Originally, I had booked my Amtrak trip down to San Diego to be at about 11 am, but in the weeks leading up to the trip, I kept getting phone calls from Amtrak warning me about the increase in ridership during that weekend for the Del Mar horse races. Eventually, I logged onto the Amtrak website and changed to the earlier train leaving at just before 8 am. In preparation for this trip and upcoming trips, I recently received my first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on 7/11.
There has been a recent shortage in microchip production which lead to a shortage in new cars being built. That meant used cars all of a sudden was a valued commodity! Thankfully, the body shop was able to secure a loaner car for me to use while my car was in the shop. I hopped in that loaner car and arrived at the Irvine Transportation Center a quarter before 8 am. I used the restroom before going to the platform to wait for the train. It was a short 10 minutes before the train showed up. Per federal mandate, face coverings were required by all passengers unless actively eating. The train conductor announced that pretty much at each station after picking up a new batch of passengers. For the most part, the ride was uneventful, but there were some "party" people that pre-drank. The loudest one kept reminding everyone on the car that it was her birthday. Some were really well dressed for the horse races. Once the train arrived at Solana Beach, the rest of the ride was much quieter.
The train rolled into the Santa Fe Depot in Downtown San Diego at about 15 minutes before 10 am. The trip took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. From there, I walked over to the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter for the race packet pick-up. The layout of the expo/packet pick-up was somewhat awkward.
After picking up my bib, I had to locate my t-shirt pick-up location. Your location will depend on how many consecutive years you've run this race. After I got my shirt, I headed over to the MLK Park to check out the vendor booths. To get there, you had to head through the hotel, go down the stairs, and head through the lobby to get outside.
What's up with these rabbits? Click here for a little history of San Diego and the Gaslamp Quarter. These rabbits are to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the settling of San Diego by Alonzo Horton. It would appear that San Diego used to be a wilderness full of rabbits, so the Gaslamp Quarter was known as Rabbitville.
My local friends were on their way to the expo, so I sat and waited in the area with the rabbits. I ended up helping a bunch of people find their way to the expo at the MLK Park. My friends were 10 year anniversary runners and had to pick up their special item in the VIP room. As we were leaving and about to go our separate ways, I picked up a sample bottle of Koia tropical passion smoothie. I ended up chugging the whole thing since I was pretty thirsty. When I told my friends that I was going to head down to National City via the MTS Trolley to get lunch at Chick-fil-A, they offered to give me a lift. I politely declined as I always hate to be an imposition.
Getting to the 12th and Imperial Station was already bad enough. I ended up walking right through a group of people most likely doing drugs. They were crowding the sidewalk and the railing prevented me from stepping into the street, so there was no way around them. After walking right through that group, I forgot to check and ending up hopping on the Orange line heading out to El Cajon. I got off at the first stop at 25th St. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a not very good area. That was a very long 15 minutes waiting for the next train to take me back to the 12th and Imperial Station to catch the UC San Diego Blue line. In hindsight, I probably should've taken up my friends' offer to drive me there! When I finally got on the Blue line, I took it down to the 24th St Station.
From that station, it was a short walk over to the Chick-fil-A. However, there were a ton of vehicular traffic at this intersection, so I had to keep a close eye on my surroundings when crossing the road! This was one of those walk-up only restaurants. They only had outside seating. Most of the action was with the super busy drive-thru line. Per the usual, I placed my order on their mobile app and waited for my order to be completed. For this visit, I ordered a cobb salad with grilled nuggets and a large Sunjoy with unsweetened tea. Once my food was ready, I found an open table and ate my food.
After I finished my lunch, I walked over to the 24th St Blue line Station to catch the train back into Downtown. I got off at the City College Station which was only a couple of blocks from where I was staying for the weekend. I checked-in, but unfortunately, my room was not ready yet when I arrived at the WorldMark San Diego - Balboa Park property. The concierge once again pressured me to attend another owner update. She wanted me to attend one while I waited for my room to be ready. I'm really getting tired of having to say no multiple times. This was after I had already told her that I already had plans to meet up with my friends.
Loaner car
Amtrak
The train rolled into the Santa Fe Depot in Downtown San Diego at about 15 minutes before 10 am. The trip took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. From there, I walked over to the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter for the race packet pick-up. The layout of the expo/packet pick-up was somewhat awkward.
Expo map
Packet pick-up
Bib
After picking up my bib, I had to locate my t-shirt pick-up location. Your location will depend on how many consecutive years you've run this race. After I got my shirt, I headed over to the MLK Park to check out the vendor booths. To get there, you had to head through the hotel, go down the stairs, and head through the lobby to get outside.
