A couple of months before this, Sean and I were searching for new and interesting races to do when we came across the Big Bear North Shore Half Marathon/10k/5k. We'd wanted an excuse to go back to Big Bear and when we looked into the race further we found it! The half marathon was also offering a relay option, where one person (of either the same or opposite gender, either way) would run half of the half marathon and the other would finish up with the second half. We'd been looking for a relay race to do together for a couple of years now and this was it! There was still plenty of time to register and we even saved $30, paying only $100 total, by signing up so far in advance.
We did, unfortunately, run into a few complications before heading out for the race though. First off, we looked into literally EVERY kind of accommodation we could find but everything from bed and breakfasts to hotels to campsites to rooms people were renting in the area was either fully booked or charging ridiculous rates for the weekend we needed. Accommodation-wise, it didn't help that their Oktoberfest celebration was going on on the race date. It did give us an extra excuse to make the trip out though! We decided to just wing it, drive out the night before the race, and find a place to park the car and sleep.
Our next major complication was that the day before we were supposed to leave we found out some tie rods on our car were busted. Keep in mind that I know shit all about cars. We managed to do some research and order parts and tools but they wouldn't arrive for awhile and in the meantime there was no way we could roadtrip with our car, especially up winding mountain roads. Instead, we got a last minute rental car from some ghetto company called Fox. Danny drove us down to their office, wayyyy down towards South Point casino, and we waited in line for AN HOUR before we were helped. It was smooth sailing from there though. The employees were nice enough and even gave us a $6 locals discount. It didn't make up for the wait but we decided they, as a company, deserved about 2 out of 5 stars overall for various reasons. Apparently, as we later found out when going to rate them online, the average Yelp user agrees with us too.
We finally loaded up the rental, said goodbye to Danny, and got on the road after that. We made a quick stop in Barstow to pee, a stop in Big Bear Lake to scope out the race location in advance, and then found and parked in the race's event parking down the street a little after 10pm to get some sleep for the night. It was just after 11 when we actually cuddled up together in the passenger's seat and closed our eyes.
Day 2 - 10/3/15 (Race Day and Oktoberfest!):
I hadn't been able to get to sleep til after midnight and even then only with the help of a sleeping pill. I started dreaming about waking up late and missing the race though and I woke up needing to pee at one point as well so the sleep I got was broken. Stupid pre-race nerves! I did manage to get nearly 7 hours of sleep though, which is probably a pre-race record for me. I eventually got up at 6:51am feeling slightly nervous but somewhat refreshed. I got dressed for the race, Sean woke up and got ready 40 mins to an hour later, and we walked over to packet pick-up. Parking wasn't far from there so we were able to take our stuff back to the car before starting our race.
When 9am rolled around, I was mentally ready to run but I hadn't had a chance to warm up or stretch. The half marathon individual and relay runners were starting though and I was taking the first leg for Sean's and my relay team so I had to get going! I figured I could just warm up on the first mile and stick it out anyway. Sean cheered me on as I ran off and then he and the other second half relay runners got a boat ride, provided by the race organizers, across the lake to the half marathon turnaround point where they'd be trading places with us first half runners when we caught up to them.
In total, there were only three relay teams in the race and all three of us were mixed gender (one female, one male). All three teams coincidentally had the female running first as well. The other two teams were there together and knew one another and Sean met the two guys on the boat ride. I, on the other hand, had no idea who the relay girls I was running against were, let alone who the relay guys were, and I'm assuming they didn't see who I was either til we all traded places with our teammates at the turnaround. One of the girls was almost exactly as fast as I was though, at least in this race, and ended up getting to the turnaround about 20 seconds before me, according to Sean. I wasn't pushing my hardest when I got there, partially because I didn't realize where I was til I was there and partially because of people and cones and obstacles preventing me from sprinting, but I wouldn't say that girl went all out either so it would been interesting to see how she and I would do if we went head to head sometime.
Sean's portion of the race went somewhat similarly. Since I wound up being second out of the three relay females, even if just barely, he started as the second male. He maintained his position through the finish with his personal half of the race being perhaps a minute off the first place relay guy's time. Ironically enough, all of the relay men would have placed the same against each other with or without their female counterparts. Lol
Sadly, the relay ladies' boat ride back across the lake to the start/finish line took just a little too long and, though we enjoyed the view, we didn't all make it back in time to see our guys finish. :( Oh well.
