I don't know what it was, but so much about this trip to the Mesa Marathon this year was just wrong.
First off, when I called to reserve the taxi, they weren't able to hear me on the phone given a poor connection. And since they don't have their own website where I can book a reservation online, I wound up going with a different company. Cost me about $10 more for the same quick trip to the airport!
A pleasant surprise on my way towards TSA Pre, though, was the scale model of Dulles Airport made out of Lego bricks that was recently placed on display. Really neat! Just a shame that there wasn't a better angle to see all of the detail of the interior.
Next up, boarding the plane. I almost never take Southwest Airlines (typically they're not going where I want), and my experience this time may push me back towards that stance, even if they do go to my destinations. For each leg of my trip, I had center seats, since there are no pre-assigned seats. First-come first-served, and I was in the middle of the C boarding group. And what is it with so many putzes who can't abide by the instruction to NOT put their small bags in the overhead compartment. Hello, there are people boarding after you with large enough carry-ons to put up there. Wait until we're all boarded, then put the small bags up if there's still room left. Ugh!
After a brief layover in Denver, I finally arrived in Phoenix, only a short Valley Metro ride away from Mesa. Upon arriving at my hotel, I was struck at how much lower quality it was than last year (where it was barely moderate quality). First off, the hotel tried to get me to pay a $5 cash deposit for the keycard to the room; they'd refund it after I checked out. No. First off, you can charge it on my credit card (they didn't) rather than expecting me to have cash (though I did), and secondly, I was going to be checking out at 5am to make my flight on Sunday -- I wouldn't be able to get any cash back from them at that hour. Upon opening the door to my room, I was struck by the horrible quality. There was a large hole in the wall where someone had previously thrown open the door -- with no stopper on the floor, the doorknob busted the wall. Somehow they also managed to break a hole in the panel where the light switch was next to the door.
Moving further into the room, the bathtub's finish was peeling, and the door jamb was somehow damaged. (How did THAT happen?)
OK, all unpacked, let's put on the TV. Nope! No remote control for the TV, and there are absolutely NO buttons visible anywhere on the TV (front, bottom, sides, back -- nowhere). It's late enough, I don't bother going back to the office to try to get one; it'd hold until tomorrow. (Remember, no phone in room -- so I couldn't do a quick call, and didn't want to bother looking up the phone number to call from my cell phone.) So, I put on iHeart radio -- or tried to. For some reason, it was failing on my phone the entire weekend. OK, download Pandora and listen to some music that way. At least that worked.
Friday morning came, and, naturally, I took a shower before getting dressed to go for breakfast and packet pickup at the expo. I placed the bathmat on the floor, and was disgusted by how filthy it was on both sides. It's as if they dusted the whole room with it and left it in the room for me. Ugh! And the bath towel that was in the room was not what you would call clean. It wasn't as bad as the bathmat, but it wasn't great. And I only found that out AFTER taking the shower and being soaking wet. Alright, use the portions of the towel that seemed the cleanest.
I went to the office to ask them for clean towels and a remote control, and the way they phrased their response it sounded like the housekeeper would be to the room shortly. So, I sat there for about 5-10 minutes waiting (while playing the games I usually do in the morning). They didn't arrive -- ok, maybe he meant it for when she comes around during her normal rounds; go to breakfast. By the time that and the expo were done, housekeeping would have come, right?
The Henhouse Cafe is HIGHLY recommended. I went there for lunch last year, and this time around I decided to grab breakfast. Mom's Famous Pancakes were billed on the menu as being huge with a warning that eating them might make you drowsy. And the Short Stack had a comment about them not being terribly short. I took these as a challenge and order the pancakes, and the waiter (bless him!) told me doing so would be a mistake, since they are comedically large. He advised the short stack, and noted he'd be bringing one out to the next table over in a couple minutes - I could look at that size then.
Yeah, I'm glad I took his advice and got the short stack. Those two chocolate chip pancakes are nearly a foot in diameter. I made it through 3/4 of them before crying uncle and getting a box for the remainder, which I would have for lunch. I wound up tipping him several extra dollars, given he saved me from myself and prevented a colossal waste of both food and money. If you go to Mesa, make sure to stop in for breakfast or lunch. (Closed by mid-day.)
Finally I walked the remainder of the way to the expo.
Upon entering the hotel and following a couple of signs for the Expo, I eventually came upon signs that indicated "Expo Exit." Huh? Why would I be exiting the expo when I haven't entered it yet, and hadn't missed a turn? Turns out those signs served double duty - pointing people to the nearest exit of the hotel which, upon exiting, you were at the bank of check-in booths to pick up your bib. Weird signage, which many of us commented on.
Given it is a relatively small field (a little over 3100 for the marathon, and probably that many for the half and 10k?) the expo isn't all that large; no issues. (I'm kinda jaded for expos anyway.) After collecting all of the codes from several vendors participating in a raffle process, I sat down in the room where the coach was going to be giving his 1st of 3 presentations describing the course (for both the half and full). Despite having run it the past two years, it was worthwhile to get the tips that he was providing. And he was a very entertaining speaker, to boot.
Expo finished, I returned to my room. It was sufficiently later compared to breakfast, I finished the pancakes for lunch and prepared my outfit for the morning. (I always put my bib on my clothing before race day -- the only thing that you can NOT forget to bring to race start and be permitted to run.) And, as you likely guessed, neither the towels nor the remote had been brought into my room. I decided to wait until 3pm (check-in time, by which time the housekeeping should have fully finished) to go back to the office to repeat the ask from about 6 hours prior. The man behind the counter looked so befuddled, but indicated he'd bring them over shortly. About 10 minutes later, he came to the room with two totally clean towels, but no remote. I reminded him that I still didn't have a remote, and he started feeling around the TV, seemingly for the button to turn it on (which I told him didn't exist). After a few minutes of that, he asked me where the remote was. Really? That's what I have asked for twice to be brought to the room -- it wasn't here when I checked in. (Who steals a TV remote from a cheap hotel?) About 10 minutes later, he arrived with three different types of remote control in his hand, since he didn't know which one would work for the TV. Eventually he figured it out and left it for me.
Since I stay off my feet as much as possible the day before the marathon, I was just on the bed watching TV for several hours before I finally set out to get some Thai food for dinner. Simple dish, but really quite delicious.
On the way back, I made a quick stop at the supermarket to pick up a banana (for part of my pre-race breakfast), bagel (to eat on the bus ride out to the start), and a cookie (for the night's dessert). Well, I got the first two anyway. C'est la vie. A little more TV watching and I managed to get to bed by 10pm. Good, since I needed to wake up by 3am to get ready with the right time to head out the door to walk the two miles to the bus pickup.
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