Except this one was special. This race was Event 50 in our little ol' project. And this race was in a foreign country. And packet pickup was across town in Moravia, a suburb of San Jose. This meant more buses for us, which I'm happy to say we've pretty much mastered. For the most part, anyway.
We were excited and nervous about the run, we were reminiscing about all the great races we participated in over the past year and had fun trying to list them all from memory.
Just like the day we registered for the Moraviana at the Brooks store in Heredia, we started by hopping the bus to downtown. We walked from the main bus stop through downtown and to the Templo de la Música. From there, the bus stops for the line that runs out to Moravia were a couple of blocks away.
We found what we thought was the right stop but we weren't sure and didn't want to screw up our very last packet pickup for our very last race, damn it. So we made the on-the-fly decision to take a cab out to Moravia. This was a great call - it only cost $6 (plus tipped 'em $2) and we were there before we knew it: Lincoln Plaza.
Lincoln Plaza is a glitzy, huge US-style mall that just opened in November 2012, so it's brand spankin' new. And, hell, there's a Starbucks (as seen in the video, above). Lots of other stores just like you'd see at Lloyd Center or Clackamas Town Center back in Portland, OR, USA.
Funny story I found online about the mall: One of the most popular and highly anticipated stores to occupy Lincoln Plaza is Forever 21. People were crazy about it and couldn't wait for the doors to open. The frenzy was made greater when word got out that the store was offering $100 gift cards to the first 300 people through the doors. People camped outside the day before and over night, with eager shoppers vying for the opportunity to get one of those dang gift cards. Thing was - there was no promotional gift card giveaway. Can you say 'near riot' the next day? Yep, things got a little ugly. Good ol' consumerism in action.
The packet pickup was very well organized, as was the entire race. We got our stuff, walked around the mall a little, ate at Ferroviario 1857 and caught the bus in front of the mall back to downtown San Jose. We walked through the central shopping district, which is simply awesome - about three blocks wide and 2 kilometers long, pedestrian only. Everything a person could ever want, I'm telling you.
We made our way to the Ruta 9 bus stop and headed for home. It was hard to believe the whole years' objective was coming to an end the next day.
What a year it had been.
One. More. Race.
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