Orange Curtain Marathon 2023

Friday 6/30
The email that was sent out on 6/26 to runners mentioned that they had an early pickup option over at A Snail's Pace Running Shop at Brea. It would be between 2 pm and 6 pm. Since I was working from home and lived nearby, I decided to do that. I also had a coupon good for 1 free Bundtlet cake from running the Brea 8k earlier this year in February that I needed to redeem. I left at about 3 pm and it was pretty hot outside. I would not be looking forward to running marathon in such warm conditions tomorrow! When I arrived, the packet pickup was just a small little foldup table near the cashier counter. The volunteer only gave me my bib. I would need to get the rest of my packet tomorrow at the race. Before heading out, I checked to see if they had any waist belts. My trusty Amphipod belt was starting to fall apart. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a suitable replacement. I then headed over to the Nothing Bundt Cakes store that was in the same little shopping center. It was a fairly small bakery. In addition to cashing in my coupon, I also got another one just to support the business. They were $5 a piece. The flavors that I got were key lime and classic vanilla.

Nothing Bundt Cake

Saturday 7/1
That email also instructed runners not to park in the parking lots at Liberty Park. They wanted us to park on Studebaker Rd. It was a small race with the marathon scheduled for a 7 am start. I got ready and arrived at about 6 am. I found street parking near the garden that was right next to the Fitness Center. I walked over to the restrooms, but they were locked up. I then hopped on the San Gabriel River Mid Trail and headed north towards the start/finish tents. As I got in line to pick up the rest of my race packet, I noticed that other people had a timing chip on their bib. Mine did not have one. Although the volunteers did give me my bag and a race shirt, they kept shooing me away when I inquired about the timing chip. They told me to check back after they're done starting the 50k that was to start at 6:30 am. Apparently, that meant after they were done recording those that did not start the race. Eventually, they got my timing chip and affixed it to the back of my bib. I then headed back to my car to drop off stuff that I didn't need before heading right back to the start line for the marathon start.

Race venue/Parking

Liberty Park

Pic from Maricris who was in the 24 hr event, finished with 50k

Race start/finish

Race packet

Race shirt

Pic from Oliver who ran the 50k

For the marathon, we started at 7 am with a first lap of 1.4 miles. Then we ran 4 standard laps that were 10k each. Man, there were a lot of gnats! Then later in the race, they were gone. Either we ate them all or they got tired of the heat! The gnats were just a minor inconvenience compared to the endless parade of cyclists and other vehicles that flew past you on this rather narrow bike path. Most of the race participants would hop on the dirt path next to the bike path whenever available just to get out of the way of those cyclists.

Grant finishing the 100k. I was only able to pass him because he walked the inclines!

The Jester in the 24 hr event

Before I headed out for my third 10k lap, I chatted with my friend Scott and got a selfie as I waited for the volunteers to finish mixing the tub of Tailwind electrolyte drink. Once they were done, I refilled my handheld bottle and headed back out. I had skipped the aid station near the 5k turnaround, but not this time. I grabbed a mini Butterfinger bar on the way back. It was bit messy as it had melted, but boy was it good!

Pic from Scott at about mile 13.8

Finishing 3rd 10k lap

Before I started my fourth and final 10k, my friend Cindy who was volunteering, gave me a Pickle Ice freeze pop. I love pickles, so it was really tasty and really refreshing as the day had gotten quite warm. I'm sure it helped with staving off those pesky leg cramps that I've very prone to get during the second half of the marathon. Once again, I picked up another mini Butterfinger bar after reaching the 5k turnaround.

Heading out for last 10k

Laura ran the 24 hr event, heading out for 1 last lap

Pic from Mark Ryne, Emmett R. reading The Confession by John Grisham while running in the 12 hr event. I guess this was what he does during an ultra! First time seeing this!

Finish: 5:24:35
Click here for my Garmin data.