T-shirt
Race shirt
What's up with these rabbits? Click here for a little history of San Diego and the Gaslamp Quarter. These rabbits are to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the settling of San Diego by Alonzo Horton. It would appear that San Diego used to be a wilderness full of rabbits, so the Gaslamp Quarter was known as Rabbitville.
Expo in MLK Park
Vendor booths
My local friends were on their way to the expo, so I sat and waited in the area with the rabbits. I ended up helping a bunch of people find their way to the expo at the MLK Park. My friends were 10 year anniversary runners and had to pick up their special item in the VIP room. As we were leaving and about to go our separate ways, I picked up a sample bottle of Koia tropical passion smoothie. I ended up chugging the whole thing since I was pretty thirsty. When I told my friends that I was going to head down to National City via the MTS Trolley to get lunch at Chick-fil-A, they offered to give me a lift. I politely declined as I always hate to be an imposition.
Koia tropical passion smoothie
Getting to the 12th and Imperial Station was already bad enough. I ended up walking right through a group of people most likely doing drugs. They were crowding the sidewalk and the railing prevented me from stepping into the street, so there was no way around them. After walking right through that group, I forgot to check and ending up hopping on the Orange line heading out to El Cajon. I got off at the first stop at 25th St. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a not very good area. That was a very long 15 minutes waiting for the next train to take me back to the 12th and Imperial Station to catch the UC San Diego Blue line. In hindsight, I probably should've taken up my friends' offer to drive me there! When I finally got on the Blue line, I took it down to the 24th St Station.
24th St UC San Diego Blue Line Station
From that station, it was a short walk over to the Chick-fil-A. However, there were a ton of vehicular traffic at this intersection, so I had to keep a close eye on my surroundings when crossing the road! This was one of those walk-up only restaurants. They only had outside seating. Most of the action was with the super busy drive-thru line. Per the usual, I placed my order on their mobile app and waited for my order to be completed. For this visit, I ordered a cobb salad with grilled nuggets and a large Sunjoy with unsweetened tea. Once my food was ready, I found an open table and ate my food.
Chick-fil-A in National City
Cobb salad with grilled nuggets, Sunjoy
After I finished my lunch, I walked over to the 24th St Blue line Station to catch the train back into Downtown. I got off at the City College Station which was only a couple of blocks from where I was staying for the weekend. I checked-in, but unfortunately, my room was not ready yet when I arrived at the WorldMark San Diego - Balboa Park property. The concierge once again pressured me to attend another owner update. She wanted me to attend one while I waited for my room to be ready. I'm really getting tired of having to say no multiple times. This was after I had already told her that I already had plans to meet up with my friends.
I waited in the lobby for about an hour until it was almost time to meet up with my friends for an early dinner. I decided to hail a ride on the Circuit app for a FRED (Free Ride Everywhere Downtown) ride over to my friends' hotel. About a minute into the ride, I get a text that my room was ready. Was it a coincidence or were they jerking me around? If the ride was direct to my destination, it would've taken about 5 minutes, 10 minutes tops. Instead, I took a tour of Downtown San Diego with the driver dropping off and picking up people all along the way. I was driven all the way over to the Waterfront Park. The trip ended up taking about 30 minutes. When I finally got there, my friend came down to the lobby to get me and allowed me to store my bags in their room.
At about 4 pm, we went down to meet up with our local San Diegan friends to eat dinner across the street at The Old Spaghetti Factory. There was a ton of people wanting to get a table as well. It wasn't until about 30 minutes later when were seated. After looking over the menu, I went with their vanilla Italian cream soda when the waiter came for our drink order. Then for my meal, I went with their Sicilian meatball spaghetti. It came with a salad. I got it with blue cheese dressing. The meal ended with some spumoni for dessert. The food was pretty average, so it seemed a pit pricey. It turned out that my drink came with a souvenir glass.
After we settled our bill, we hit the restaurant restroom before heading outside for one last group photo. We then went our separate ways. I went up to my friends' room to get my bags. I thought about walking back, but ended up hailing another FRED ride. This time it wasn't as bad, but the driver did take me over to the Seaport Village to pick up another passenger. The ride took about 20 minutes this time.
Once I was dropped off, I stopped by the front desk to get my room key. For this stay, I was assigned room #309. I've never stayed at this corner of the property before. I'm usually on the side facing the McDonald's across the street.
Once I got settled into my room, I took a shower and laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race. I watched some TV before calling it a night.
Sunday 7/18
I got ready and left my room at about a quarter after 6 am. I briskly walked down Park Blvd over to the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge while dodging homeless people along the way. You hear on the news about how many millions of dollars that the government is throwing at the problem, but it doesn't seem to be getting any better!
