Tag Archives: race

Training For A 5K Without Planning On Doing Them (or I Think I’m Only Doing 3 5Ks This Year)

Posted on September 19, 2014 | Comments Off on Training For A 5K Without Planning On Doing Them (or I Think I’m Only Doing 3 5Ks This Year)

I’ve been thinking a lot about 5Ks lately. I was on such a streak with them last year. And I’ve talked about why I’ve eliminated 5Ks as part of my goals for the year.

But I’m thinking about them a lot because I keep getting emails to sign up for them. Some of them are races that I did last year, and some of them are just random ones from one of the various mailing lists I’m on now.

The only 5K that I have planned to do the rest of this year is the Hard Rock one. I signed up for that as soon as it was available because it was a good race to do. And I was planning on signing up for the weSPARK race, but I got a phone call a few weeks ago to let me know that that race was cancelled.

But to be honest, I wasn’t sad that it was cancelled. It was almost more of a relief that I don’t have to do it if I don’t want to.

I am signed up for one race already for next year and that’s the Hollywood Half 5K. Again, it’s a fun course (or at least it should be) and it has a nice medal so that’s always a plus in my book.

But I am doing more training, or at least what I consider training, for my 5Ks this year than ever before. Pretty much ever class at Orangetheory I’m spending about 30 minutes on the treadmill. That’s about half the time it takes me to do a 5K. The only times I don’t spend that long on the treadmill are run/row days. But a majority of the time, I’m getting in my 30 minutes.

Since I never trained on a treadmill for the races before, I’m not sure if it’s helping or not. I know it isn’t hurting, but there’s something different when the machine is forcing you to go a certain speed. I know that I have my bursts of speed and my moments of slowing down in a race, but you can’t really do that on a treadmill.

I’ve got some time before the Hard Rock race so I won’t know how the treadmill training will have worked out for a while. But I am curious to see how my body reacts to the next race. And maybe if it’s a really positive response, I’ll sign up for more races for the future.

But for now, I’m just focusing on my regular workouts and not stressing about the 5Ks yet. I know that when the Hard Rock one gets closer I will have the same fear about not being able to finish and getting picked up by the sweeper van. That’s the risk in doing a 5K only race (there’s plenty of time for me to finish when some people are doing 10Ks or 1/2 marathons).

And I am considering finding alternative types of races or competitions to try. I know another blogger who does stair climbing races, but that’s not really a possibility for me with all my hip issues. But if any of you have suggestions for other race types events, let me know!

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Culver City 5K (or 5K #2 For The Year)

Posted on June 17, 2014 | 8 comments

I’ve obviously slowed down on the number of 5Ks that I’m doing this year. In fact, at this point last year, I had just done 5K #5 (and reached my year-long goal 6 months early!). But when I had that goal in mind, I didn’t have any other workouts that I love. Now I have 2 different workouts that I’m really enjoying so my 5Ks aren’t getting the same focus that they used to.

But I’m still going to do some of my favorite races, and this past weekend was one of the ones I really enjoyed last year. It’s the Culver City 5K (if you couldn’t guess that already from the title of the post). I like this race for a few reasons. One, it’s a super flat course. I actually walk a similar path when I do some walking in my neighborhood. Two, this 5K starts and ends about 3 blocks from my house so it’s extremely easy to get to. And three, there is a discounted entry for substitute teachers of Culver City Unified (which I’m still signed up to do), so I don’t have to spend a ton of money to do the race.

This past Saturday was the bib pickup and it’s held in the parking lot of one of the schools I used to sub at a lot. It’s easy to get to and since this race is pretty small, it’s only takes about a minute to get everything done.

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Since the race is pretty much down the street from me and it had an 8am start, I didn’t have to wake up too early. But as soon as I got up in the morning, I realized that it could be a pretty warm morning. And I’ve had issues with crazy hot 5Ks in the past and haven’t liked it. So I drank a ton of water and tried to think cool thoughts as I headed over to the start line.

