Ancient Aliens Half Marathon 2021

Friday 5/14
Per my usual routine for yet another Saturday Calico race out in Las Vegas, I hit the road right after eating lunch. Before hopping on the 60 freeway, I filled up the gas tank at the Chevron gas station. The price for 91 octane gas dropped down to $4.29 a gallon since the last time I fueled up here about 2 weeks ago.

Chevron

The drive took about 4 hours and 45 minutes for me to reach my destination. For this trip, I stayed at the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham in Henderson. While normally I would stay at one of my timeshare properties, I didn't book my accommodations in time to secure a unit. I booked on 5/8 and registered for this race on 5/10. I guess you could call this race a last minute decision. It was pretty dang hot when I got out of my car to go check-in. I was assigned room #228. I was given two packets of hand sanitizer during check-in. The new norm.

View from my room

After getting settled into my room, I hopped back in the car to go pick up dinner. I placed my order on the mobile app and drove over to the closest Chick-fil-A located at the NE corner of N Stephanie St and W Warm Springs Rd. It was somewhat of a big dinner since I was making a push to obtain the Signature status. I ordered a lemon kale Caesar salad, Chick-fil-A Deluxe with pepper Jack cheese, fruit cup, and a frosted lemonade. This was my second time at this location while going through the drive-thru and each time, they've forgotten standard ingredients for the salad. This time, they forgot the lemon parmesan panko.

Chick-fil-A Deluxe with pepper Jack cheese

Lemon kale Caesar salad, missing lemon parmesan panko

After dinner, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race. Wubba lubba dub dub! I then took a shower and called it a night. It's always nice when the shower has good strong water pressure!

Flat runner

Saturday 5/15
I woke up early to catch the Burnley v. Leeds United match while I got ready for the race. Leeds would go on to win 0-4. I left the hotel a few minutes before 6 am and arrived at Sunset Park at about a quarter after 6.

Burnley v. Leeds United

After I parked my car, I walked over to pick up my race packet. I wasn't given a race shirt since I registered late. In lieu of the race shirt, I was allowed to pick an item from the table. I picked up a bottle of Hammer Endurolytes. That's definitely much more useful than yet another race shirt. I got my stuff together and hung out a bit with the usual suspects at these races. We got the group photo before we started getting ready for the race.

Endurolytes in lieu of race shirt

Pre-race from Robert

The left Achilles was feeling quite sore and tight as I jogged over to use the park restrooms. I had to stretch out the calf a bit to see if I could get everything to loosen up a bit. I'll have to keep that in check before it gets any worse!

Aliens at the start

Start line

The race started promptly at 7 am. The temperature was already in the low 70's, so I knew that it was going to be a warm day. I might have gone out a bit too fast as I had to take a walk break shortly after the half marathon runners broke off from those running the shorter distances. This was before reaching mile 2! I ran through mile 3 and from there I knew that I had to change my plans of running continuously as I was overheating. The rest of my "race" involved me taking numerous walk breaks to make sure that I didn't overheat. My good friend, Casey, stuck around to see us come through the 2nd loop before going home. She was smart to run the 5k! In addition to all of the walk breaks, I had to keep dumping water on the back of my neck.

Finish: 2:26:24
Click here for my Garmin data.

After finally crossing that finish line, I got my finisher medal. Since this was a "recycled" style race, I got one of the leftover medals from the ET full moon midnight race. I'm not 100% certain, but I think I already have this medal. I then picked up some post-race fruit and snacks from the table and then waited for some of my friends to finish their race.

That was not a good race for me, but I chalked it up as another run to get myself acclimated to warmer weather. I'm naturally a very poor runner in warmer conditions, so I need the practice if I am to be ready for the Running with the Devil race half marathon taking place in mid-June!

Finisher medal

Post race snacks

Michael at the finish line

After exchanging race stories and sharing which races we had coming up, we went our separate ways. Back at my hotel room, I got cleaned up and watched the Brighton v. West Ham match that started at noon. Brighton almost snuck out with a win, but it ended in a 1-1 draw with a late goal from each team. With Brighton's usually solid defense, I did not anticipate West Ham answering with such a quick equalizer!

As it got closer to 2 pm, I decided to head back out to pick up a late lunch at Chick-fil-A. Per the usual, I placed my order on their mobile app and got in their drive-thru lane. For this visit, I ordered a Chick-fil-A Deluxe with American cheese, fruit cup, frosted lemonade, and redeemed a reward for a free spicy Chick-fil-A sandwich. I was really craving that frosted lemonade during the race! I enjoyed my food back at my room while watching a little of the Angels vs. Red Sox game. Turns out it was Alex Verdugo's birthday. He's one of my favorite former Dodgers.

Later that evening, I found myself watching Miss Congeniality. I'm a fan of Sandra Bullock, but this movie is pretty horrible except for a few funny moments.

"Describe your perfect date."

For dinner, I drove back yet again to the same Chick-fil-A. I ordered the lemon kale Caesar salad with grilled nuggets and medium waffle fries. However, this time, I skipped the drive-thru and elected to get my food while waiting curbside. Finally, the salad was brought out to my car with all of the regular ingredients.

Sunday 5/16
I got up pretty early to watch the Crystal Palace v. Aston villa match that started at 4 am. That was a pretty entertaining match to watch with the score going back and forth between the 2 clubs. Palace pulls out the win with a lucky late goal by Tyrick Mitchell.

Crystal Palace v. Aston Villa

I then caught the first half of the Spurs v. Wolves match before hitting the road for my drive back home. Kane was able to score a goal just right before the end of the first half. The Spurs would go on to win 2-0. After losing to Leeds last weekend, it was nice to see the Spurs bounce back for a win against a well-managed Wolves team.

Spurs v. Wolves

Ryan Mason, interim manager

After checking out of my room, I drove over to the nearby Chevron gas station to fill up the tank for the drive home. Gas is once again expensive as even in Nevada, the price of premium 91 octane gas is above $4 a gallon. The drive home went fairly smooth and took about 3.5 hours.

After unpacking the car and unwinding a bit, I placed an order for lunch for the family at the nearby Chipotle. I scheduled for pick-up at 11:30 am. Normally, I would get there 5-10 minutes before, but today I showed up right at 11:30 am. Unfortunately, my food was not there. I asked one of the employees and she asked if someone else had come picked it up. Nope, I was the only person picking up. Seems like some dishonest person took my order. She quickly remade the food while I waited. Man, people suck. Nobody ever taught this person to not take what doesn't belong to you?

Chicken salad and chips & guacamole