Surf City was a super fun race and I’m really glad I got to run it with some of my favorite girls. A full race report will be up most likely tomorrow! Stay tuned for some fun videos and pictures. Luckily it didn’t rain and everything went off without much problems.
Aron, The Birthday Girl Kristin and myself right around mile 5. It was such a nice day out and everything was so clear and clean! Thank goodness for no rain!
On the ‘out and back’ part of the race. It’s a FAR way out and a FAR way back in. Great day though with some of my favorite people! Billy also ran with us too.
The superbowl was great too! I’m glad the Saints won, and there were some good commercials, my favorite. There was also some good chips and dip. :)
I have the race report, a giveaway and a cool review of the new KSwiss store in Santa Monica. KSwiss is partnered with the LA Marathon so I went up there to get some cool LA Marathon gear this weekend and it was so cool. Can’t wait to post the review! Today is a rest day and I feel fine after yesterday. Guess all those marathons toughened me up! Check out my article on the Examiner about when Saucony came to the local running store. There is even a slide show of pictures to click through. Enjoy!
So last year we all may or may not remember my wonderful race I had at Surf City, or what I lovingly refer to as Surf Shitty. I had a horrible race and was really upset with myself for a long time after that. I was on a PR mad streak before that race and I wanted to PR at Surf City. Looking back I realized that I was dumb and that wasn’t very ‘me’. Looking back always makes you realize that it wasn’t THAT important and that you will get another chance at things. Though I still have yet to break my PR in the half, the remainder of my year last year was taken up with marathons… and will someone remind me how THAT happened? Back to Surf City, I always talk about how time is not important to me (relatively speaking) and at last year’s Surf City race, I, just like so many, got way too caught up in times and pr’s and the pressure of it all and cracked when I didn’t hit my goal time. My time goal for that race was anything under 1:46:00. That could mean 1:45:59 or 1:45:45, but what did I end up with? 1:46:00. Literally :00. Wow.
Earlier this year I plotted revenge on the course and started training pretty hardcore to smash my PR. Alas, it rained for what seemed like 200 days, errr seven, and also I have begun training for the LA Marathon. So PR plan went right out the window and I’m at peace with that. Then my friend and running twin, Aron, told me she was running the race and a bunch of my other friends are coming down for the race and we could run it the same way we ran San Fran last year, which was one of my FAVORITE races just because I ran it with so many great friends. Sniff, Sniff, getting emotional here. I love all my girls in San Fran and miss them a lot and having Kristen and Aron here this weekend will be a blast! I’m super excited to enjoy the run and just go out and cruise and piddle fart around on the course taking pictures and stupid videos. We still have a time goal of sub-2, which should be attainable, but I know this race will get me amp’ed up for the LA Marathon and I’m excited to go out and just enjoy myself, run and smile.
This time the race will not consist of me hating the entire race, scowling at everyone around me, being a giant grump and so obsessed with my time that I can’t even function but it will be different. It will consist of me wearing my beloved monkey buns with big bows, my favorite color to run in, pink, and being surrounded by some of my favorite people while laughing and having a great time. Which is what racing should be. Also, the weather heard my complaining earlier in the week and I am crossing my fingers the storm travels on the path as planned and will be gone by Sunday morning!
With only 10% of precipitation chance, that is looking much better. We wouldn’t want any of my witchiness to melt while running now would we? Now storm just stay on course and get out of town by Sunday and everything will be wonderful! Then we have Super bowl, where I don’t really care who wins, but I am partial to both Manning brothers, and since my boy Eli won it in 2008, it’d be cool to see Payton win it this year. Then again, I love Reggie Bush and would love to see the Saints win it for New Orleans. Here’s why I love Reggie, and this is the most ‘girl in sports’ reasoning. I love the show Keeping up with the Kardashians, therefore, I love Kim Kardashian, therefore, I was devastated when she and Reggie broke up, and am so happy they are back together, thus, I love Reggie and hope he wins the Super Bowl. Also, he went to USC and that is my fave college team. I know, too many weird connections. Most of all I just hope it’s a good game!
Last night I got in a good 3.5 miler and also ran in different Saucony shoes (sorry I don’t remember the make, but I wanted to try the Ride2’s and they had none) that I tried at the local running store trial night. I’ll have a post up next week about them on the Examiner site, but THERE WAS NO BLOOD. So, I am leaning towards getting new shoes but it’s just a very hard decision.
So cheers to friends, a fun weekend, running a half marathon for fun and a great football game!
xoxo
P.S. If you are in the Long Beach area next weekend be sure to check out this Valentine’s Day 5k! I’m considering running it. Check it out Here!
I’ve gotten more comments about the yellow top that I’ve been wearing recently than anything else! So I got some sweet clothes from Lucy a while back and you have noticed! I was wearing in my LA Marathon Course preview post and the butt workout post and I wanted to share with you guys how much I really like these two options from Lucy!
