Another 5K Done (or I Did It Again!)

Yesterday was the weSPARK 5K at Universal Studios. Even though I had done 10 or so 5Ks in the past (and this one last year), I was so nervous. I was going to do this one by myself. I’ve always had a buddy or two to talk to and distract me or push me to keep on going. This time, I had to push myself, and that’s not something that I’m great at.

On Saturday, I went to the bib pickup location to get my race stuff. The swag bag actually had some great things (anyone want my coupon for a free haircut?), and I got my number.

I’m the sort of person who looks for signs of things, and I felt that this number was a good sign. My favorite number is 9, and this number had a 9 in it. And the other 3 numbers added up to 9. I might be reaching for something positive, but I needed it to calm my nerves.

I also made myself a playlist to listen to. I have some music that I listen to when I workout, but I wanted something special. Since I worked at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios for 3 years, and the race began and ended very close to the area I worked in, I made an HHN mix of music. It was a collection of music from the Bill and Ted show that goes on during HHN and the music that the musical trolley would play when it would take us from where we got ready to our work area.

On race day, I got up early (but it didn’t feel too bad due to Daylight Saving Time), and headed to Universal. As soon as I got there, I ran into my friend David, who was running the 10K and was also going to give out the medals during the awards ceremony. David is awesome, BTW. He’s maintaining a weight loss of over 165 pounds!

Then it was time to get into our corrals. It was organized by 10K runners, 5K runners, and 5K walkers. We had to wait for all the runners to start first, so I got a before picture.

Finally, my group started and I started up my playlist. The hardest thing about this course is that the first mile and last mile are on hills. So you go downhill for most of the first mile, and uphill for most of the last mile. It’s tough, I hate it, but I knew I could do it. My big problem are my hips. My hip that has been operated on hurts going downhill and the hip that hasn’t been fixed yet hurts going uphill.

After the first mile was over, we got to go to one of the most restricted areas of Universal.

To get down there normally, not only do you have to make it through security at the normal gate to get on the lot, you have to make it through the security at the gate to get to this section. I also got this picture (please ignore the sweaty face).

Finally, it was time to go up the horrible hill. It is broken up a bit by the area that was Wisteria Lane for “Desperate Housewives”. My goal was to only take a breather once on the first half of the hill and once on the second half. And I did. I also got a bit of a boost because on Wisteria Lane, I saw David go by. He was running strong and gave me a high-five as we passed.

After conquering the killer hill (where I whispered choice words under my breath), we made it to Bates Motel/Bates House where I worked during HHN. I tried to get a picture of my old workplace.

And what I loved was when I was rounding the corner to Bates Motel, my playlist started playing the theme from “Psycho”. Loved it!

Finally, I crossed the finish line. My time was 1:03:18. Not my best, but considering my photo ops and the killer hill, I’m happy.

Of course, I got a victory picture with my medal.

I’m crazy proud of myself. I did something that scared me, and I did it pretty well. I’m totally going to do this 5K again next year. It’s a fun one and I think that I might have some family members trying to come to LA around that time so they can participate too!

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