Following the race instructions and everyone else, I crossed the bridge over to the other side. I used one of the portapotties near the end of the corrals and waited for my friends to show up. It would turn out that most of them had entered the corrals from the other end, so they texted me to move up to corral 2. Once the usual suspects were all gathered together, we took an obligatory pre-race photo.
The race started at about 7:30 am. Not sure what happened, but after the first 2 miles, I just felt like the effort was too much. Later on when I went over my Garmin data, it would confirm that my heart rate kept spiking more than usual. It's probably due to the higher temps and higher humidity. I really do suck at running during the summer months! It was good to see my friends on the out-and-back section on Harbor Island Dr. I was taking a ton of walk breaks and pouring water on my neck just to keep my body moving. On that short steep climb on Noell St right before the course has us on that long climb up Washington St, I ended up talking to a guy named, Paul from the Pittsburgh area. I told him that that was just the preview of the long climb ahead of us. We pretty much jog-walked up that Washington St climb. From our conversation, it looks like a lot of us are still working ourselves back into shape after coming back into racing from the pandemic. It was good to see my friend, Steph, both at the top of Washington St and again during the downhill section on 6th Ave. It was somewhat demoralizing that I couldn't even sustain running down that hill. I still had to take walk breaks.
Finish: 2:26:32
Click here for my Garmin data.
That race took about 20 minutes longer than I had anticipated. With some of my recent races, I should've finished somewhere between 2:05 and 2:10. Oh well, some races, the wheels come off just a little near the end and then there are others where they're complete disasters. Regardless of my finishing time, the finisher medal is still the same. After getting my medal, I was given a bag full of post-race snacks and water.
In the finish area, I bumped into a bunch of my friends including one from Chicago! That was a pleasant surprise! Coincidentally, I bumped into Dan R., Dan A., and Dan D. all around the same area. After taking some post-race photos, I decided to head out as it was pretty crowded and I wasn't yet fully vaccinated.
During my walk back to my timeshare property, I walked along the course and was able to spot a couple of my friends.
I got back to my room at about 10:30 am. I got cleaned up and waited until about noon to meet up with my friends at The Local Eatery & Drinking Hole over on 4th Ave. Since I had a terrible race, I ordered their Fiesta salad. It was not bad except it had way too much cilantro! I have a strong dislike for cilantro! A fitting "punishment" for such a terrible run from me! :)
I came back to my room to find that the kitchen sink had pushed up some dirty water! I've only used the sink to wash my water bottle. Thankfully, that water went down when I turned on the garbage disposal. Every now and then, the dirty water would gurgle back up. That doesn't make an owner like me feel very good especially with the maintenance dues that we pay each year!
At about 5:30 pm, I went across the street to McDonald's to pick up dinner. I placed my order using the mobile app and used the "buy 1, get 1 free" deal to get two Quarter Pounder with cheese. If you can't tell already, they're my favorite burgers at McDonald's.
Monday 7/19
It was nice not having to wake up super early to catch the earliest train straight into work. As I was packing and getting ready to check out I saw on the news that there was a shooting in the Gaslamp quarter and East Village. Why does it feel as if the world is only getting worse? I don't ever remember San Diego being this violent of a city!
I checked out of my unit at about 7:30 am and started my walk over to the Santa Fe Depot train station. I took my time walking over as it wasn't in the middle of the night at around 3 am. For once, I actually had daylight during this walk over to the train station. The walk was about 1 mile and took about 19 minutes to cover. I got there at about a quarter to 8 am and found a spot to sit and wait for the train departure time. It was scheduled to depart at 8:25 am. The train ride took just under 2 hrs to get into the Irvine Transportation Center. From there it was still about another 30 minutes drive to get home. It felt great to take a day off from work for a change. Work can wait. It will certainly be there waiting for me, tomorrow.
The Old Spaghetti Factory menu
Vanilla Italian cream soda with souvenir glass
Group photo
Salad with blue cheese
Sicilian meatball spaghetti
Spumoni
After we settled our bill, we hit the restaurant restroom before heading outside for one last group photo. We then went our separate ways. I went up to my friends' room to get my bags. I thought about walking back, but ended up hailing another FRED ride. This time it wasn't as bad, but the driver did take me over to the Seaport Village to pick up another passenger. The ride took about 20 minutes this time.
Post dinner photo
Once I was dropped off, I stopped by the front desk to get my room key. For this stay, I was assigned room #309. I've never stayed at this corner of the property before. I'm usually on the side facing the McDonald's across the street.