Not sure that the timing chip even worked at it recorded 8 extra seconds to my finishing time. I recorded 5:24:27 on my Garmin watch. They also wanted us to call out our bib numbers when we finished a lap. In any case, I knew it wasn't going to be a good race for me due the warm weather. Even though I had hoped to get closer to breaking 5 hours, I finished right where I had expected.

I received my finisher medal and got another one of those delicious Pickle Ice freeze pops! While it was good to see my old running friends out there, I was pretty sure that this would be a one and done for me with this event. The main reason that I ran it was because I needed a marathon in July and didn't want to pay close to $300 to run the SF Marathon. The other reason being that I'm just not a fan of multi-lap courses.

Finisher medal and Pickle Ice Freeze Pop

Finisher medal

Cindy

Pic from Eddie

After talking to some of my friends after the race, I started heading out. I drove over to the nearby Chick-fil-A that was located in the parking lot of Los Cerritos Center shopping mall. I needed my post race frosted lemonade! My mind was pretty wiped out by that heat as I was waiting at a red light for a left turn. The car behind me had to honk for me to go as it had turned green and I was just sitting there. The parking lot was pretty crowded but I lucked out and got a nearby parking spot just as someone was pulling out. Once I got inside and found a table, I started placing my order on the mobile app. I cashed in a reward for a free Chick-fil-A sandwich. The reward was from the Angels scoring 7 runs while losing to the White Sox at home on Thursday. I got a cup of mac & cheese and a frosted white peach lemonade to go with it. Once my food was ready, the employee called out for Emily. I told him that there wasn't a Y in the name. I also told him that he wasn't the first one to get it wrong, it's about 50/50 where people would get it wrong. :)

Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A sandwich, mac & cheese, frosted white peach lemonade

Arroyo Creek Half Marathon 2023

Sunday 6/25
This was another one of those last minute decisions to run a race. I signed up for it on Thursday, just a few days before the race. Originally, I had thought about getting a hotel room. However, the prices were a bit high, so I decided to just drive out to Simi Valley on race morning. Thank goodness for race day packet pickup! I left the house just shortly after 4 am. The drive took just a little over an hour. I arrived at the Rancho Simi Community Park parking lot near the corner of Thompson Ln and Royal Ave at about a quarter after 5. As I found a suitable parking spot to my liking, I saw that they were just starting to set up the start/finish area. For some reason, I thought that packet pickup started at 5:30 am. The lady that appeared to be in charge told me to come back at 7 am. After I told her that the half marathon started at 7 am, she told me that packet pickup is always an hour before the start of the race and to come back at 6 am.

Even though the weather would be much warmer later, there was a bit of a chill in the air. After I picked up my race packet, I went back to my car to relax a bit. Per my normal race routine, at about 45 minutes before the start of the race, I went back out to use the restroom by the baseball fields. It was a small race, so there wasn't any rush or a line for the urinal. On the way back to my car, I bumped into one of my friends. After I got my stuff in order, I grabbed my handheld bottle and walked over to my friend's car. We hit the restroom one last time before queuing up in the starting corral.

Tote bag

Race shirt

Back of race shirt

Pic from Dan at the start line

Per the usual, I started off the race with a quicker first mile. I stuck to my plan of taking a walk break after reaching each mile. At around mile 3.4, I came up to the street crossing at Tapo Canyon Rd. I noticed that there were chalk markings on the sidewalk indicating a left turn heading north, but the cops there were directing the runners to cross directly ahead. There wasn't a course marshal stationed there, so I just followed the runners ahead of me. About a mile later, I came up to a tall flag that marked the turnaround point. When I returned to that same street crossing, I noticed that there were chalk markings on that side as well indicating a right turn heading north. Oh well, I guess the course will undoubtedly be short. Shortly after reaching mile 8 and Erringer Rd, we were directed to run straight ahead for an out and back out to Madera Rd for a total of about 5 miles. It got a bit toasty during this section which seemed to have brought out the gnats. I inhaled a few of them. On the way back to the finish line, I was passed by a 16 and a 21 year old. My pace had slowed a bit due to the slight incline, so there was no way for me to stay ahead of those 2 youngsters!

