Tag Archives: 5K

Getting More Serious (or I Think I Need New Shoes Before Doing Another 5K)

Posted on June 18, 2013 | Comments Off on Getting More Serious (or I Think I Need New Shoes Before Doing Another 5K)

After doing 5K #5, I expected to hurt a little. It’s the reality of my life. I ended up hurting a bit more than usual because Sunday happened to be a bad day for my hip, but that’s ok.

But I was really surprised when I was getting dressed for the rest of my day on Sunday and discovered a huge blister on the back of my right heel. The blister was about the size of a quarter and it hurt a lot!

I immediately went to check out my shoes. I thought maybe there was a little pebble in my shoe that I didn’t notice or something like that. I didn’t expect to see this.

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It’s hard to tell in the photo what is going on, so let me explain. The grey part is obviously the lining of the shoe. The yellow is the foam padding that is underneath the lining. And the white is the plastic that is used to reinforce the heel of the shoe. And on the edge of that plastic there is a piece that is breaking off. And my heel was rubbing up against that for the entire race.

It’s no wonder why I have a blister! But I don’t know why I wore my shoes down like that. These aren’t super old shoes, but I’ve had them for about 2 years. And I know that you are supposed to replace your shoes every 300 miles or so, but I guess I just thought that since I don’t do distances over 5Ks, I had more time that the 3-6 months that most websites say.

I have a tough time finding shoes that I like, and sadly the walking shoes I have now were discontinued. They are the New Balance True Balance shoes (the ones that they falsely claimed toned your legs more than other shoes). I did a search online for the shoes and while I did find some on a few sites, none of them had my size.

I’m thinking of trying to go get a real shoe fitting for new walking shoes. Since I know that my New Balance ones fit me nicely, I might bring them with me to the New Balance store in Santa Monica and see what shoes they recommend for me.

Now that I’m doing more than 1 or 2 5Ks a year (and still hope to do a 10K sometime in the future), I probably should look at taking things more seriously and not just as a hobby. I do need to be more aware of the wear on my shoes so that this doesn’t happen again (blisters suck).

Hopefully I’ll be able to make it to the New Balance store at some point this week and I can update you all on some cute new walking shoes!

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5K #5 (or It Only Took Me 6 Months To Complete A 1 Year Goal)

Posted on June 17, 2013 | 3 comments

Yesterday, I completed 5K #5. I still can’t believe that I did it! I remember when I was writing this post and wondering if I would ever get it done.

At the time I wrote that post, the 5Ks I had in mind were the Color Run, the March of Dimes March for Babies (which I ended up missing because I was at the dress fitting that day), the Revlon Run/Walk, and then doing the Universal Studios one again. That would be 4 and I figured I would find another one before the end of 2013.

I never would have guessed on January 1st that I would complete my goal by June 16th. Part of what helped me get it done was just taking the risk and signing up for races that I didn’t know well. It does make me have a bit more anxiety during the race (because I don’t know the course that well ahead of time), but I’ve learned that using Google maps I can help reduce some of my panic and be more prepared.

Anyway, back to my recap of my race yesterday. I signed up for this one because it was extremely close to my house (the start/finish line was just under a mile from my front door) and there was a discounted entry for employees of the Culver City Unified School District (technically, I am still employed there as a substitute teacher).

Yesterday morning was not my best morning. I woke up in pretty bad pain. If I didn’t have a race, I probably would have spent my morning doing stretches and waiting for painkillers to kick in. I didn’t have that option, so I did some stretches and took some painkillers and hoped for the best. Because of needing to do extra stretches, I was running late. So instead of walking to the start line, I ended up driving (looking back, I wish I rode my bike as there were areas to lock bikes up right by the start/finish line).

The 5K started before the 10K, so I went to the start line and hung to the back of the pack. And of course, I took a before picture.

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I found that shirt at Old Navy and felt it was pretty fitting since that shirt expresses how I feel about finishing a year-long goal in half the time.

I was one of the last people to start the race. One of my fears is being the last person to cross the finish line, so I tried to focus on staying ahead of at least a few people. For the first 2 miles, I was in pain. It sucked, but I pushed through (I’m only regretting that a little now as I’m still in pain). But I kept going and was very happy when I could see the finish line in my sight.

I ended up crossing the finish line 10 seconds faster than the Firefly Run, which means that I’ve taken 26 seconds off of my Hollywood Half 5K time (the first officially timed race I did this year).

And my self-portrait finish picture.

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I was very happy that 4 people finished the 5K after me, so I wasn’t last. And right after I crossed the finish line, the winner of the 10K crossed. So it was pretty cool to see that.

Sorry for the short recap of this race. It wasn’t a super eventful race for me and I was by myself so I didn’t take a ton of pictures. But it did get me to my goal, and that will make this race very memorable.

