Tag Archives: Hard Rock Cafe

Hard Rock Cafe 5K Take 2 (or Trying To Not Be Frustrated With A PR)

Posted on November 11, 2014 | 9 comments

This past Saturday was the Hard Rock Cafe 5K. You may remember that I PRed on this race last year. I also recently learned a lot more about the charity that this race helps out, My Friend’s Place.

I’ve never done treadmill training prior to a race before. All my walking training has been on city streets, and I don’t do that too often. It’s not super safe with traffic and the sidewalks (if there are any) aren’t too even. So for all my past races, I hadn’t training probably as much as I should.

But this time, I’ve been spending about an hour and a half each week on a treadmill (1/2 of an hour-long class 3 times a week). And while those treadmill segments have been tough on me because of all the incline work we do, I’ve never gone into a race feeling this prepared.

But I had never really been this nervous either. My last race was back in June for the Culver City 5K, and that was my worst 5K time ever. But that was also a race that I did before I started at Orangetheory.

Packet pick up on Friday was very easy. It was the same place it was last year, so I was able to get in and out in less than 10 minutes (not easy to do when you are at a major tourist attraction in Hollywood). I got home and got my bib number ready as well as a shirt that I bought just for this race.

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I also went to get my usual race bag ready. When I went to grab my personal heart rate monitor, I saw this.

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I haven’t used it in a while since I use the heart rate system at Orangetheory. I’m sure that all it needs is a new battery, but I wasn’t going to run around town trying to find a watch store that was still open. So I decided to download the Map My Run app on my iPhone and use that to time myself (more on that in a minute).

I set multiple alarms for 5am, because I’m always nervous that I won’t wake up. Except this time, I woke up at 3am and could not get back to sleep. I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t going to sleep anymore around 4:45am and started to get ready.

It was an easy drive in the dark to get to the race start. I parked, and by the time I was on the street, the sun was coming up.

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I thought that I would be alone for this entire race, but a fellow blogger, Anne, decided to start the race walking with me. We got started pretty quickly and I felt like we were going a good pace. Anne stuck with me for about the first 10 minutes, but she had planned on running, so after 10 minutes she said that she’d meet me at the finish line and was off.

I was in a groove during this race. I had added some new songs to my race mix on my phone and I was keeping up with the pack of people (not getting passed every second like last year).

Then, all of a sudden the Map My Run app spoke to me over my music. It had said that just over 17 minutes had passed and I had done 1 mile.

I was shocked! At Orangetheory I average about 18:45 a mile. But I thought that maybe I was going a lot faster than I thought. But then about a minute later, I passed the 1 mile marker.

I was confused, but I kept going. Each time the app talked to me, I was averaging about a 17 minute mile but I wouldn’t see the official mile marker until about a minute later. I didn’t know if the course was long or if the app was off. Either way, I was making great time and I wasn’t hurting nearly as much as I usually do.

The halfway point was great to see. I was thinking of this race as about 2 treadmill sections at Orangetheory (since I’m on the treadmill just about 30 minutes each class). As I turned around and walked the other direction, I realized just how many people were still behind me! This was not at all like last year where at the half way point I was in the last 5 people and the van to pick people up was right on my tail.

I got closer and closer to the finish line and again at the 3 mile point, my app told me that I had done 3 miles well before I saw the official marker. But I knew that the finish line was close and I hurried up.

I crossed the finish line and looked at the timer on the app. It said 56:53 and that the race was 3.36 miles. I was really confused about the distance listed. I ended up finding someone who had a GPS watch and asked him what his watch said the distance was. He said it was 3.11. So clearly, my app was off and all my mile times it was telling me was wrong.

While I waited for the official time to be posted, I tried not to be mad and just look at the awesome medal I earned!

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When my official time was posted, I did the race in 56:52! That’s a huge improvement for me! About 10 minutes fast than my 5K in June and just about a minute and a half faster than my old PR!

I was so happy to have a new PR, but I was pretty pissed about the app lying to me. If I try to use it again for another race, I might just ignore the distance it says and just look at the stopwatch feature since that was pretty accurate.

I found Anne at the finish line and she got a PR as well! We took some victory pictures and then we each had to head home (I was in serious need of a nap).