From Dan finish line

Finish: 2:08:25
Click here for my Garmin data.

After crossing the finish line, I received my medal. However, it would appear that they had run out of bottles of water. They did have water dispensers. As it was only a half marathon, I opted to just drink what's left in my handheld bottle. Not sure that I'd ever run a race where they had run out of water at the finish line. For a small race with less than 100 finishers, this really shouldn't be an issue. As I had suspected earlier in the race, the course that we ran was about .1 mile short. My Garmin showed 13.02 miles.

Finisher medal

My friends and I then made our way over the taco truck to get our post race food. I went with 2 chicken al pastor tacos. My friend went with 1 chicken and 1 carne asada. When then found an open table under the popup tent to eat our tacos. The same lady that gave me my race packet went around taking photos of runners for their Instagram page.

Taco truck

Post race tacos

Dan

A major reason as to why I ended up running this race was to visit the nearby Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. I purchased my ticket shortly after registering for this race. They currently have a special exhibit called, Auschwitz Not long ago. Not far away. It was $29.95 for general admission to the Library plus $3 for the audio unit used for the self guided tour of that special exhibit. I had selected 11:15 am - 11:30 am as my window to start that exhibit. I wanted to give myself enough time to get cleaned up and recovered a bit from my race before I started my tour. I had brought a towel with me and used it to clean the salt and gnats off of my face in the park restroom before saying goodbye to my friends and started heading out.

The drive out to the Library took about 15 minutes. When I arrived at about 10:15 am, the parking lot was already starting to get full. There was a train car near the entrance that was used to transport people to the Auschwitz concentration camp. After checking that out and getting my picture taken, I headed inside. I still had about an hour before my window, so shortly after checking in at the counter and getting my sticker, I started my tour of the Library. There was a lot to see! One interesting fact about the Oval Office replica was that Reagan wanted the dome ceiling to be to scale. They ran out of roof space so they had to lower the floor instead. As soon as I went through Air Force One and Marine One, I went to the counter to check out my photos. In addition to my pictures in front of Air Force One and Marine One, they superimposed the picture that I had taken at the entrance onto several backgrounds. They came out well enough that I bought them all for a total of $76.

Train car

Entrance photo with Reagan

Reagan statue

Star of Library tour

Air Force One

Entering Air Force One

Air Force One flight deck

The Football

Exiting Air Force One

Marine One

Entering Marine One

Marine One cockpit

Then I had to hurry on back to the entrance to start my tour of the Auschwitz exhibit. One of the volunteer guides told me to go through the 2nd half of the Library and exit through the gift shop to get back to the entrance. Even though I was late for my window, it was fine as they were kind of backed up. After getting my audio device I entered the special exhibit to start my tour. There was quite the bottleneck at the beginning. They were controlling the flow of people. Even so, it was pretty crowded in there. Just let me tell you that some of it was very hard to get through unless you're a robot without a heart. They have tissues if you need them. One thing I learned was that Oświęcim was the Polish name of the town. I had only known it by Auschwitz, the German name.

Auschwitz Exhibit

At the conclusion of the exhibit, I dropped off the audio device and then resumed my tour of the second half of the Library. It would seem that history repeats itself. When Reagan took office, he inherited a country in a recession with high interest rates and out of control inflation. Sound familiar? He helped the country recover by cutting taxes and implementing spending cuts.

Rebuilding America

14 feet structural beam recovered from the North Tower

Eagle statue

View from the Library

Berlin wall

The drive home took about 20 minutes longer versus this morning and it was hot! I had forgotten to precool my car before getting inside of it. I'm still not used to having that feature and will forget to do so about 90% of the time. Instead of taking the 5 freeway as I had done this morning, the navigation had me take the 210 freeway instead. I haven't driven much on the 210 freeway since leaving my old church in Arcadia, but I came across the same usual congestion that I would come across on Sundays. Back in those days, I would always take it all the way to the 57, but today I opted for the 605 to the 60.