On the bright side, we were rewarded for our efforts with awesome leis (serving as finishers' medals) once we made it back back and got to reunite with our guys and enjoy lots of snacks while we awaited the awards ceremony, at which point each of our three teams was awarded medals according to our place (so silver/2nd place for Sean and me)!
Once the race had wound down, Sean and I decided to go and explore town a bit. The one and only time we'd been before, several weeks prior, we'd gotten to scope out everything of interest to us in the area but none of it had been open then so this was our chance at a second, closer look.
The first place we revisited was:
Big Bear Funplex
40679 Big Bear Blvd
Big Bear Lake, CA
Now that we were there during business hours, we could confirm that there were no dance or other music games inside, at least not presently. They did have a fair assortment of other video game types, however, as well as other sorts of entertainment including mini golf, laser tag, and a mini ice skating rink.
Seconds down the road from there, we revisited a bowling alley:
The Bowling Barn
40625 Big Bear Blvd
Big Bear Lake, CA
And, to our pleasant surprise, we actually found a DDR Extreme machine inside! We wondered if it was the machine that'd previously been located at the now-closed-down Big Bear Star Arcade arcade listed on ddrfreak years ago, which was initially the reason I'd known of and wanted to visit Big Bear in the first place. (I'd never had the chance to see that arcade when it was there.) I didn't think to ask but I was happy enough just to have found a machine so we could put Big Bear back on the dance game map! The monitor on this machine had been replaced and was abnormally bright and slightly blurry. The pads were mediocre at best, neither joint premium or doubles premium was on, the yellow arrow menu buttons on 2P side weren't working (so, amongst other inconveniences such as not being able to select a song if playing by yourself, 2P would be stuck on 1x). Still, DDR in Big Bear! Yay. :p We played a quick credit together, listed the location on ddrfreak, added it to my dance game binder and groovestats, and then headed out to continue exploring.
We found a Dollar Tree store while driving around and stopped in for a few supplies. Sean needed a pee then so he checked a couple of other stores in the cute, different-looking shopping center to find an open restroom and I put up some of our CandyMountainCrafts.com and website-making advertisements while I waited.
Passing through Big Bear Lake a few weeks back, I'd really wanted to see downtown in action during the day. Sean drove me down for a look next and I was not disappointed! It was really busy with people souvenir shopping, eating, etc. Lots of people and lots of shops! Most prices weren't great but we had more than enough fun window shopping and sight-seeing and most other people there didn't seem too bothered by the prices.
We had another peek in the building of the closed down Super Bear Arcade and were, this time, able to see in well and get a feel for what the place might've been like. Wish we could've seen it in its heyday.
We found a tiny movie theater there in downtown which actually seemed to have the most reasonable prices of any business we saw. I don't remember what movies they were showing but I'm not sure I'd heard of any of them. We liked that better. It was more interesting than your average theater. They didn't have any arcade games, let alone room in their small lobby for any, but they DID had $1 hot dogs, which we got a couple of, and other good deals - probably the best in the area!
Once we'd finished in downtown, we drove on to the second reason we were in town: Oktoberfest! We'd found out Big Bear Lake was having an Oktoberfest celebration which had sealed the deal when we'd discovered the race and were looking for additional reasons to make the trip. We'd never been to an Oktoberfest celebration before!
Parking at the event was hard but we managed. It was $18/person to get in, no outside foods or drinks or reentry allowed. We'd come prepared though. We had all the drink we needed in the car and we drank enough to get a comfy buzz before going in. Inside, we had a look around. Most of the festivities seemed to be in one big room, though there was a little more to see bordering the outside. Everything was pretty pricey there but there wasn't really anything we wanted anyway. We were just enjoying looking around and being a part of the festivities.
They had a lot of various contests going on throughout the event. Some only had so many spots for entrants and filled up quickly though and there were sometimes long waits between some of the better ones. We managed to enter our first stein holding contest though! We didn't do very well but it was fun to try!
Once we'd seen enough of Oktoberfest, we started towards a tiny place called Lucerne Valley on the way back home. We'd passed there twice before, including the day before, but it was our first time stopping for a look. There really wasn't much to see there anyway but they had a few gas stations (some chains, some not), liquor stores, a few other places. Most aignificantly though, they had a super market that sold just about everything! The prices there were pretty average but they had some pretty cheap energy drinks, of which we got a couple, and it was cool that you could get just about whatever you needed there. It seemed like the Wal-Mart of the town.
In Barstow again, we used the restrooms and got some free drinks for downloading an app at Valero.
A couple of hours later, we were home again and ready to start recovering! Lol
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