Monthly Archives: June 2013

Seeing Signs (or How A Smurf Put Me In A Good Mood)

Posted on June 14, 2013 | 1 comment

This week hasn’t been the best week for me. I’ve been in a bit of a funk. My eating hasn’t been that great. And I haven’t worked out in a while. Part of the lack of working out was the fact that I didn’t have a sports bra for a while, but I’ve had a new one for 2 days and I still haven’t done anything.

As much as I want to get out of the funk, something is holding me back. I don’t know what. I do have a 5K this weekend, and I will do that no matter what, so hopefully that will turn my attitude around.

But this week, I had an encounter that made me smile. First, a little back story.

I studied with my acting coach, Kip King, from 2002 until he died in 2010. I had a very special bond with him (our birthdays are 2 days apart so he called me his birthday buddy). He knew how to push me but not go too far. One of Kip’s big acting jobs was being Tailor Smurf on “The Smurfs”. So when Kip was sick and in the hospital, I brought him Smurf things I found at various stores, like a Smurf Christmas ornament.

Ok, back to the regular story. I was in Babies R Us the other day getting a gift for a baby shower that I’m going to this weekend. I was walking around the aisles looking for the perfect gift when in the middle of a diaper aisle I saw this.

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It was a set of Smurf toys that said Happy Smurfday! on them. Technically, none of these Smurfs are Tailor Smurf (who has a needle through his hat), but it still felt like a sign to me. Why would there be a bunch of birthday Smurfs in the middle of the diaper aisle (and yes, I know the reasonable explanation is that a kid put them there)?

I saw those toys and I smiled. I thought about Kip and how much he believed in me no matter what. He saw me lose and gain weight all the time and loved me no matter what. He said that he knew that I would make it as an actress as long as I was patient enough to wait my turn.

Maybe I need to have that same mentality to my weight. I’m not going to sit around and not do anything, but I’m not going to let myself get this upset and in these slumps again like this. Right now might not be my turn to lose weight, but if I keep working at it like I do with my acting, eventually it will be my turn and things will fall into place. If I’m willing to work hard and be patient with my acting career (which I’m more than happy to do), why am I not allowing myself to have that same mentality to everything else in my life?

So thank you to Kip (or the kid that stuck those toys there) for helping me to see things a little differently when I was in a low spot.

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Posted in Acting, Fitness, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

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Happy Birthday Kate! (or Yay For My Friend Of 21 Years!)

Posted on June 13, 2013 | 2 comments

Today is my best friend Kate’s 30th birthday! First of all, happy birthday to you, Kate! As I’ve done for a few other birthdays, I’ve decided to do some of my favorite photos of my 21 year friendship with Kate (yes, we became friends when we were 9).

I don’t have a ton of pictures from before college on my computer, but I do have one from my sweet 16. For my 16th birthday, my mom allowed me to invite a couple of friends to drive down to southern California so we could go to Catalina! It was amazing! I invited Kate, another high school friend Jackie, and my cousin Leah.

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When it was time to go to college, I was coming down here to LA (I went to Loyola Marymount) and Kate moved to Minnesota. But since I was starting school before Kate, she agreed to drive down with me to LA. She and I were in my car, and my parents were in theirs (and they had most of my stuff since I had a little car then). It was one of our first “grownup” adventures.

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Until last year, Kate and I had not lived in the same city since high school. But she came down to LA to visit (her sister also lives here).

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And I traveled to see her as well. I went once to Minnesota (where it was seriously the coldest I’ve ever experienced), but I visited her in Seattle more. Since we’ve been friends for so long, we both know that we are dorks. And on one visit to Seattle, we discovered that Kate had an old CD-ROM (remember those?) of Oregon Trail. So of course we put it in her laptop and played a couple of games.

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It’s been really exciting to have Kate living in the same city as me now. Of course, she and I have had a lot of happy hour adventures together. And I’ve mentioned it before, but Kate is my 5K buddy. And we’ve agreed to virtually cheer each other on when we can’t do the same races (I know she’ll be cheering me on while working during my race on Sunday).