First off, the Yellow Top is by Lucy and it’s really great. I love the super soft material that it’s made out. We all know I love my soft material and that’s why I also like Zensah clothes. The zipper kind of gets a little weird and puckered every now and then, but I really liked the shirt overall. I also like how long the sleeves are and how long the top is. I was never worried that it would ride up, which is one of the most annoying things when running. I also like the texture of the fabric and how it wasn’t just plain. It adds a little sass! If anything sold me on this product though it’s the fabric. Lucy is pretty expensive but this is seamless and so incredibly soft which means no chafing! I also like the thumb holes in the sleeves because I love to pull my sleeves down and keep them around my hands. Here are some links to the jacket if you wanted to get one for yourself. It’s fairly lightweight and wasn’t warm in this when I ran for a 10k.
Then I reviewed the Pace run shorts, which are ON SALE RIGHT NOW! So I really liked these shorts! They are not booty shorts, shocking, I know, but I still love them. They look really short on the model in the picture, but they are not that short on me. I really liked the lightweight material that they are made of and they are very soft. I was surprised how lightweight they were. If anything I didn’t like how the side of the shorts were not cut with a slit, but that’s me always wanting my shorts to be the shortest possible and also because of my running in high school, our team shorts were always the split cut kind. So that’s my opinion but overall, I really liked the shorts and the liner inside was very soft and the length was great.
Lastly, I received the long tights that they make. I haven’t seen them on the website but I have only one other pair of tights that I have and I really don’t like running in full on pants. I also feel like full on pants make me look like a mammoth running through the forest. Not exactly my fave picture. I prefer capris for sure, but I do like how these were not too heavy to run in and I do like the fact of how tight they are. If you’ve never worn tights while running, I really recommend you get a less expensive pair for testing and then move forward from there. You can find them at Target and Wal-mart. I think that my main problem is the fact that I don’t like them around my ankles. Sounds weird, but I think that’s why I prefer capris. Plus, I live in a mild climate so long pants are almost never necessary. I don’t have any pictures in the tights because they didn’t come out right, but I might try to get some soon. They are not on the website anyways though.
Tomorrow is a goal post for the Surf City Half Marathon that I’m running on Sunday. I can’t believe it’s already here! I know I won’t be going for a PR but I’m still excited for the race and the fact that it won’t be raining as previously predicted earlier in the week! WIN!
So last Friday night I took off for a ten miler and got in 8 miles before it was pretty dark. I don’t like running in the dark so I cut it short. The run was a great idea, the weather was perfect and the sun was just setting and then one mile in, I felt it. I know my toes bleed when I run. I start to feel it get gushy. Squish, squish, and I knew my toes were going to bleed. Oddly enough it doesn’t hurt at all, just kind of feels weird. I continued on and got in a great run but then I looked down at mile 6 and saw that the blood had started to leak through my shoe. THROUGH MY SHOE. There was nothing I could do but run the two more miles home, and it still wasn’t hurting, but when I got home I was pretty grossed out and then I realized my pink Nikes’ were also horrible looking now. You see, usually, the toe just bleeds a little bit. I have so many socks with little pink spots on them. That’s totally okay. So these pictures might be a little too intense for some of you. If so, click away NOW! That being said, you’ve probably already seen them since the posts pops up. MEH!
Normally this is how much my toe bleeds. It isn’t the best but it’s not the worst, but it’s manageable. Friday after my eight miler this was what I saw as I stared down at my shoes while crossing the street.
MY SHOES!!!!!!! MY TOES!!!!!!!!!!! AH!!!!!!!! Okay, so let’s discuss a few things before you all ask me questions about my shoes. I LOVE the Vomeros and have run in these shoes for about 8 months. I had problems with bloody toes in the Pegasus, which was what I was wearing before I switched to the Vomeros, and never had any problems like this before in the Vomeros, but now, THIS much blood seems unhealthy! Especially with the fact that my shoes have about 50 miles left on them and they look horrific. So I inspected my toe like normal. There is a VERY, VERY tiny little pin prick of a cut on my toe. To release this amount of blood to me is odd though. That is a LOT of blood. Still my toes do not hurt, and I’ve tried baby powder, gold bond, Vaseline, body glide, taping, wright socks and injini socks. My shoes are already a size and a half bigger than what I should be wearing and I don’t have black toenails or any blisters. Explain that to me!
There is one word for this, and that word is one of my favorite words.
FAIL!
I know this is pretty much the most bizarre thing ever, but thankfully it doesn’t hurt, it just looks horrible and feels weird. So I will continue on bloody toes and all, but if anyone has any other recommendations of something I can do that I haven’t already tried, I am totally up for suggestions. Last night I got in a decent 7 miler before it got dark and my toe only bleed like the first picture. So it’s touch and go as of right now. Better get it’s game face on for Sunday though!
Also, I posted another new article about getting ready for race day on my Examiner site! Be sure to creep over there and check it out and I even included a slide show of pictures of how I get ready the night before a race. Enjoy! Please let me know if you have any suggestions for articles for the Examiner or any questions or comments regarding my articles I’m posting on that site.
So we (being my friend Billy and myself) started out at the 10k mark of the LA Marathon this past weekend for our course preview of the race that is quickly approaching! If you missed the previous LA Marathon Course Previews, you can find miles 20-26.2 here and miles 14-20 here.
