned her to watch out for gypsies.
Complimentary breakfast
Originally I was planning to walk over here. However with the Uber ride, I arrived early. There was already a line formed outside to get into the expo at the Bayside Pavilion. We were promptly let in at 10 am. I first headed left to pick up my bib. There was a free taco coupon for Rubio's attached to the bottom of the bib. Unfortunately it was only valid at San Diego locations. Then I started walking to the other end of the tent to pick up my race shirt. Along the way, I was stopped by a guy at a booth selling TENS/EMS devices. The guy was pretty aggressive in trying to sell me the product after a somewhat lengthy demonstration. Eventually he gave me a business card after I told him that I would to buy it, but just not now. The name of the company on the card said, BBH Massagers. Looking up that name on Google showed the website for HiDow. I would much rather buy the item online. Besides the race shirt, I was also given one of those sturdy tote bags.
Free taco!
Race shirt
Back side of race shirt
Tote bag
After I was done with the expo, I made the long walk back to my room. The walk wasn't too bad, but it was humid! I was definitely not looking forward to running in the humidity. I stopped in at the McDonald's to pick up lunch before heading up to my room. With the mobile app, I was able to get a cheeseburger, McDouble, and large iced hazelnut coffee all for $1 a piece. They were pretty swamped with orders, so the food took forever to come out. Why are people always ordering what looked to be 20 happy meals? The iced coffee was very refreshing after working up a sweaty storm from the walk.
Cheeseburger, McDouble, and large iced hazelnut coffee
View from my room
After eating my meal, I went through my race packet, and proceeded to relax for a few hours. I was a bit thirsty, so I walked down to the nearby 7-Eleven to buy some water. They seemed to always have the buy two bottles of 1L Arrowhead water for $1.99 deal. That's good enough for me.
BOGO water
I laid out my flat runner, before going back down to McDonald's to pick up dinner. Since I had run out of deals on the app, I ordered 2 Sausage McMuffin with egg sandwiches for $4. It was pretty funny when I overheard one of the employees moan and groan about how it was another order for breakfast sandwiches. Apparently an older gentleman just ahead of me had placed the same order.
Flat runner
2 Sausage McMuffin with egg sandwiches for $4
As I was watching the TV and getting ready for sleep, I noticed that there were fireworks going off outside. It took me a second to figure out that it was because the Padres had won over at the nearby Petco Park. I guess it's a big deal when they actually win a game.
Sunday 8/19
I got ready and walked over to one of the locations for the bus pick-up at the corner of Presidents Way and Park Blvd to meet up with my friend at about 4:45 am. We timed it so that we got on one of the more luxurious tour buses instead of one of those school buses designed for elementary school kids. After getting off of the bus at Cabrillo National Monument and using the portapotties, we started bumping into familiar faces as we waited for the race to start.
The race started at about 6:30 am. This was my 11th time running this race, so I was quite familiar with the course which hasn't changed much in all those years. I was also very familiar with the high humidity which would always get quite stifling in the later miles when the sun comes out. Couple that with the long climb up 6th Ave to the finish line, this is one race where I always bank some time in the first half of the race. Even so I tried to hold back a bit, starting the first 3 miles with roughly 8 min miles. The 4th mile was all downhill so it was my fastest mile. The course would flatten out for the next 7 miles. Unfortunately my left leg still couldn't handle so much fast running. Once again the tightness and discomfort started in the left glute and hamstring. I slowed it down to 9 min miles, but I had to start walking after reaching mile 6. I had to take way too many walk breaks on the out-and-back stretches on Harbor Island. I tried to run as much as I could without getting to the point where the arch in my left foot would hurt. Also I had to keep dumping water on my head to cool off.
Caught me walking along Harbor Dr
It was cool to see my friend as I began the climb up 6th Ave. I could always count on seeing her there to cheer and encourage runners up the final climb. Once I finally got up to the top, it was such a relief to make that right turn on El Prado. It was then a quick dash across the Cabrillo Bridge lined with flags before making a final right turn to head for the finish line. It was great to be greeted by my friend, Rudy, the finish line race announcer!
Running up 6th Ave
Finish line
Finish: 2:05:19
Click here for my Garmin data.
After getting my medal, I continued down the finisher chute where I was handed a cold bottle of water, a brown paper bag of post-race treats, and a chocolate milk. I drank the chocolate milk and most of the water. I bumped into my friend who had finished ahead of me. We chatted a bit about our races before going our separate ways.Relive 'Morning Aug 19th'
Finisher medal
Front
Back
Post race snacks and drinks
Along the way back to my room, I also bumped into another friend who was walking the same way. It's always fun to have a lot of your friends at the same race.
After I got cleaned up, I made the walk down to Lazy Hippo on 3rd Ave near J St for some brunch with my friends. There was quite a wait when I got there so I put our name down for a table. I waited in front of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Gate next door as there was a little bit of shade. I never realized that there was a Chinese Historical Museum here. The timing was perfect as the table was ready just a few minutes before my friends were able to find parking and meet me at the restaurant.
San Diego Chinese Historical Museum
After looking over the menu, I decided on getting their OJ, mango, and grapefruit juice for my drink and their steak and eggs for my meal. The drink was very tasty, however the steak was rather disappointing. The cut was very thin. It wasn't something that was better than the steaks that I've had at a Denny's even though it cost about twice as much here. It was definitely not worth ordering.
OJ, mango, and grapefruit juice
Steak and eggs
Post race brunch at the Lazy Hippo
After we paid our bill and went our separate ways, I walked up to Horton Plaza, to catch a matinee showing of Crazy Rich Asians with my MoviePass. I'm actually not sure how they decide on which movies to let us see, but I was glad that I was able to see this movie without having to wait 3 weeks. I thought that this was a pretty well done movie with a good balance of humor and seriousness. Some of the things that bothered me a bit was that the cast consisted a wide range of Asian actors, so their Chinese was all over the place. That was pretty minor as I still found it quite enjoyable to watch.
Crazy Rich Asians
For dinner I went to, yup, you've guessed it, McDonald's again. It would turn out that because the Padres had won yesterday that today you could get 6 pcs Chicken McNuggets for free with the purchase of $1 or more. So I used the app and ordered a $1 cheeseburger to get those free nuggets.
Padres won last night!
Free 6 pc McNuggets and cheeseburger
Monday 8/20
Per the usual routine with my recent visits to San Diego, I woke up early to get ready to catch the early dark o'clock 4 am Amtrak train up to Irvine for work. So after taking a shower and packing up my stuff, I dropped the keys off at the front desk, and started heading over to the Santa Fe Depot train station.
The train ride was pretty uneventful until the conductor had trouble with a bum getting on board. I'm not sure where or when he had gotten on as I was pretty tired and tried to take a nap. He did not have a ticket and the conductor wanted him off of the train. Once we arrived at the San Juan Capistrano station, the conductor came by and attempted to firmly tell him to get off the train. He even called in another conductor to help him out. They were very well-restrained the entire time as the bum started becoming verbally offensive. He eventually did get off as they threw his belongings off of the train. I got off at the next station. Apparently they weren't sure that he would get off and had called ahead for some cops as I saw them as I was crossing the bridge over to the other side of the tracks. Traveling via public transportation has its own surprises at times!