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So Kate, thank you for being such an awesome friend to me! You have been there for me through thick and thin (literally) and have supported me through every step! You are like a sister to me. And I’m so grateful that you are willing to listen to my rants every once in a while.

Cheers to you on turning 30! I’m looking forward to celebrating your birthday at the spa soon (I’m sure I’ll be writing a blog post about that in the future). And to all you readers, thanks for letting me use a blog post to celebrate my best friend.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

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Job vs. Career (or Being Undercover At My Day Job)

Posted on June 12, 2013 | 5 comments

Having a day job when you are trying to be have a career as a creative person is pretty typical. Most of my creative friends have had at least one job outside of their desired career to pay the bills. While some actors are pretty secretive about what they do, I’m pretty open myself.

There’s no shame in having another job while you are trying to follow your dreams. But at your job, it can be shameful to try to also follow your dreams.

I’m lucky that at my day job, it’s expected that people in my position are pursuing other careers. Most of the telesales team are actors, but there are also writers and costume designers.

But I haven’t always been this lucky. At my last day job, my first boss was very understanding about my life. If I had to go to an audition, I could make up the hours within the same pay period. That was it. But when I got a new boss, she started to ask for unreasonable things such as 2 weeks notice of when I needed time off for an audition. Most of my auditions are the day after my agent submits me, so there’s no way to normally give more than a day or two’s notice.

At my old job, I almost had to be secretive about my acting. That’s not what I want to do at my day job. I’m there to work, but I don’t have to make that job my forever job.

For some of my friends who aren’t creatives and don’t understand the idea of a day job, I explain it this way. For most people, a job and a career are the same thing. For my brother, for example, being a resident at the hospital he works at is working on his career as a doctor. But for me, my job and career are two separate things (at least for now). My job is whatever I’m currently doing to pay the bills, but my career is always acting. I currently spend 40 hours a week at my job, and probably an additional 10-20 hours on my career (when I get back into class that number will be higher).

It’s a tough life that we live as creatives, but honestly to me it’s completely worth it. Every time I get to perform, whether it’s at an audition, class, or booked job; I feel that I’m doing exactly what I should be doing. And yes, I wish that I could survive on just acting, but I’m also realistic. I have rent, bills, my credit card, and life to pay for. Sometimes you have to just suck it up at work a job you don’t love. You just have to keep in mind that it is a temporary situation and one day, you can look back at your time working days jobs as just a memory.

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Posted in Acting, Tough Stuff, Work

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LA Wine Fest (or A Fun After Work Activity)

Posted on June 11, 2013 | 1 comment

This past weekend, it was LA Wine Fest. I like wine, but I’m not a wine lover like some people. But I saw some half priced tickets online, so I invited my friend Kate. And her roommate Beth came as our designated driver (she had an early training run the next morning and didn’t really want to drink).

So on Saturday right after I was done with work, the three of us headed out. The fest was held at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. I’ve been there a couple of times in the past, but this was the first big event I had gone to there.

First, we all had to get wristbands. Since Beth was the designated driver, she got a bright one that let everyone know to not let her drink.

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Then we were off to see what wines were out there. After Kate and I grabbed our first tastes, we decided to take a quick before picture.

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While Kate likes most wines, I pretty much only drink sparkling or white wines. Kate was on the lookout for me for all sparkling wines, and I tried a couple of interesting ones. There was a sparkling wine that was infused with raspberry. It was really sweet, but I liked it. I tried a couple of rose sparkling wines that were pretty awesome too.

Then there was one called Pink Panda. Of course I had to try it! And it tasted exactly how I image a cartoon character would taste (it was pretty much like liquid cotton candy). I didn’t like that one at all. I made Kate try it too, and she wasn’t a fan as well.

Besides all the wine, there were food booths. Beth and I tried a couple of fancy cheeses. And all three of us really liked the balsamic vinegar and olive oil tastings. We all ended up buying some (I got some fancy balsamic as well as olive oil infused with basil, garlic, and parmesan cheese).

