2017 Gobbler Grind (Kansas) Marathon Race Report and Video

This report is a little overdue, but it's not as late as our final Alaska post. After the report you will find more about our weekend in the Kansas City area in Dave's comments and the race video.

Gobbler Grind was not my originally planned Kansas marathon, but the timing never seems to work out for the Garmin race in April. Gobbler Grind's Mid-November date worked well, except for the fact it was our anniversary weekend. Happy Anniversary Dave! We got into Kansas City late on Friday night and went to bed. Saturday was spent touring some KC spots, going to some breweries, and making our first visit to a Comic Con. That was quite the experience. We celebrated our anniversary at a nice Italian restaurant (Garozzo's) close to the hotel.

Sunday morning was race day and our hotel was very close to the start so we could sleep in a bit. It was a cold and dreary morning and I was bundled up. The course was mainly on a bike path/ trail with the beginning miles through the town of Overland park. I was running by myself for the first time in awhile and I was hoping to get under 5:30.

This was my ninth marathon of the year and my legs were feeling it. They were really feeling it by mile 7 but I think that was a function of some hills in the beginning part. We got to the trail part and broke away from the half marathoners and I started feeling better. It was not the most exciting course because it was all in the woods mainly. Dave did a great job of tracking me and seeing me along this trail, which felt like the middle of nowhere. I was watching my pace and knew I would be close to my 5:30 goal. I kept pushing the whole way and never gave up, but unfortunately I came in at 5:31. Just short, but I was happy to get close and that I felt great the whole way. I just couldn’t hold the pace.

This race was extremely well organized AND cheap! Registration was $70.00 and that included a $10.00 donation to charity. For that I got a hooded sweatshirt, a pint glass, a blanket AND a medal. The aid stations were all well stocked with water, Gatorade and tons of snacks including, gels, Powerbars, candy, pretzels, etc. I would highly recommend this race to anyone looking for a smaller race to knock off Kansas.

After the race we hustled back to shower before late checkout ran out and get to the airport (this is the last time I am flying out the day of the race!) Dave found a BBQ place (Gate's BBQ on State) on the way to the airport and we ate way too much, but it was good! Then we went to the worst airport for amenities ever, but made it home with no issues.

Dave's Comments

I never thought I'd spend a wedding anniversary at a Comic Con, let-alone a minor one. Kansas City's event lacked all the star-power of San Diego's event as well as most of its coolness factor. Stars we could have met included Burt Ward (TV's Robin), Margot Kidder (Superman movies), child voice actresses from Frozen, and Carrie Fisher's dog Gary. The main reason we went was to go to a panel with the hosts of the Wedway Radio Podcast. We enjoyed the panel but were mad when we figured out we could have attended that portion without paying for the main event. Oh well.....

The earlier part of the day was very enjoyable. After escaping the race packet pickup in a running store we made our way into Kansas City (the Missouri portion) and found the Laugh-O-Gram Studios building in an old section of town. This was Walt Disney's first business, established in 1921. We took our pictures very quickly so we could get back to more populated areas of town. Our next stop was Boulevard Brewing. We enjoyed some flights in their beautiful tap room. We opted out of the tour because it was going to cut into Comic Con time (regrets). We ate lunch at a smaller neighborhood brewery on the city's north-side (Calibration Brewing).

Race Chasing was interesting. I was able to see Holly three times the first three miles (and get Starbucks) before getting in the car and figuring out the course. On occasion I had to pull into subdivisions and find an artery trail to the main trail. The wet leaves on the hills made for tricky navigation. I lucked into an iconic donut shop. I also helped a guy look for his lost dog (no luck).

My other big miss was picking the BBQ place for lunch. I was focused on spots enroute to the airport. Once we arrived home we found out the hotel was only a mile away from one of the area's best places. Dang it!

Looking to kill time before your flight out of MCI? Do it before security. The airport terminal had some funky circular design that prevented them from having normal amenities like restaurants and ample seating near gates.