I was also very excited for this race because I finally got to meet a new friend in person! Lyndsay blogs on The Balance Brunette and we had connected recently over several FB groups that we are both a part of. She lives very close to me and we had been trying to meet up at a happy hour or something, but our schedules just didn’t match up. But we realized that we both were doing this 5K, so we finally got to meet!

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Originally, Lyndsay was going to run this 5K, but since some things had come up, she changed her mind and decided to walk with me. I warned her that I am slow and if she felt like she wanted to go faster she could ditch me and my feelings wouldn’t be hurt. But she said that she planned to stick with me.

Of course, I had to get a quick “before” photo of me before the race started.

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We ended up being toward the front of the pack for the start, but we stayed off to the side to make sure we didn’t make any of the runner mad.

This was one of my slowest 5Ks ever. I finished in about 1 hour and 8 minutes. But I don’t care. I know that I walked slower than I would if I was racing alone because I wanted to chat with Lyndsay while we walked. And if I had been going as fast as I could, I would be too out of breath.

We had a nice walk together just chatting about random stuff. We did a lot of chatting about blogging and the various issues we both have. We also both babysit so we talked about that as well.

And at around the one mile marker, one of the coolest things that has happened to me so far regarding this blog happened. Lyndsay and I were walking and I was telling her a funny story about a store that we were walking past when I heard someone yell, “Jen, hi!”. I turned to look who had called my name and I didn’t recognize her. Since I’m horrible with faces and names I figured I just forgot who she was. But as she came up to me she told me that she reads this blog and just wanted to say hello! How cool is that!?!? And to the woman who said hi, you totally made my day! But you didn’t say what your name was so I can’t acknowledge you properly. Hopefully you are reading this and you can comment and let me know who you are!

After finishing the 5K, Lyndsay and I had to get some victory pictures with our new race bling.

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This was actually Lyndsay’s first race where she got a medal (and I know it won’t be the last)!

Eventually we headed our separate ways to head home.

Even though this was my slowest 5K possibly ever, I totally consider this a success. I finished and I didn’t finish last (about 15 people finished after us). That’s all that matters. And I got to finally meet my new friend.

My medal holder in my living room is starting to get a bit full now. I think it looks awesome. My dad is scared that I’m reaching the weight limit on it. Hope not because I know I’ve got some more awesome race bling coming up later this year!

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More Hip Problems (or Thinking Out Of Order)

Posted on April 9, 2014 | Comments Off on More Hip Problems (or Thinking Out Of Order)

After my 5K, my right hip was pretty wrecked. I could barely walk, and when I did my hip kept locking and I couldn’t put my right foot flat on the ground (I was walking on the outside edge of my foot).

This terrified me. I was taking all my usual painkillers, but by Sunday things had just gotten worse. I could only walk if I was balancing against a wall and not putting much weight on my right side.

All this time, I assumed that the next part of my journey with my hip issues would be to have the surgery on my left hip that has already been done on my right. And then the steps after that would eventually be hip replacements. That’s pretty much the order that things were explained to me. In fact, my surgeon didn’t think I would make it 5 years after my first surgery before I needed the surgery on my left side (this was almost 8 years ago).

So for forever, I’ve been cautious about how my left hip felt. I got nervous with any pain and if things just didn’t feel right.

I never thought that maybe the next step in my surgeries would be on my right side again.

I talked to my parents about it and we all thought that I should wait to see if the pain went away on its own. It’s now Tuesday as I type this and while the pain isn’t gone, it has gotten better. I’m not rushing to make an appointment with my surgeon just yet, but I’m thinking differently now.

I have another 5K coming up this month and I’ll see how I feel after it. Maybe it was just this one 5K with the long time standing still and the elevation changes that made me hurt so bad. Maybe it was because I wasn’t prepared for the hills (like I am with the weSPARK 5K).

It has just thrown me since for so long, I’ve tried to ignore any pain I feel on my right side. I’ve almost considered having some pain normal now. I know that things aren’t exactly how they should be in my body and to me, expecting pain doesn’t seem weird. But now I’m going to pay way more attention to all those twinges of pain.