After drinking all the tastings, Kate and I wanted to get some food in our stomachs. So Kate, Beth, and I headed over to the food truck area. We saw a truck for Sweet Arleen Cupcakes and decided to split a couple.

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The dark one is a cookies and cream cupcake and the light one is a lemon raspberry one. They were both delicious and really hit the spot!

After being at LA Wine Fest for about 2 hours, we decided to head home. It was really hot and crowded and we had checked out all the wineries we wanted to taste.

Of course, we got an after photo as well (this time, Beth was in it too!).

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Overall, it was a great event! I got to try a bunch of new wines that I don’t know if I would have tried otherwise. And I have a new wine glass to add to my collection. If I see half price tickets again next year, I’ll probably check it out again.

Thanks Kate for being my wine guide at the event! And thanks Beth for driving so we didn’t have to pay for a cab!

PS: Today is the last day to enter my Food Should Taste Good giveaway! Make sure you comment before midnight to enter!

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Shooting In Santa Monica (or A Little Too Close To Home)

Posted on June 10, 2013 | Comments Off on Shooting In Santa Monica (or A Little Too Close To Home)

On Friday, I ended up taking the day off of work. I was going to have to work on Sunday at a show, and I didn’t want to have to work 11 days in a row (I’m now only doing 8 days in a row).

I was planning on meeting my friend Emily for lunch, and as I was getting ready, my cell phone kept notifying me that I had text messages. I checked my phone thinking it might have been my boss asking me something related to work or Emily saying she would be running late. Instead, it was a bunch of text messages asking me if I was ok.

I first tried to remember what I put on the blog that day. Did I write something depressing? Finally, after I couldn’t figure it out, I responded that I was fine and was wondering why they were wondering.

Then I got a text message that made my heart drop.

A friend mentioned that there was a shooting at my work. My first thought was to check the news.

If you haven’t read about this yet, there was a shooting near Santa Monica College on Friday. The shooter ran onto the campus to hide and was inside the library.

I work at Santa Monica College, but not on that campus. I work on the performing arts campus at the theater that is on the campus (we are technically part of the college, yet I’m not an employee of the college).

I figured my co-workers were safe, but I texted my boss just to make sure. Everyone was fine, but there were a bunch of cops outside of my work that day.

I went to lunch with Emily, and as I was eating, I looked up at the tv at the restaurant. The news was filming right outside where I work. Since they couldn’t  film at a crime scene, the news decided to film at one of the other campuses. It was pretty surreal.

I was still getting text messages from friends who wanted to make sure I was ok and safe, so I put something out on twitter and FB that the shooting was not at my work and I wasn’t working that day. But I did get some funny text responses from some people. The funniest was from my audition buddy/evil twin, Shey.

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While I’m grateful to be safe and that none of my co-workers were hurt or in harm’s way, it still freaks me out a little that the shooting was so close to where I work. Some of my co-workers drive on the streets where the shooting was to get lunch on their lunch breaks. We are all so lucky.

My heart goes out to the people who were affected by the Santa Monica shooting. I ended up speaking to someone on Saturday who was in the library when the police shot the suspect, and her story was so upsetting.

I just hope that some sort of action will be taken soon so something else like this doesn’t happen again.

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Posted in Tough Stuff, Work

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Making Time For Real Life (or Trying To Not Just Live Virtually)

Posted on June 7, 2013 | 1 comment

Between work, exercise, and sleeping; I don’t have a ton of time to do thing. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve had issues creating a work/life balance.

What makes it harder is not realizing that you haven’t seen someone in real life in forever. I stay in touch with friends via Facebook or twitter all the time. So I see who has gone on vacation, had a baby, gotten engaged, got a puppy, or whatever.

But I’ve realized lately that I’ve only been participating in the virtual part of life. There are times when I leave work at night and I don’t say another word out loud until the next day when I’m back at work.