So what’s next? I still have a few other 5Ks in mind, but I don’t know if I want to set another goal (like doing 10). If I do that, it will be awesome, but I also have to keep in mind that races aren’t always the cheapest things to do. I will do the Universal Studios one again, and there’s a Santa Monica one I’m looking at towards the end of the year.

But for now, I’m just super happy that I have a nice collection of bibs and medals.

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My dad hasn’t been in town yet so my super cool medal hanger that my aunt got me is still not up yet. But it will be hopefully very soon. At least I can admire my work this way for now.

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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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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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Unexpected Injuries (or I’m Still Doing My 5K Tonight)

Posted on May 31, 2013 | 1 comment

With all the issues with my hips, I’m used to waking up in pain. It happens more days than it doesn’t. And sadly, this is probably what it will be like for me for most of my life.

What I’m not used to it waking up in the morning with pain on another part of my body. All day Wednesday, I felt fine. I didn’t do anything weird that would cause me to get injured. But when I woke up on Thursday morning, I could feel that something was wrong with my hamstring on my right side. I could bend my leg, but straightening it was very painful. Honestly, I don’t know what I did. Maybe I just slept funny.

I did some research online, and after going through all the scary websites that pretty much say you are dying no matter what the symptom is, I found some things that helped. I’m taking the same pain medications that I take for my hip and I’m also trying to do some compression on my thigh. I used an ace bandage yesterday and that really seemed to take the edge off of the pain.

I’m feeling a bit better today, but I’m still in more pain than normal. So what does this mean for the 5K that I’m doing tonight?

Nothing.

I’m still doing it no matter what. If I was on crutches, I’d possibly still do it. I got a really great outfit picked out, and I want to do 5K #4 tonight. I’m so incredibly close to the goal that I set for the end of the year, and the year is almost at the half way point.

While I was hoping that tonight I would get a better time than my 5Ks in the past, I’m not going to let myself stress out about it. It really is more important to me that I cross the finish line no matter what.

And while tomorrow is the first day of ticket sales at my work (which means a lot of craziness is going to happen), I will be able to rest for the whole day while I work (multitasking at its best!).

I promise I’ll have a 5K recap post on here in the beginning of next week! Wish me luck tonight!

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Being OK With Being Alone (or What I Learned From My 5K)

Posted on May 14, 2013 | Comments Off on Being OK With Being Alone (or What I Learned From My 5K)

Hopefully you’ve all read my recap of my 3rd 5K for the year. It wasn’t very good, but I learned some things about myself while walking.

I remember last year how incredibly nervous I was to do a 5K by myself. But once I finished it, I realized that it wasn’t too bad.

For the Color Run, I walked with friends, but that wasn’t a competitive 5K, we just wanted to have fun. And for the Hollywood Half 5K, I was by myself and kept my headphones in with some fun upbeat music going the whole time.

I walked with my friend Kate at the 5K this past weekend, and between mile 1 and 2, I turned to my friend and told her how I kind of missed doing a 5K by myself. I like being in my own world and not worrying about others. Fortunately, she completely agreed with me. It seemed to take longer to do this 5K than all the others in the past (could have something to do with the heat too).

So what Kate and I have decided to do is be virtual race buddies. We will try to do as many of the same events as possible, but we will race alone and meet up at the finish line (I’m lucky that I have a friend who doesn’t mind waiting for a slow poke like me). We will try to walk one 5K together each year, but besides that, we both want to go solo.

And if we can’t do the same race (our work schedules don’t totally match up), we will cheer the other person on virtually.

I think this is the best of both worlds. I’ll have a friend to go to the race with me (and celebrate with me after), but during the race I can focus on myself and not worry that I’m making my friend walk so slowly.

I’m glad that I’ve learned this about myself. I think that it will really make a difference in how I feel about doing 5Ks and especially 5Ks where I don’t know anybody else going.

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Revlon Run/Walk (or I Survived 5K #3!)

Posted on May 13, 2013 | Comments Off on Revlon Run/Walk (or I Survived 5K #3!)

This past Saturday was the Revlon Run/Walk event. I’m calling it a 5K, but technically it was 3.5 miles (in case you didn’t know, a 5K is 3.1 miles).

This race holds a special place in my heart. The Revlon Run/Walk in 2008 was my very first 5K. My dad and I did it together.

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Even though it was a very crowded event, my dad and I also decided to do the race in 2009.

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I hadn’t done this race since then, but since I have a goal this year to do 5 5Ks, I figured why not add this one to the list?

My best friend, Kate, also decided to do this 5K with me. She did the Hollywood Half 5K too, but she ran that and waited for me at the finish line. This time, she was willing to walk with me (and I’m grateful that she did).

The morning of the 5K, we took the lightrail to where the start line was (much easier than driving and parking there!). The race started at 9am, and as soon as we got off the train we both noticed how warm it was. We found a water station by the start line, drank some water, and waited in the shade by the start for the race to begin.