They could be a sign that I might need my next surgery on my right hip sooner than I hoped (I really didn’t want to have to have a hip replacement before I turn 40 and that’s kind of what my surgeon said to me as well). There’s not much I can do to prevent all of this. I just have to accept it as it is (which I have done) and know what’s best for my body.

Now I’m glad I didn’t make a goal of a certain number of 5Ks for this year so I can focus on low or no impact workouts (like spinning).

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Hollywood Half 5K (or Not Starting Off My 2014 5Ks In The Best Way)

Posted on April 7, 2014 | Comments Off on Hollywood Half 5K (or Not Starting Off My 2014 5Ks In The Best Way)

My first 5K of the year was this past Saturday. I had been looking forward to this for a while, but it ended up not being so great.

It started out on Thursday when I went to go pick up my bib number. I didn’t get my number for last year’s race because my friend Kate was doing the 5K as well and got both of our packets for us. So I didn’t know quite what to expect at the expo. Well, it was crazy! It took me about an hour to find parking, and once I got inside, there were so many vendor booths. I’m used to just going to a place where you pick up your number and that’s pretty much all that’s there. But this place had a ton of people inside and so many things for sale. I tried to get my number and shirt quickly and head out (I had parked at a meter and didn’t pay for a lot of time). Of course, as soon as I got back in my car, I had to get a selfie with my race number.

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On Friday night, I tried to go to bed early and I set multiple alarms to make sure I would get up in time.

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Fortunately, I woke up about 2 minutes before the first alarm, so that was pretty awesome. I hate waking up to the jarring sound of an alarm clock! I had a little bit of chocolate milk before leaving (I found that that’s easy enough on my stomach and I need to have a little something so I could take my painkillers) and I headed out the door.

Getting to the recommended parking lot wasn’t so great. They actually ended up blocking off the street right before you could turn into the lot. But I followed some other cars, made a couple of legally questionable u-turns, and was finally able to make it into the parking lot (I have no idea why they told us to park there if you couldn’t legally drive into the lot).

I got to the start line at about 5am. The race was set to start at 6 and it was very clear on the website that nobody was allowed to start after 6:15 so I wanted to make sure I was there nice and early.

I hung out around the start line for a bit.

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And then I saw a friend of mine (who is also a blogger) who was going to be a course angel for the 1/2 marathon.

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As a course angel, she raced to mile 9 and they stayed there and cheered on all the runners as they passed her. Then, after the last runner went by, she continued running her race.

After chatting with my friend for a minute, I realized that it was 5:40 and I should head back to my corral. I somehow moved up a couple of corrals compared to last year, but since I figured there might be runners behind me, I made sure I was on the very side (so I would be out of the way).

6am came, and nothing seemed to happen. For the next 20 minutes, my corral never moved forward. We had no idea if the race had even started. All that standing around was starting to hurt me, but I tried not to focus on that.

Finally, we started to move up. At 6:30am, we still hadn’t started yet.

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That was my best attempt of getting a picture of my watch (saying 6:29) and showing how far away we still were from the start line. We finally started around 6:35am and as soon as we got going, I realized that the course had been changed.

Last year the course was out and back (although the start and finish line were not in the same place). According to the website a few days before the race, that’s exactly what the race was supposed to be this year.

But as soon as we started, we turned a corner and walked down a side street (it was a slight downhill incline so we had to do the uphill to go back to Hollywood Blvd.). We ended up doing a couple of those side streets and all of them had at least a little elevation.

I was definitely not happy about this. Right when I started, my right hip (the one that has already had one surgery on it) started to hurt. The elevation changes did not help at all. But I pushed through. It was not a pretty race for me at all. I did enjoy some of the cool costumes, though. This one was the absolute best.

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I crossed the finish line in 1:03.36. That’s about 6 minutes slower than what I was doing toward the end of last year. While I was happy that I finished, I was pretty pissed that I was over the 1 hour mark again.