I know I spend too much time on my computer/iPhone/iPad. But sometimes, I feel like I’m missing out on life if I don’t get it out online. Not many of my friends want to meet up to hang out at 9pm when I’m out of work (I don’t blame them since I don’t want to hang out then either).

I am working on starting my Wednesday happy hour plans again. And I need to take advantage of my 2 1/2 days at work on Fridays and Saturdays. On Fridays, I’m done at 1pm. There have been many times in the past when I go straight home, and pass out for a very extended nap. But I’m trying to not do that. Not only is it bad for my sleep schedule, but I’m wasting perfectly good friend time!

Today, after my work shift, I’m meeting my friend Emily for a pie outing. I haven’t seen her in person in forever and we are way overdue for a hangout.

On Saturdays, I’m done at 2pm, and I have done the nap thing after those work days as well. But tomorrow, I’m headed to Wine Fest (I promise to blog about that next week!)!

I think if I work on scheduling hangouts on my half days, I’ll feel like I’m seeing my friends and not just reading a computer screen. I miss seeing people, but right now, I have to keep working 6 days a week. I will have more (f)unemployment in the future, but right now, work focus is important.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Work

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Thank You Aunt Cindy! (or The Gift That Made Me Cry)

Posted on June 6, 2013 | 1 comment

Before I get to the gift that I’m referring to in the title of this post, let me tell you a bit about my Aunt Cindy. I’ve mentioned her in the blog before when she and my mom were here for the “2 Broke Girls” taping and Disneyland.

While my Aunt Cindy and I haven’t always been super close, I’d say for almost the last decade we’ve pretty much talked on the phone every week. We have a lot of the same favorite tv shows, so we chat about those a lot. She also is one of the few relatives I’ve had who understands the struggle I have with my weight. And she has also had hip problems, so we chat about that sometimes as well.

Anyway, back to the gift.

I’ve been so excited to be collecting medals from the various 5Ks I’ve done so far. I normally don’t display my medals and race bibs, but since I have a goal for the number of 5Ks that I do in 2013, I’ve decided to put them up in my living room for motivation.

I just used one of those clear Command hooks (because it is very difficult to put holes in my walls at my house), and hung all my medals up. I then strung all my race bibs through a paper clip and hung them up as well.

I thought it looked pretty darn good considering it took my 2 minutes to do it.

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I’ve had it up at my house since Sunday, and I’ve been very happy every time I pass it.

Yesterday, I got home from work and there was a box on my front step. I didn’t think much of it since I had ordered some clothes online recently. So I went inside to put down all of my things before I grabbed the box and brought it inside.

When I finally got a look at the box, the return address on it was my Aunt Cindy’s address. I quickly thought about our last phone call and couldn’t recall her saying that she was going to send me something. So I opened it up and saw this note inside.

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Underneath the card, I saw this medal hanger.

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And honestly, I cried when I saw it (I’m even tearing up a little now as I write this). While I’ve gotten some very cool gifts for my birthday, Hanukkah, or just because in the past; this gift is very special for me. Even though I don’t know if this is what my Aunt Cindy was thinking, but to me, it means that she believes that I’ll have many medals to come that I should be proud of and display and that I should do better than my little makeshift hanger.

I don’t have my new hanger up on the wall yet (Dad, this is a project to add to our list), I’m resting it on the wall below where it will hang so I can see it every time I see my medals.

Thank you so much Aunt Cindy for the amazing gift! I tried to call you last night to thank you, but since I didn’t get a hold of you, I hope this blog post will do.

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Posted in Family, Fitness, Fun Stuff

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2 Steps Forward 1 Step Back (or Going With The Flow)

Posted on June 5, 2013 | Comments Off on 2 Steps Forward 1 Step Back (or Going With The Flow)

Again, I can never depend on life just going the way it should be.

I was starting to get used to my work schedule again, then I get sick. Everyone in my office was passing around this bug and I was the 5th person to get it. Fortunately, I have a very understanding boss who let me take a day off when I had a fever. Yesterday when I got up, my temperature was 102. It finally went below 100 at bedtime.