When I got home, I took a quick shower and noticed that even getting home I was not feeling as sore as I usually do. I normally have issues with my feet and hips hurting after a race, and the only pain I was feeling this time was some tightness in my legs and the pain from a massive blister that pops and shredded the skin (it looks super gross and I will spare you all from having to see a picture of it).

Even now, a few days after my race, I’m not feeling my usual pain. Seriously, my Orangetheory workouts have been paying off! Even if the scale isn’t going down the way I feel it should, the non-scale victories keep showing up! If I’m able to do more races without my usual pain, I might consider doing more races or even thinking about trying for a 10K one day (I had really given up on that dream).

While I’m still a little down that I was so excited to hear on the app that I was doing 17 minute miles when that wasn’t true, I’m trying to only focus on the positives. And what made me smile even more than getting a PR that day was putting on all the medals that I’ve earned over the past 2 years and seeing how far I’ve come.

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My medal holder is starting to look full, but I know that there is room for whatever races I end up doing next year.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

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Lunch and Learn (or Learning More About My Next 5K)

Posted on October 8, 2014 | 3 comments

I was recently invited to be a part of a blogger lunch and learn for the Hard Rock Cafe 5K. I was so excited to attend since this will be my second year participating in this 5K.

The first part of the lunch and learn was the lunch section of it. We were brought back into a private room at the Hard Rock Cafe at Hollywood and Highland and we were given a sample of some of their appetizers.

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It was all super delicious (and my share of what was on our table was pretty much my meal for the day).

While we were eating, I was seated with 2 other bloggers and a representative from My Friend’s Place. My Friend’s Place is a center for homeless youth and is the official charity for the Hard Rock Cafe 5K. They were actually the charity for last year as well, but I’m embarrassed to admit that I signed up for the race because I wanted the medal and not because of the charity.

During lunch I learned a lot about My Friend’s Place including some of the programs that they offer to help get youth off of the streets and into safe places. I also learned that they are one of the rare homeless organizations that will let people bring their pets with them (although the pets do stay outside).

I was so interested to learn more about My Friend’s Place and fortunately the second half of the Lunch and Learn was a tour of the facility and to learn even more about it!

It was a short drive over and as soon as I got inside, I noticed how different it looked from other homeless organizations I’ve seen around LA.

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They make it as cheerful and homey as possible. We started our tour in the entry room where people come in each day (sadly, the center is only open during the daytime and weekdays right now).

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At the front desk, everyone can get clean socks and underwear. It’s the little things that can make you feel like a new person. We learned that they have to buy men’s briefs because they are cheaper, but they would love a donation of new boxers to give out (I’m hoping to make a Costco run to pick some up to donate). At the front they also have a mail service. Anyone who wants to get mail at their address can do so. And they can use the address to get a state ID card. I never thought about it before, but you cannot get an ID without an address.

Next on the tour was a room right off of the entry way. And it was not something I was expecting to see.

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A circus classroom! Cirque du Monde is a program that was created by Cirque du Soleil. While it might seem silly to have a circus program at a homeless shelter, there is a lot of good that can come from people learning circus tricks. Many of the homeless youth have not been in environments where they can trust others. But in Cirque du Monde, they have to be able to trust the instructors and have respect for the lessons.

After we learned a bit about the program, we were given a chance to walk on the wire in the room. I jumped up and was the first to go.

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It was awesome! I was able to go up and back and it felt amazing. After I went, all the other bloggers tried it out and realized how great of a confidence booster an activity like this is.

Next we toured the classroom where they have GED classes and tutoring as well as computers for the youth to use.

Next to that was the clothing room.

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While it looks full, they can always use more donations of clothes and shoes.

We then headed upstairs to see the mothering program room.

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They have parenting classes and are able to provide diapers for little kids. And they mentioned an amazing idea for people to donate diapers. When your kid outgrows the size of diapers you have at home, donate the extra ones so that they will have some to give out! They don’t mind that it isn’t a full box. Any diapers are helpful.

We also learned about some of the other programs that are available at the center such as legal aid, health services, life skills (like finding a job and permanent housing), and counseling.

Honestly, while I have volunteered at homeless shelters before, I never learned as much about homelessness (and homeless youth) as I did during the Lunch and Learn. I know that when I have money to donate to charity, this is going to be one of the first places on my list to get money. These kids need help and many times they don’t have anywhere else to turn.