This was a little bit of a different area of the marathon. I think we spoiled ourselves starting backwards at the beach, and 26.2 miles away from the beach puts you in some nitty, gritty, interesting parts of town. I think the politically correct term ( and I’m NEVER politically correct ) would be ‘diverse’.
We started off at the 6.2 mile marker and it was sunny blue skies out. I was afraid of being a little cold so I wore my long sleeve lucy top and some champion spandex that I am testing out and will be posting a review on soon. Mile 6.2 is in a neighborhooded area. Slight downhill, nothing much to ‘highlight’ around these parts.
I thought I was doing so good, taking a picture of the Hollywood sign, yea, you can’t see it, but it’s there! It’s far, far back on the back mountain. This was the area we were in for a good portion of this run. Slight downhills and fairly easy terrain.
More neighborhooded areas/shops lined the street on this portion of the run. The highlight to this area was probably being whistled at by numerous people. Remind me not to wear booty shorts anymore. Billy was cracking up at me though, but I was very glad he was there with me… There isn’t much going on in this section so I took a picture of my shoes.
Sad, sad day for my pink Vomeros. Looks like I guess I needed more pink on those shoes. UGH. This will be discussed more in a post tomorrow. Now my shoes don’t say, “I’m cute and pink!” They say, “I’m a bloody mess and I maybe have lost a toe.”
For some reason I thought this painted poster on the side of a building was HILARIOUS. Billy didn’t really understand why but I HAD to have a picture by it. What is that giant monkey! For real service! I loved it.
Mile 8 of this part of the course was more of the same. Nothing too spectacular as you cruise toward the exciting part of this part of the course. We should have probably started from the beginning. That would have made this part less boring!
We ran through Thai Town, which was alright, there were some random shrines lining the sidewalks. One thing that really surprised me throughout the course today was how many people were out and about wandering the streets. Whether they were homeless, or just out shopping or cruising the town there were people EVERYWHERE!
Little did I know that we would get closer to the Hollywood sign!
So this is my new favorite picture! I am running on the Walk of Fame, which is kind of cool, right in front of the Pantages theater! I just saw “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” there and it was really cool to see it and Billy ran out into the street to take this super cool picture!
We were starting to get closer and closer to the hub of Hollywood, you could tell by all the people out and about, walking around. We were at mile 11 right before everything went crazy and we reached Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the freak show began… well I guess it started with seeing this gem:
Billy was obsessed with this building. He couldn’t stop staring at it and talking about it. He is a budding scientologist. Okay, he’s not, but it was interesting to me too, do people live in the building? So strange. I also like the sign that highlights the building on the side and all the posters covering the windows about the books out right now. Creeeeeepy! Then I made a fool of myself again via video.
Then we were surrounded by street performers, tourists and homeless people. That guy in the picture in the bottom right was painting this huge wild colored picture of a Tiger. He had a little dish out saying he needed money for Art. We continued to run along the walk of Fame and I felt bad running on people’s stars. Oh well. Billy said it wasn’t bad.
Billy catching me being a little overwhelmed again as we entered the area of Hollywood and Highland. Another big shopping/touristy/bustling area with tons of people. It was almost entertaining though, because as I ran by I think everyone was looking at us like we were freaks and I was looking at everyone else like they were freaks! I guess it was a freak fest.
I have never been to Grauman’s Chinese Theater before so that was pretty cool to see. It’s a once in your lifetime thing, I personally think. Seeing the hand prints were cool though and I wanted to put my hands in one celebs!
I chose Matt Damon! Because he’s hot! I put my feet in Will Smith’s feet and they were HUGE compared to my little baby running shoes. There were so many tourists and freaks out there. Street performers mostly, some guy dressed up as Shrek, some guy as Charlie Chaplain, some guy as spiderman. I’m just not into those things, they freak me out. Then Shrek called me beautiful. That was really cool. NOT.
I hope Mickey Mouse likes bloody shoes! There were a lot of ‘well-known’ stars in front of the theater, whereas before the theater there were ones like Liberace, and some other random names I’d never heard of. In front of the theater though there were a lot of names I’ve heard of. Including… MICHAEL JACKSON! This guy really wanted to take it to the next level and pay his respects to the King of Pop, and I snapped this little gem.
Way to pay your respects bro.. Now, pull up your pants, or get ones that fit. Ha, ha, I found it hilarious but sorry if you are now disturbed.
Then I got super freaked out by Samuel L. Jackson. I had some weird feeling it was a homeless person who would jump out at me and scare me and if there’s one thing I hate more than lettuce it’s getting scared and being jumpy. I swore this was another street performer, but luckily, Samuel never moved.
I always hear about things going on here! Now I’ve seen it! Check that one off the list!
Then we got to mile 12 and it was a pretty boring area after we left the tourist area of Hollywood Blvd.
More of the previous type street area to run through. I also noticed on this run that the streets were not as well paved. There maybe be some areas where you want to watch your footing and make sure that you pay attention to the street in front of you.
Then we were back at mile 14. Where we started last week on Sunset Blvd. Mostly, I would say a lot of the area we ran this past weekend had a night slight decline which is nice especially at that early of the marathon, when all systems are still working and not shutting down on you just yet. :)