And I finally was getting into a nice groove with my workouts. I absolutely love spinning. I just did 5K #4 (and signed up for 5K #5 for later this month). And when I went to wash my sports bra this weekend after the 5K, it died a nice gruesome death in the washing machine. What happened was the metal fasteners from the back got trapped in the machine. It got totally shredded most likely during the spin cycle (enter spin cycle/SoulCycle spin class pun here). This was my only sports bra. It’s incredibly tough to find one that works for me and comes in my size.

After these two things happened pretty much back to back, I wanted to have a meltdown. I did have a minor freakout, but in the privacy of my house. And I had to fix both problems quickly.

Obviously, getting over a sickness is not something that you can completely control. But I’m drinking a ton of water to flush this out of my system, and I’m focusing on getting plenty of sleep. And while I was home being sick, I went online and found a sports bra that I liked online. It’s from Lane Bryant, and they fit their sports bras like their regular bras (which I wear), so I’m hoping it will fit me. I thought about waiting until I had time to go to the store to try it on, but if I do that, it will be far too easy to put off for forever. According to my online order, I should have my new sports bras (I ordered 2 so I wouldn’t have this problem again) by the end of this week/beginning of next week.

Even though it might not sound like it from this post, but I’m getting better at dealing with unexpected issues. In the past, I would have seen the ripped sports bra as an excuse to not keep working out or to bail on my next 5K. Now I just see it as a minor set back that was easily fixed by doing some quick shopping online. Even though this may sound like baby steps, they are at least baby steps going in the right direction.

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Posted in Fitness, Health, Shopping, Tough Stuff, Work

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Food Should Taste Good (or Time For Another Giveaway!)

Posted on June 4, 2013 | 6 comments

About a week ago, I got an email from Food Should Taste Good. They wanted to send me some chips to try. I hadn’t really heard of this company before, but one of my co-workers is in love with their sweet potato chips, so I figured I should check them out!

On Friday, I got home from the 5K to see this box waiting for me on my doorstep.

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And opened it up to see that I got my samples!

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I wasn’t going to eat these right after the race, so I saved them for later in the weekend.

I finally got a chance to try them out on Sunday (yes, the chips were my breakfast). I got 4 different types in my sample box.

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All of the Food Should Taste Good chips are gluten-free, low sodium, and don’t have artificial ingredients. Yes, they are still a treat, but these are a much better option than most of the other chips out there.

I made myself a little sample plate and tried all the chips without any dips so I could enjoy them plain first.

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I tried the multi-grain tortilla chip first. I really enjoyed these! I love chips that have flax seeds in them, and these have them! They are nice and nutty and would be perfect to serve with guacamole or feta dip (I need to make that soon so I can post the recipe on here!).

Next I tried the olive chips. These have green, black, and kalamata olives in them. They reminded me of olive tapenade. These are so delicious plain, but since I’m a total olive lover, I’d probably add some tapenade on them just to make them more olivey.

Next in the tasting were the sweet potato tortilla chips. These are the ones that my co-worker is obsessed with, and I can totally see why! They are a really nice mix of sweet and salty. They do taste like sweet potatoes and that is a major plus for me. I’m not sure if I’d try to use them with a dip because the flavor is so yummy, but I might test some out later.

And finally, I had the sweet potato kettle chips. I love kettle chips! I was a little worried about trying these because of the sweetness of the tortilla chips, but was pleasantly surprised that these had much more of a salty flavor, as I believe kettle chips should have.

The other thing I loved about these chips was they aren’t too horrible calorie-wise. I entered my sample plate into my phone, and was happy to see that I didn’t bust my calories for the day.

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Now for the fun part for all you readers! Food Should Taste Good has given me another sample box that I can giveaway to one of you! All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment with which flavor of chips you want to try (all the flavors can be found on the website).

You have until the end of the day on June 11th to enter. I will be picking a winner using random.org. One entry per email address please.

Good luck! I hope whoever wins the sample box loves the chips as much as I did!