But I was very happy to get my medal and loved that it was a new color this year.

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After the race, I took the subway back to the start line (so I could get my car) and starting chatting with a few of the other racers. A bunch of people were unhappy about the side streets and their elevation changes. And people thought the race seemed long this year.

I went home and looked to see if the new course had been put on the website, and it had through Map My Run.

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This is almost what we did (except it’s missing 1 of the side streets we had to walk up and back on ). Even with it missing the street, it’s still longer than a 5K. With that missing street added on, I bet it was closer to 3.3 miles. That would help to explain my longer time.

While it wasn’t my best race, I still did it. I’m not doing as many 5Ks this year, so I’m being pretty selective about which races I sign up for. Right now, I’m unsure if I’ll do this one again next year. I’ll probably end up signing up for it because it is a fun event and people there are pretty nice.

My next 5K is a charity walk for the March of Dimes. And today happens to be the 5 year anniversary of Heather and Mike Spohr’s daughter, Maddie, passing away. I’m walking in memory of Maddie for this 5K and I’m hoping to raise some money for this event. If any of you could donate anything, I know that it would go a long way. And if you are in the LA area and want to join us, please feel free to join the team. All that information is on this link.

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Fake Inspiration (or I’m Not A Beginner)

Posted on March 11, 2014 | Comments Off on Fake Inspiration (or I’m Not A Beginner)

I have lots of websites that I read every day. One of those is Jezebel. I think they’ve got some interesting stories and even if I don’t always agree with their opinion, the articles are different from what I read on other sites.

Yesterday on Jezebel, I saw an article about a post that someone had written on Facebook congratulating an overweight person for running. The entire article is here, but I’ll give you a quick summary. Basically, the person was saying that it must be so hard to run when you are carrying double the weight of the average person and how great it is that they aren’t giving up. That was weird to read.

But what got to me was the updated version of the article where someone had written a response. I don’t think the response was written by the actually person that the Facebook post was talking about, but they get the point.

The response is saying that they shouldn’t be congratulating the overweight person for trying. They are a runner, just like anyone else. And that nobody has any idea of the journey that the person has gone through so far and what part of the journey that they are currently on.

I totally get this. I’ve written about something similar that has happened to me at SoulCycle. And I still feel like people look at me there as someone who is new, not someone who has been there for over a year.

I’ve also had similar things happen to me at various 5Ks that I’ve done. I remember when I did the Hard Rock one, there was someone at the finish line who came up to me to say that they thought I was very brave for doing a 5K and being able to finish. When I told them that that was my 7th 5K for the year, they were in shock and didn’t really say anything to me afterwards.

Same thing happened at the Christmas Run. Someone who was walking back as I was trying to cross the finish line stopped to give me a high-five. Normally, that would be awesome. But then they said that I should be so proud that I’m going to be able to say that I’m finally a finisher.

I had said that I was a finisher in 8 other 5Ks in 2013 before that one. And about half a dozen other 5Ks that I’ve done other years.

It’s really annoying. I know that people mean well and think that they are encouraging me, but it’s really condescending. They are obviously judging me by my appearance and thinking that I’m a beginner.

If people just want to congratulate me on finishing or encourage me to keep going, that’s fine. But you don’t have to add something about me doing this for the first time.

Because my wall makes it very clear that I am a 5K racer. No matter what I look like. I am a finisher and there’s no denying that.

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5K Update (or Why It’s Not A Goal For This Year)

Posted on March 7, 2014 | Comments Off on 5K Update (or Why It’s Not A Goal For This Year)

I had a friend ask me recently when my next 5K would be. They had read about all the 5Ks I had done last year and wondered if I was going to set a new 5K goal for 2014.

Before this year started, I had signed up for 2 5Ks. I signed up for the Hollywood Half 5K again because I had a great time at that race last year. I also had signed up for the Bad Prom 5K because it was cheap when you did it super early.