2017 Baltimore Marathon Race Report and Video

Holly's Race Report from Baltimore with Dave's comments and video at the end:

There aren’t a lot of choices for a Maryland race, so Baltimore it was. Everyone said it was a hilly course. They didn’t lie. I was running this one with Stan, Brad and Jessica. Jessica was also running the Marine Corps Marathon the next day. She is a ROCKSTAR! Our hotel was right by the start so we all met there and had a short walk to the start at Camden Yards. It was not a chilly morning and temperatures were expected to get up in the 70’s by the afternoon. We had a nice national anthem with a huge American flag flying over the start.

The start was up a huge hill that went on forever. This was a sign of things to come. It was pretty much uphill all the way until Mile 4 when we entered the Baltimore zoo. Here is where we had the best photo stop ever. A cute penguin named Peach was just sitting there and posing with all of us runners. It was the highlight of the race. We ran through some cool spots, like the zoo and John Hopkins University. We also ran through some boring neighborhoods, but the police posted at every intersection couldn’t have been nicer. They were great and would cheer us on. I have never seen as many police officers at a race before. The other nice thing about the race was at every third or fourth stop they had Utz chips as a snack. This was great to have a couple of salty chips to counteract all the sweating we were doing.

It was getting hot and I was feeling it. Jessica and I have the worst luck when we run together. We haven’t had a warm summer so I’m not used to the warm weather. I started feeling not so great around mile 15 or so. I tried a bunch of things but nothing was working and around mile 20 Jessica left us and kept up her pace. She did great! We switched to 1:1 intervals and I felt better and was able to keep a better pace.

Dave and Joe were race chasing and they were doing an amazing job despite the really bad traffic in the city. I’m not sure I want to know how they did it. The final miles were full of hills and we did our best to get up and over them. We finally made it to the finish at the famous Inner Harbor. We got a super cool crab medal that opens and has Fort McHenry inside. There were more chips at the end. We didn’t make it to the beer tent, because it was too far away. I didn’t feel well at the end. I had some chips and Gatorade and finally started feeling better. I definitely didn’t fuel properly for this one. The organization at this one was top notch, with a great expo, and medal. The course is a tough one and I wouldn’t hurry back to do it again because of that.

Dave's Comments

We arrived in Baltimore early enough to have lunch with Stan and Pam at Dempsey's, a brewpub inside Camden Yards. After a quick walk-around we took a short drive over to Fort McHenry National Monument. This site is where the U.S. National Anthem was written (well it was written on a boat looking at the fort but close enough). After our tour we had a beer at Inner Harbor before joining Tom, Liz, Harper, Steve, Jess, Brad, and Joe for dinner at Sabatino's in the Little Italy section.

Joe and I had a great time race chasing. Our bad luck of reaching places in time gave us plenty of down-time to relax and chat. We didn't make it to Mile Two in time so Mile Six was our next best option - and it was only a few blocks from Mile Two. We missed them at Mile 9 because we stopped to watch the half marathoners go by. That gave us another four mile break in Inner Harbor. It was great having Joe drive because he exectued some awesome Starsky and Hutch maneuvers. We won't discuss the father pushing a baby carriage through an intersection at Mile 16. Baltimore was a lot like St. Louis or Providence in the fact that all the good things to see and do in the city are in one small section. Having the race finish at Inner Harbor brought traffic to a halt in the heart of the city. We missed seeing everyone finish the race. Oh well, not the first time.

Post-race we enjoyed lunch at Pratt Street Ale House (a brewpub) and then some post-drinks at Dick's Last Resort.

The next morning we coaxed Stan and Pam into touring Annapolis with us. We enjoyed a rushed tour of the museum and grounds of the Naval Academy, but could not go into the chapel or John Paul Jones' crypt due to a memorial service. Lunch was at the Middleton Tavern. Downtown Annapolis was nice, but small and touristy.

 

Here's the video:

 

Alaska - Road to Denali

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After a fun breakfast in Anchorage we were on our way north. Our ultimate goal was to make it to our hotel for the next two nights, the Princess McKinley Lodge, and stop along the way to take in any sites. We were going to keep an eye on the weather to see if a flightseeing tour of Denali / Mount McKinley would be worth it. So far the overcast skies and slight drizzle led us to believe the answer would be no.