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Finally, we were off. Not moving very quickly, but we were moving. And pretty much right away, we both were feeling the heat (turns out, it was about 83 degrees when we started).

We made it to mile 1 with no problem. A little slower than I’d like, but that’s ok.

From mile 1 to mile 2, we were both starting to feel a bit cranky. It was a combination of the heat, the crowd, and I’m thinking dehydration.

After we saw the mile 2 marker, we knew we were past the halfway mark. Somehow, that last mile almost got me. We walked right past the lightrail station as we were walking. If I wasn’t so gung-ho on getting my medal at the end of the race, I might have just ended it there. I was hot, sweaty, and starting to be in pain.

Finally, we entered the coliseum, where the finish line was. We entered the tunnel to go onto the field, and was so beyond happy to literally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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We crossed the finish line, got our medals, and grabbed some water and snacks. I took a quick victory photo so I could email it to my parents.

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And then we went straight to the lightrail to go home. We were both so miserable and tired. I got sunburnt (despite wearing SPF 50 that morning) and I just wanted to get home and shower.

After I was home, I reflected a bit on this race. Honestly, it was pretty awful. Kate agreed with me that this was the most unbearable race she’s ever done (and she’s done a bunch of big ones). But I did finish, and that’s important.

There’s a picture I’ve seen on Pinterest a couple of times. It’s a photo of someone walking at a race, and the caption says “You are still lapping everyone on the couch”. That’s how I have to feel about this race. My time sucked, I had a pretty bad time, but I did it and crossed the finish line. That’s more than a lot of people could say.

Hopefully, my 5K that I have in 3 more weeks goes a lot better. Oh well. Here’s to finishing #3!

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My Pinterest Fail (or Now What Will I Wear On Saturday?)

Posted on May 6, 2013 | Comments Off on My Pinterest Fail (or Now What Will I Wear On Saturday?)

If you have been on Pinterest, I’m sure you’ve seen a pin about turning a t-shirt into a cute workout tank top (like this). I’ve seen it a ton of times, and have been looking for a good excuse to try it.

I was going to do it with my race shirt I got for the Hollywood Half 5K, but that ended up being a nice technical shirt, so I didn’t want to cut it up.

But next Saturday, I have the Revlon Run/Walk and I knew that the shirt would be a cotton one and perfect for trying this pin out.

I picked up my shirt after my work shift this past Saturday.

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No lines when I got there, so I was in and out!

As soon as I got home, I grabbed a couple of old junky shirts and tried out the tank top instructions. My first shirt was a disaster, but the second and third one came out ok (the shirts were a bit small for me, so I don’t have pictures of them).

After testing it out, I decided I was ready to do my race shirt.

I put the shirt out on my bed.

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I cut off the collar.

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I cut off the first sleeve.

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I took the cut off sleeve and used it as a pattern for the other sleeve (so they’d be even).

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(it was way more even than the picture looks)

Next, I flipped the shirt around so the bottom was toward me and cut off the bottom hem.

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I don’t have a picture of this next part, but I cut the stitching away from the bottom hem that I cut off (so all I had left was a strip of shirt with no thread). Then I stretched it out to make a long shirt string.

Next, I flipped the shirt over so I could cut a v shape out of the back.

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Then I wrapped the shirt string around the v in the back to make it a racer back top.

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So far so good, right? Wrong.

I try on the shirt and it looks like this.

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The sides were cut away too much and the back was cut way too low. I couldn’t figure out how I made such a mistake!

Finally, I realized it. All the shirts I used before fit me snuggly. So when I cut the sleeves off to make the arm holes, I followed the stitching on the sleeves. But since this shirt was big on me (I probably should have gotten it a size smaller), the sleeves were big and cutting around the stitching made the holes way too big.

I could still get away with wearing this shirt with a tank top underneath, but I don’t like how the back fits at all. Maybe I could sew it a bit so it doesn’t hang so low.

But I’m probably not going to wear this shirt to the event now. In the past, I always wore my race shirt on race day, but lately, I’ve been having a bit more fun with my race outfits.

I might wear the Superman shirt I wore for my last 5K, or maybe just a pink tank top. But after this crafting fail, I really don’t want to have to wear this shirt and have people who don’t read this blog see how badly I did!

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Boston (or Again, I Have No Words)

Posted on April 16, 2013 | Comments Off on Boston (or Again, I Have No Words)

Very few events make me speechless. Yesterday, I was at my first day back at work. I wasn’t watching the news or checking twitter. A couple of hours into my shift, I decide to do a quick twitter check (sometimes my app doesn’t let me know if my @ replies come in).

All of the sudden, I’m seeing all these posts about the Boston Marathon. At first, I was confused because I didn’t think a marathon would be on a Monday. So I decided to google it.