Yesterday, I got an email that the Bad Prom 5K was cancelled, so I’ll be getting a refund for that race. So as of right now, I’m only doing 1 5K. I’m thinking about doing the Hard Rock 5K again (if they have it again), the Universal Studios one for the 4th time, and the Culver City one since it’s in my neighborhood. And I’m thinking about also maybe doing the Christmas one again (but I really hope that it wouldn’t rain again).

If I end up doing all of those, I’ll do 5 this year. I think that’s pretty awesome, but I’m not going to hold myself to that. If I can’t do one, I’m not going to beat myself up over it.

While I do enjoy doing the 5Ks, I’ve realized that they are not my favorite thing. I will always do some of them, but I don’t feel the need to push myself to do more. If there’s a race that I feel passionate about the cause or it sounds super fun, I’ll do it. But I don’t want to force myself to do them anymore.

When I had set my goal for 2013, walking and doing those 5Ks were a majority of the exercise I got. But since I’ve discovered SoulCycle I’ve found that I love doing that workout. So 5Ks have faded a bit into the background for me.

Also, those races are expensive. Each one is about $30-40. I do dream of doing the Disneyland 5K one day, and that one is even more expensive. So I’m choosing to be more selective in order to do that.

As of right now, my first race is about a month away. I haven’t trained for it as much as I did last year, so I’m a little nervous about it. I’m going to get a ton of walking in soon when I go to New York with my sister-in-law. Hopefully that will help. And I’m going to start training for it in my neighborhood as well (somehow, this next race has kind of snuck up on me).

And of course, as soon as I do my races, I’ll post my photos and stories on here! But don’t be surprised if I don’t have as many stories to share this year as I did last year.

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5K #9 (or I Still Don’t Like The Rain)

Posted on December 10, 2013 | Comments Off on 5K #9 (or I Still Don’t Like The Rain)

5K #9 was this past Saturday. And before I recap my race, here’s a little information about me.

I hate the rain.

Well, I guess that’s not completely true. I like the rain when I can stay inside and not have to deal with it. I will avoid running errands in the rain if I can help it. And while I do own umbrellas, I never remember to use them (or it takes too long to close them up when I’m getting into my car so I get wetter than if I was not using an umbrella). I’m definitely a California girl who prefers sunshine to anything else.

And of course, the forecast for race day was rain. Lots of rain.

On Friday, I went to get my race number and shirt after work. I was lucky that the pickup location was only a few blocks from work, so it was easy to get over there.

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I went to bed hoping that the forecast was wrong. Or maybe that the rain would stop during the race.

When I woke up, this is what the forecast looked like.

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See that dot that says Santa Monica? That’s where I was going. And it was going to be raining for a long time.

My friend Kate was also doing this race (she was going to run it so we weren’t necessarily racing together), so I picked her up and we headed over to the race area. We lucked out in finding a parking meter about a block from the start/finish line so we hung out in the car until it was closer to the start time. I took my before picture in the car because I didn’t want to get wet.

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Once it was almost race time, we headed over to the start. Kate went up to the front of the pack with the fast runners and I hung back with the slow runners/walkers. It was drizzling at the start, so while I wasn’t happy about rain, it wasn’t too bad.

I’d say for the first 1.5 miles, it was drizzling with an occasional quick shower of rain. Not great, but not horrible. But right before I got to the 2 mile marker, it started to pour. I’m talking sheets of rain where it was hard for me to see. I was absolutely soaked. My clothes had water dripping off of them.

I finally finished (in under an hour so I’m happy about that) and headed back to the car where Kate was waiting for me (she wanted to get out of the rain too). I had Kate take a quick after photo of me, but you can’t tell how drenched I got.

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And even though I don’t like the rain and hated being wet, I’m smiling because I did it! Not only did I do another 5K (and almost double what my goal was for this year), I did one in the rain, which is something that I never thought I’d do. I don’t know if I’d like to do another race in the rain, but if I’m signed up for one and it happens to be raining that day, now I know that I can finish it.