UPDATE: Congrats to my winner, Kate! Expect a box from Food Should Taste Good soon!

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FTC Disclosure: I was given a sample box from Food Should Taste Good to review for this post. Food Should Taste Good is also providing me with a box to give to a reader. All opinions in this post are my own and were not influenced by Food Should Taste Good.

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

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Firefly Run 5K (or 5K #4!)

Posted on June 3, 2013 | 1 comment

On Friday, I completed 5K #4 for the year (I’m almost past my 2013 5K goal!). I did the Firefly Run. This was my very first nighttime race, but I loved it!

I first heard about this race from my friend Kate. She saw a deal for the race on Living Social, so she and I both bought deals for our entries in the race

There was no pre-race pickup for bibs and timing chips, so Kate and I headed out there pretty early so we’d have time to deal with traffic and pick up our stuff.

Turns out, we got to the race 4 hours before it started! I picked up my number (my lowest race number ever!).

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After picking up our numbers, Kate and I decided to wait out the time in her car. Because we got there so early, we managed to park about 30 feet away from the start/finish line (the banner in the picture).

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When it was about 90 minutes until the start time, we decided to get ready. I had gotten a tutu and bow tie at Party City earlier in the week (I also got glow necklaces/bracelets), and I was planning on wearing a plain t-shirt. The race t-shirts were technical shirts, and I’ve never found one that fit me properly.

Until I got the race shirt for this race! It was so comfortable so I decided that it was the perfect touch to my outfit.

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Those weird yellow things at my ankles are reflective LED bands. Everyone in the race got them to wear. Right after taking this picture, I decided to use the bow tie as a hair bow. It kept getting caught in my glow necklace and iPhone headphones and I wanted to make sure nothing was in my way from having a great race.

We wandered around the start line where they had some food for sale.

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None of those things sounded like good pre-race foods. Besides, Kate and I had made a stop before arriving at 7-11 where we picked up some snacks and water.

We took some fun pre-race photos by the start line and the giant LED wall.

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And before we knew it, it was time to line up. Kate was running, so she went to the front of the pack and I hung back with the walkers. But that gave me a great chance to check out everyone else’s glowing outfits.

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I seriously loved these guys with full LED suits. They ended up passing me in the race.

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They let us go out in heats. I ended up being the very last person to go in the first heat. So I had a pretty odd experience racing. At the beginning, I was almost completely alone. Everyone else ahead of me was running, and I was walking. A few minutes later, a big crowd of runners passed me as the next heat was started. This happened each time a new heat started, so my race was both crowded and empty.

The course was pretty crazy. We went all around the Home Depot Center. We went around the soccer stadium, the track, and all over the campus. There were a lot of places that we went back and forth, and I’m wondering if that was done so we could all admire the glowing people (I personally thought that was cool).

There were only a few negatives for me. First of all, there was no mile 1 marker. That stressed me out. I was curious how on pace I was doing, and until the mile 2 marker, I had no clue. Also, there was about 1/2 mile of the course that was on a dirt track, so I tried to pull my shirt over my mouth so I didn’t breathe in all the dirt. And finally, there was a lot of times we were going up or down a slight incline. For most people, this wouldn’t matter, but with my hips it makes a different.

As I got close to the finish line, I heard someone cheering for me. Kate, who had finished earlier with a personal best time, was waiting about 10 feet from the finish line for me. I’m so grateful that I have a race buddy who is willing to wait for me to finish. I ended up crossing 16 seconds faster than my best 2013 time. I was about 90 second slower than I hoped I would be, but that’s not too bad.

We didn’t stay for any of the festivities after the race because I had to be at work pretty early the next morning. But I did take the time to take a victory photo.

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Overall, I’d say this was a pretty successful race! I had a great time, the atmosphere was wonderful and positive, and the weather was ideal! I’m already thinking about looking for more nighttime races (and doing this one again next year!).

4 5Ks down, 1 more to go to meet my goal. And 5K #5 is in 2 weeks!

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