View from my room
Once I got settled into my room, I took a shower and laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race. I watched some TV before calling it a night.
Flat runner
Sunday 7/18
I got ready and left my room at about a quarter after 6 am. I briskly walked down Park Blvd over to the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge while dodging homeless people along the way. You hear on the news about how many millions of dollars that the government is throwing at the problem, but it doesn't seem to be getting any better!
Following the race instructions and everyone else, I crossed the bridge over to the other side. I used one of the portapotties near the end of the corrals and waited for my friends to show up. It would turn out that most of them had entered the corrals from the other end, so they texted me to move up to corral 2. Once the usual suspects were all gathered together, we took an obligatory pre-race photo.
Crossing the Harbor Dr pedestrian bridge
View from the bridge
In the corral
Pre-race photo with the usual suspects
The race started at about 7:30 am. Not sure what happened, but after the first 2 miles, I just felt like the effort was too much. Later on when I went over my Garmin data, it would confirm that my heart rate kept spiking more than usual. It's probably due to the higher temps and higher humidity. I really do suck at running during the summer months! It was good to see my friends on the out-and-back section on Harbor Island Dr. I was taking a ton of walk breaks and pouring water on my neck just to keep my body moving. On that short steep climb on Noell St right before the course has us on that long climb up Washington St, I ended up talking to a guy named, Paul from the Pittsburgh area. I told him that that was just the preview of the long climb ahead of us. We pretty much jog-walked up that Washington St climb. From our conversation, it looks like a lot of us are still working ourselves back into shape after coming back into racing from the pandemic. It was good to see my friend, Steph, both at the top of Washington St and again during the downhill section on 6th Ave. It was somewhat demoralizing that I couldn't even sustain running down that hill. I still had to take walk breaks.
Harbor Island Dr
Ran into Steph at the top of Washington St
Saw Steph again running down 6th Ave
Finish line
Finish: 2:26:32
Click here for my Garmin data.
That race took about 20 minutes longer than I had anticipated. With some of my recent races, I should've finished somewhere between 2:05 and 2:10. Oh well, some races, the wheels come off just a little near the end and then there are others where they're complete disasters. Regardless of my finishing time, the finisher medal is still the same. After getting my medal, I was given a bag full of post-race snacks and water.
Finisher medal
Post-race goodies
In the finish area, I bumped into a bunch of my friends including one from Chicago! That was a pleasant surprise! Coincidentally, I bumped into Dan R., Dan A., and Dan D. all around the same area. After taking some post-race photos, I decided to head out as it was pretty crowded and I wasn't yet fully vaccinated.
Dan R.
Dan D.
During my walk back to my timeshare property, I walked along the course and was able to spot a couple of my friends.
Marcia
Eviltwin
I got back to my room at about 10:30 am. I got cleaned up and waited until about noon to meet up with my friends at The Local Eatery & Drinking Hole over on 4th Ave. Since I had a terrible race, I ordered their Fiesta salad. It was not bad except it had way too much cilantro! I have a strong dislike for cilantro! A fitting "punishment" for such a terrible run from me! :)
Fiesta salad
I came back to my room to find that the kitchen sink had pushed up some dirty water! I've only used the sink to wash my water bottle. Thankfully, that water went down when I turned on the garbage disposal. Every now and then, the dirty water would gurgle back up. That doesn't make an owner like me feel very good especially with the maintenance dues that we pay each year!
Backed up kitchen sink... yuck!
At about 5:30 pm, I went across the street to McDonald's to pick up dinner. I placed my order using the mobile app and used the "buy 1, get 1 free" deal to get two Quarter Pounder with cheese. If you can't tell already, they're my favorite burgers at McDonald's.
Quarter Pounder with cheese x2
Monday 7/19
It was nice not having to wake up super early to catch the earliest train straight into work. As I was packing and getting ready to check out I saw on the news that there was a shooting in the Gaslamp quarter and East Village. Why does it feel as if the world is only getting worse? I don't ever remember San Diego being this violent of a city!
Deadly shooting
I checked out of my unit at about 7:30 am and started my walk over to the Santa Fe Depot train station. I took my time walking over as it wasn't in the middle of the night at around 3 am. For once, I actually had daylight during this walk over to the train station. The walk was about 1 mile and took about 19 minutes to cover. I got there at about a quarter to 8 am and found a spot to sit and wait for the train departure time. It was scheduled to depart at 8:25 am. The train ride took just under 2 hrs to get into the Irvine Transportation Center. From there it was still about another 30 minutes drive to get home. It felt great to take a day off from work for a change. Work can wait. It will certainly be there waiting for me, tomorrow.
Taking the Amtrak home