I can’t believe I’m done with my 2013 races. When I set the goal to do 5 this year, I thought that would be a stretch. I’m really proud of myself that I did beyond my goal. I’m looking forward to the ones I’m planning on doing in 2014. I’m not necessarily going to focus on the number of races, but I want to sign up for ones that seem like they would be super fun to do.

And of course, I’ll keep doing recaps of the ones that I do end up doing next year.

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The Sorority Nobody Wants To Belong To (or Getting Support From Strangers)

Posted on November 13, 2013 | Comments Off on The Sorority Nobody Wants To Belong To (or Getting Support From Strangers)

I wanted to share another story from the weSPARK 5K this past Sunday.

After the 5K was over, I spent some time at the expo by the finish line. I was having some serious shin splints (I think it was due to the crazy hill) and I wanted to stretch for a bit before I sat in my car to drive home.

I decided to watch the medals being given out to the winners of the 5K and 10K and the top 3 finishers in each age group. They didn’t announce the times for the winners, but I know that they finished extremely quickly.

As I was watching, the woman who got 2nd place in her age group approached me and asked me if I would take a photo of her and her friend. Of course I said yes. The friend of the 2nd place winner (sadly, I never got either of their names) had never done a 5K before this race, so they were both celebrating.

I congratulated them both and then noticed the hats that they both were wearing which said that they were breast cancer survivors. I mentioned to them that my mom is going through treatment for breast cancer, and it was like instantaneously we were friends.

They both asked me what type of cancer and what stage it is. They wanted to know what treatments she’s had already and what treatments she has coming up. And they wanted to know how she was doing. I shared her information with them and they both shared their stories with me.

While I’ve noticed that since I’ve shared my mom’s story with others that people have been sharing their stories with me. There are friends that I never knew had family members with breast cancer who have told me how well their family members have been doing. I know this might sound horrible, but it’s almost like now I’m a member of a secret club or sorority. As soon as someone who has gone through this learns what my family is going through, they take me under their wing.

It’s kind of nice because this is a big unknown for my family and I appreciate getting advice and hearing stories of how well people are doing after cancer.

I know that sometimes it seems like everything is about breast cancer and not about other cancers (and I’ve read plenty of stories about pink items not going to support breast cancer charities). But I appreciate that so many people are willing to share their stories with me and giving me and my family support.

And to the ladies that I spoke to on Sunday, I’m sorry that I didn’t get your names and properly introduce myself. But thank you for sharing your stories with me and for wishing my mom the best.

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Posted in Family, Health, Tough Stuff

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5K #8 (or I Conquered The Big Hill)

Posted on November 12, 2013 | Comments Off on 5K #8 (or I Conquered The Big Hill)

This past Sunday was 5K #8, the weSPARK 5K at Universal Studios. This was my 3rd year doing this race, so I felt pretty prepared for it. This was also the end of my crazy 2 weeks doing 3 5Ks.

On Saturday after my work shift, I drove out to the valley to pick up my race number.

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I noticed while I was picking up my number that the race course was different from the past 2 years. This year, I wouldn’t get to walk past Bates Motel/House (where I worked at Halloween Horror Nights for 3 years). There was also some changes to the giant hill. The start/finish in the past were right next to the hill, so you went down it at the start of the race and up it at the very end. This year, the hill was toward the end of the course. You went up it and immediately down it toward the finish line. Also, in the past there was a flat street that you walked on in the middle of the uphill, this year it was during the downhill.

I was a little annoyed by the course changes, but since I knew this course had the hill, I wasn’t planning on worrying about my time so much this race. I got my PR a week prior and this time all I wanted to focus on was taking one break on the uphill (the last year I took 2 breaks).

The morning of the race was very cold, but bright and sunny.

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I knew it would warm up quickly so I wasn’t wearing a sweatshirt or long-sleeved shirt. Before I knew it, the different groups were getting organized by the starting line. I found the area for 5K walkers and got a quick before picture in.

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The race this year started by going next to the LA River. It isn’t very pretty, but it’s relatively flat. Next we went past Amblin/Dreamworks. There were security guards yelling at everyone that there were no pictures allowed, so I couldn’t get a picture of the E.T. crossing sign like last year.