An hour or so into the drive we arrived in the city of Wasilla. All the suburban comforts were present: car dealers, Wal-Mart, and Starbucks. There were also many family owned restaurants, bars, and those tiny Fotomat-sized coffee stands (click here if you have no idea what a Fotomat was). We decided to turn off the main road and visit the Iditarod Trail HQ and Museum.

The museum itself was mostly a gift shop and a media room showing a video of the race. Outside the main building was a module of a checkpoint cabin and the kennels. Three small pups were asleep in a crate while a dozen or so adult dogs were leashed up in a common area. We were told to move off the path because the cart was coming through. We could hear the wheels rattling on the ground as a wooden wagon pulled by dogs came through with a couple of tourists in the cart. This was an add-on experience for $10 each we did not do.

We weren't all that excited about what the attraction had to offer until the man running things asked, "who wants to hold a puppy?" Dave texted Holly to get out of the gift shop ASAP as the three crated pups were passed around.

The day only got better from that moment. Back on the road we made our way towards the town of Talkeetna. Our plan was to have lunch at Denali Brewing's pub, check on flightseeing, and look for Mount McKinley views. As luck would have it the main Denali Brewing facility was on the way. We were drawn to it like it was a Route 66 roadside attraction and didn't care if it was 11am. Time for beer! The small taproom offered a few seats, many souvenir options, and at least 15 beers to try. We bought two flights that gave 5 of us a chance to sample 12 different beers. There was a nice mixture of dark, light, malty, hoppy, and sour available. Good thing we had limited luggage space or we would have brought home several tap handles (Dave restrained himself to only buying one). The bartender was from California (keeping tabs on born Alaskans vs transplants).

The skies were clearing up and the weather was looking good to make a flightseeing tour of Denali worth the money (not a cheap experience). After striking out at one place we called Talkeetna Air and secured 6 seats on a 4pm flight. We even got a group discount! With that booked we proceeded to town and lunch. Talkeetna is not large, maybe two dozen businesses in town. With the focus on tourism most businesses are restaurants, bars, shops, and ice cream parlors. After a nice lunch at Denali Brewing we took a walk along the river to try to get a glimpse of Denali/Mount McKinley. No luck at this moment. A few of us picked up some ice cream before heading off to the airstrip.

The flight will be covered in Team Tizzel's next post.  For now, we'll skip that and move onto our remaining time in the Talkeetna/Denali State Park area.

***

After our amazing flight tour we headed to our hotel, The Princess McKinley Lodge. It's owned by the Princess Cruise Line and caters to many people that booked the land package as part of their cruise. The hotel handles luggage and transportation for the folks booked through their packages.  We did not book through the cruise package so we were on our own for transportation and luggage handling.

The property was very nice! Guest rooms were scattered around the property in separate buildings while restaurants, the lobby, and the gift shop were housed in one central building. Rooms were comfortable and the grounds were themed with statues, ponds, and displays in all the buildings relating to mountain climbing and the region.  There was another bar/restaurant in a separate building that was adjacent to a lawn with several fire pits. Denali was visible from the hotel and we were treated to a nice sunset the first night. The other night it rained. We spent some of our free time doing laundry while enjoying the 20,320 Lounge. Our only complaint was the bad dinner in the "high-end" restaurant.  Food quality was awful, especially at those prices. Very disappointing since other quick-serve and casual meals were decent.  Was this a glimpse into our upcoming cruise?

***

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel's coffee counter (Proudly serving Starbucks) then moved onto today's activity. The State Park was home to Byers Lake. We were told we could do an easy 6 mile hike around the lake and have a nice view of Denali. Well the hike was easy from an elevation standpoint. The issue was a lot of the trail was overgrown and covered with Devil's Club. It's a nasty leafy plant with lots of prickers. Once we got to the far side of the lake we were treated to many great sightings of Denali. The bad news was we had to hike back to the car.

We survived the hike and enjoyed a low-key afternoon/evening of doing laundry and enjoying local beer.

The next morning we'd be off to our new lodging on the edge of Denali National Park.

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