And after seeing what I saw, I couldn’t speak for a minute. Finally, I was able to say something to my co-workers and then after a bit I went back to work (I had to). But I kept checking twitter every so often.

I don’t understand why someone would do something so horrible. Finishing a marathon should be a moment of pure joy. Or at least I imagine it would be. I remember how happy I was when I crossed the finish line of the first 5K I did. I was with my dad, and the finish line was at the 50 yard line of the LA Coliseum.

And now that joy has been taken away from so many people.

One of the photos that has stuck with me the most was the one of the runner who fell down very close to the finish line after the first bomb went off. He was almost to the end, and then he was on the ground. I found out that this man was doing his 3rd Boston marathon and after the picture was taken, he crossed the finish line and walked back to his hotel.

That sort of resilience is amazing.

Another thing that was amazing was the incredible outpouring of support from the world. Of course there were the usual posts on twitter and Facebook, but people rushed to donate blood. There were even runners that as soon as the crossed the finish line they went straight to donate. There is a googledoc online where people posted if they had a place that someone could stay. I checked it out, and there are probably at least 1,000 posts of people who put their information out for the world to see just so they could help someone.

Why can’t there be this outpouring of love and support outside of a tragedy?

I read online that people are going to be wearing various race shirts today in support of those in Boston. While I do work in a casual office, a race shirt might be pushing it on a non-Saturday shift. So I went through my dresser and grabbed all the race shirts I had (some I don’t have any more).

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I hope that if any of you reading this are in Boston, that you are ok. And also I hope that any of you who have friends in Boston know that they are ok now too (everyone I know is fine).

I don’t have another 5K until next month, but now I’m thinking I want to do something special when I cross the finish line this time to support those who weren’t able to finish the Boston marathon because of this. If any of you have ideas I’d appreciate hearing them.

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Hollywood Half 5K (or 5K #2 For The Year!)

Posted on April 9, 2013 | 3 comments

A while back, I saw a notice on Facebook for the Hollywood Half marathon. I’m in no way prepared (or motivated enough right now) for a half marathon, but I noticed that they also had a 5K available.

Since I set a goal of doing at least 5 5Ks this year (and have only done 1 so far), I signed up. And my friend Kate signed up too (but I knew ahead of time that she would be running it).

I wasn’t able to go to the expo to pick up my bib number, so Kate grabbed it for me. But I was super excited when I got it from her and noticed that my name was on it (a first for me)!

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The 5K started at 6am, which meant a VERY early start for me. I was so terrified that I’d sleep in that I set my alarm like this.

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Getting to the 5K was a bit of an adventure. The start and finish line were just under a mile apart. No free parking (most lots would have cost about $25). But we noticed that there were subway stations near both the start and finish line (and we had both taken the subway to Hollywood before). However, the light rail that we’d have to take to the subway did not start early enough in the morning.

Spa Night Out to the rescue! I noticed that we got this in the swag bag:

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It was a $20 credit to Uber, which is basically a very fancy taxi service (if you are interested, you can use this link to get your own $10 credit). So we ended up going to the start line in a Town Car. Seemed fitting for a Hollywood event.

It was so cold that early in the morning that we hung out in the subway station to keep warm.

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Finally, it was time to line up at the start line.

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While waiting, we made a new friend with the girl behind us. Her name is Krystle and she was doing her very first 10K. And it was weird enough that her first name is the same as my brother’s fiancée (same spelling too), but it turns out her last name is the same too (we looked up at the race results to see how fast our new friend finished).

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And when we started, Kate was off and running, and I just focused on walking and not stopping at all. I had my iPhone going with a good workout mix, so I was pretty happy.

The race had an out and back sort of set up, so I watched people going past me the opposite direction for a good portion of the race. And just around the 1 mile marker, I saw Kate running at full speed towards me. We gave each other a high-five and cheered each other on.

Eventually, I crossed the finish line. It wasn’t my best time, but it was about 8 minutes faster than the 5K I did at Universal Studios, so I’m super excited about that!

I also loved that there was a step and repeat at the finish line!

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I met up with Kate at the finish line (who turns out ran so fast that she placed 3rd in our age group!) and we headed down to the subway. And we were pleasantly surprised by how cool it looked down there in the station!

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I’m so excited that I got my 2nd 5K of the year done! I’m almost 1/2 way to my goal. And I’ve just signed up for 2 more 5Ks for next month. First up will be the Revlon Run/Walk which I have done twice before. That one is actually a 5.6K (according to their website). So I’m not going to stress if my time isn’t great for that one. And then at the end of May I’m going to be doing the Firefly 5K, which is a 5K at nighttime (it will be a first for me).

Looks like my goal might have to be changed to be more than 5 5Ks, but right now, I’m super excited that I’ve done 2 so far (and got this bad ass medal)!

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