Next, we headed to the backlot sets. We went past the courthouse from “Back To The Future” and there was one of the DeLorean out there for a photo-op. There was a huge line, so I took a photo while walking past it.

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We did more walking around the backlot and sound stages (I was focused on walking and didn’t take any pictures for this part). And before I knew it, the giant hill was approaching.

It starts out like this.

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You go around a corner and think you are getting close and then there are about 4 sections that look like this.

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It was a much longer hill than the past years (due to not walking through the Bates Motel/House section). We also walked up to the top of the hill instead of stopping toward the top where the finish line used to be. My hips were killing me and I was pretty out of breath, but I kept going. And before I knew it, I saw where everyone was turning around. I seriously appreciated the cheering section at the top of the hill by the water station. I turned around to go back down the hill without ever taking a break!

On the way back down, I noticed a golf cart heading by me. Lea Thompson, who was the celebrity who started the race, was in the back of the cart and waved right at me. Of course I took the opportunity for a picture while I walked behind her.

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I’m kind of curious to see how the official race that was taken at this moment will look.

We walked through the little Europe section and I knew I had to be close to the finish line. I looked at my watch at realized that I was going to finish either right at or right under an hour. That’s significantly faster than I though I could do with the hill.

Finally, I made it to the end! My watch said 59:37, but I know that I started it a little early and stopped it a little late. So I went over to where the printed official race results were posted (which, by the way, I love that this is being done at the race now).

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59:27! Another 5K in under an hour! It’s only about a minute slower than the Hard Rock Cafe 5K and that one was on a very flat course!

I got a quick victory photo with my medal.

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I’m so happy that I got 5K #8 done and with an amazing time! My next (and probably last) 5K for the year isn’t for a few weeks, so I have time to recover and hopefully get a bit faster. But for now, here’s to #8!

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By the way, there’s still some time to help me reach my fundraising goal for this race! Donations are being accepted though the end of this month!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff

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2 Out Of 3 Done (or I’m Surprised I’ve Done Well So Far)

Posted on November 8, 2013 | Comments Off on 2 Out Of 3 Done (or I’m Surprised I’ve Done Well So Far)

Back when I signed up for 5K #6, #7, and #8 I had no idea how close together they were scheduled. I wasn’t really paying attention to the dates. But once I realized that all 3 5Ks would be within 2 weeks, I started to freak out a little.

I’ve never done so many races in a row. And this grouping included 2 races within the same week.

Now, I do walk around my neighborhood and get close to 3 miles when I walk, but there’s something different about a race. You are all hyped up and push yourself.

And I was scared that I would push myself too far and wouldn’t be able to do all 3 races.

Well, besides this killer cold I have right now, I’m feeling pretty awesome! I thought I’d be sore, but I’m making sure I take a pain pill before the 5K so I don’t hurt too much afterwards.

I’m not sure how I’m going to feel after Sunday, but what I do know is that if I feel horrible afterwards, it’s more likely due to my cold and not from the 5K. If I can do 2 races in 1 week, I can do this next one which is just over a week after the last.

I don’t think that I’m going to be making weekly 5Ks a regular occurrence. First of all, they are a bit expensive. Each race is about $30 and that adds up. Also, there aren’t that many races that I want to do. I’ve been on the lookout for 1 more race to add this year (so I can do 10 in 2013), but honestly, all the races I can do don’t seem interesting to me (or are on crazy hills). Also, with some of these 5Ks, I’m missing days at work. While my boss doesn’t mind, I’m basically losing money by doing them. This might change when I find a new job, but for now I have to work around the schedule I have now.

I have signed up for 2 races for 2014 so far, and it turns out that they are within a week of each other. So I know I’ll have another back to back race adventure in the spring, but I’m going to try to be a bit more mindful of race dates in the future.

Wish me luck with 5K #8 please! It is the one with the crazy hill and I’m still not able to breathe through my nose yet. I promise to recap the race next week!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

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