I highly encourage everyone to learn more about My Friend’s Place and donate either goods or money if you can. And if you want to join me for the Hard Rock Cafe 5K, you can still register and get an awesome medal as well as help an incredible organization.

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

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5K #7 (or I Was Prepared For The Worst And Got The Best)

Posted on November 5, 2013 | 4 comments

This past Saturday was 5K #7, the first annual Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood 5K.

But before I talk about the 5K, I want to come clean about something on here. I’ve been posting about 5Ks for a while now, but I’ve never discussed my times on here. I’ve only mentioned if I got a better time than I did previously. That’s because I’ve been embarrassed about how long it takes me to do a 5K. I have lots of friends who do 5Ks and they talk about how they want to get under 30 minutes or 25 minutes.

Well, I’ve been dreaming about getting a 5K under 1 hour. I haven’t had a 5K under an hour in a very long time (possibly 4 or 5 years). Most of my 5Ks this year have been around 1:01 or 1:02, so I’ve been close (5K #6 was at 1:03:15 with all the hills).

Now that I’ve come clean about my race times, back to my race recap!

I had signed up for this race a while ago because it sounded fun and had almost of the same race course as the Hollywood Half 5K (which I really enjoyed). But the week before the race, I noticed in an email that they had sent to me that there was a 18 minute mile pace requirement! Based on my past 5Ks, I’m closer to a 20.5 minute or 21 minute mile. I’ve seen the sweeper vans pick people up from the course on other races, but it’s never happened to me before. But now I was terrified that I was going to be disqualified due to my slow time at this race. I tried to forget about it, but I was seriously having nightmares about it.

On Friday after work, I went down to Hollywood and Highland to pick up my race number and shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe. I had a chance to talk to one of the race organizers, and she reassured me that they would not have a sweeper van coming to pick up slow racers. I didn’t have to worry about the 18 minute mile pace time. As long as I could finish within 2 hours I was ok.

I was much happier after hearing that and was starting to get excited again for the race.

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The race had a 7am start time, plus I needed to give myself enough time to drive over and park, so I was planning on getting up pretty early (at least for me). I was terrified that I was going to oversleep, so my alarm looked like this.

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Fortunately, when the 5:00am alarm went off, I jumped out of bed. I was still a bit nervous for the race, but I kept reminding myself that I didn’t have to worry about pace time.

I drove to Hollywood and Highland again for the race while it was still very dark out. But many of the buildings on Hollywood Blvd. were lit up so that was pretty cool.

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I got a pre-race photo (I look so red because I am illuminated from the Hard Rock Cafe sign).

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And before I knew it, we were lining up at the start line to start the race. Just before the start gun went off, the sun started to come up.

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It was actually really nice! A majority of the racers were runners, so pretty much everyone was either in front of me or passed me as some point. Since the race was an out and back one, I watched people as they flew past me headed toward the finish line (the guy who got 1st in this race did it in under 15 minutes).

I focused on keeping a steady pace and not stressing about my time. I was so focused that I actually missed seeing the 1 mile marker! I like to check my time around then just to get an idea of my pace. But when I saw the turn around point, I checked my time. And shockingly, I was on pace to be at just under an hour!

I didn’t want to get too excited, but I focused on maintaining the pace that I had done the first half with. I just paid attention to my music and kept putting one foot in front of the other.

All of the sudden, I thought I saw the finish line coming up ahead of me. I checked my watch out of curiosity, and I was still on pace to be under an hour! Somehow, I sped up in the last part (maybe because of the excitement), and I crossed the finish line. The official clock was somewhere in the range of 59 minutes, so I knew I had done it in under an hour for sure. My watch said 58:34, but I wanted to seem my official time.

First, I had to get my super awesome medal.

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Best medal I’ve ever gotten!

Finally, I headed over to the board with all the official times on it. And when I found my name, I knew that my time was amazing!

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I did this 5K in 58:32! That’s almost 5 minutes faster than the 5K I had done 6 days earlier!

I’m still in shock that I got my 5K under an hour! I have another 5K this upcoming Sunday, but since it’s the weSPARK walk with the crazy hill, I’m not too focused on what my time will be (I’m still hoping to get closer to my fundraising goal if any of you can donate a dollar or two).

I was so prepared to be disqualified for this race and it ended up being the best race I’ve done in a very long time! I’m so happy that this was a positive experience and I plan on doing this race again next year!

5K #7 is done!

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