I am SO excited that it’s opening day today! Baseball is my favorite sport to watch, and I just love the Angels! I got to go to a pre-season game on Tuesday with Shea. It was a fun cross-town rivalry against the Dodgers (whom I do not like). I don’t like basketball either, but if I do have to watch basketball, obviously it’s all about college and March Madness. Perhaps I don’t like Basketball because I’m surrounded by these freaks. Anyways, the Angels beat up on the Dodgers and I’m really excited about the season and baseball being back.
Our favorite spot in the spring :)
As for working out, I’m feeling awesome and feel like after those two races are now in the past, I have a weight lifted off my shoulders! I thought about running the Seal Beach 5K this weekend, but I haven’t already signed up and it’s a little pricey at this point. Meh! I think I’ll just go for a nice 5 miler that morning or to the gym. I ran a four miler on Monday, took two rest days and then this morning ran to the gym and did a lot while I was there. I was so sweaty when I left and my legs were dead from all the jumps I did.
60 box jumps
4 – 30 second planks
60 push ups
60 sit ups
30 dips
30 chest press machine reps
30 rows
30 lat pulldowns
30 bench press with 30 pounds
I felt awesome afterwords and ran home. Getting out of bed is hard, but once I’m up I feel so much better and there is nothing that makes me feel as good as kicking my day off with an awesome gym workout. So I’m thinking I can probably run a 10k or Half in April just for fun, so we’ll see what I can find. As for now, I love working out hard! The weight of the double marathons is gone and now I’m back to getting into shape and feeling great.
Tomorrow…. a music post and I promise on Monday I’ll have the giveaway!
(I’m sorry all the pictures are left justified.) So this past weekend I traveled up to Oakland to complete my back to back marathon quest. I was greeted with rainy weather when I landed in Oakland, but for the most part it was fairly dry when Tara and I headed to the Expo on Saturday. We grabbed our bags and shirts and headed back out to Walnut Creek. We ate a TON of stuff on Saturday and it was amazing. I have never eaten so much food in my life. From breakfast burritos, to cookies, to a ton of candy. Yum. We kept everything pretty low key on Saturday and just hung out. In bed by 10:30 for our early morning rise the next day, I was feeling pretty normal and was set to go. We laid out all our clothes and before I knew it my alarm was going off.
We made it to Oakland in really good time and sat in the car for an hour before walking out to the start line. It was quite a change to be nice and toasty before the race, and we also had much more time to ‘sleep’ in compared to last weekend. We finally got everything situated and left the car around 7:00 for the race that was starting at 7:30. We hit up the portapotties and walked over to the start. That’s the nice thing about smaller races, there are way less lines, no extreme crowding and people pushing and just overall less lunatics. We found some friends at the start and stayed by them before the gun went off.
I seriously barely remember these photos being taken. I don’t know why I was so excited at that point, but I think I was pretty much dreading that gun going off and when I’m nervous I get really excited and weird. Like on a plane, I’m so that girl who just talks to you because I actually hate flying. So we chit chatted and both T and I were feeling very good. Well as good as you can when you are at the start line of a marathon. Before we knew it the gun was off and T and I both were ready to get this one done. I started my jams…
We were about 1/4 of the mile in when the same song came on my headphones. I thought oh silly little thing, you are playing the same song. I go to the next song and it starts over. I go to the next song and it starts over. I start fiddling with it to try to find new folders. Nope, Kanye Stronger starts over and over and over. THIS IDIOT UPDATED THE WRONG PLAY LIST ON HER WALKMAN AND HAS ONE SONG. I about gave up right then. Seriously, I had just made a new play list with SO many awesome songs on it and WHAM. I was stuck with ONE. I told T and she immediately took out her music too. I seriously can’t ask for a better friend. We chugged along and were feeling pretty good. The hills were a little relentless but we really were doing awesome and both felt fine. The miles kept ticking by. There was some nice greenery but you run next to a freeway for some of it and through some town areas. It was really cool to see so many police officers not only patrolling the course, but also cheering for the runners and becoming a part of the “crowd” that was out there. I am a firm believer in that if you are out on a course, waiting for someone, whoever that person may be, you might as well cheer the whole time you are out there. It’s sad to run by people with this dead look in their eyes and they just stare at you! Here’s some pictures of the two of us going through the hills of Oakland.
Anyways, so back to the hills. Pretty killer, but I knew that they ‘ended’ around mile 10 and we had a huge downhill. Now when I say huge downhill, I didn’t know it was a quad thrashing, knee murdering, foot annihilating downhill. It was REALLY steep. I am all for downhill, but I thought I would face plant on this bad boy and roll my way down. It was pretty painful and went on for a mile. At that point I think I remember telling Tara, for the love, can it just be FLAT! I felt like we were going up and down and up and down and down, down, DOWN! I think I would be scared to go down that path in a car it was so steep. Thankfully my body didn’t bottom out. After that we were feeling pretty good and the miles kept ticking away
I was trying to get the steep hill but it doesn’t look like it in this photo, but I did manage to look cross eyed!
This was our experience after the steep hills. I was ready to end the race at about the half way point. Those hills were pretty hard to travel down, but after that, we also knew we were half way done so that was positive. We were determined to keep trucking forward. Around mile 15, T started having major foot issues. She is by far the toughest girl I know and so I know when she is hurting, she is REALLY hurting. What she puts up with I would be on the ground crying 20 miles before she would even say anything about the pain. We started doing a little bit of a walk break after she had to untie her shoe because her foot was swollen. We were both feeling okay up until around mile 18. T kept telling me to go ahead, but there was no way I was leaving her after she pulled me through LA last weekend. We decided to do t his together and what’s being miserable by yourself, when you can be miserable together? There were moments when I knew she was in so much pain she was going to cry. I could just feel it. It’s the worst when that happens, because you don’t even know what to say, but I knew if she cried, I would have cried too, so we kept pushing forward and encouraging each other.
We went through some really strange areas of town. I remember running through a pretty bad part of town, which was interesting. There were not too many people out supporting but there but the people who were so thankful for us running in Oakland were really sweet and the people out were awesome to see. It was still awesome to see so many cops not only directing traffic, but cheering for us. There was one tunnel that I remember that a bunch of Oakland Raider fans were underneath it and though it was crazy to see a bunch of grown men as gorillas and pirates, it was cool that they came out to support us.
This was the area around the lake that was a little flooded. Tara and I were so worried about falling into the lake! So we walked around on the small area that wasn’t flooded and muddy. I didn’t know they got a picture of this and it’s so awkward. I was struggling to not fall into the duck pond!
Finally we hit mile 20 and we were both just worn out at this point. Our muscles were not really hurting but both our joints and Tara’s foot was hurting a lot. No jams to pump us up was a little bit disheartening as well. At this point, we both knew we were so close to the finish, but those last 6 miles never get any easier. We both struggled and decided that we would walk the first .25 of every mile for the last 6 miles and then run the last .75 of the mile. It was nice to see the mile markers and know that we would get to walk. Around mile 22, I really started to struggle and it was my turn to hold back the tears for some reason. I just couldn’t pull it together and everything was just wearing on me and I was really struggling not to cry. When I cry and run I almost can’t breath, so that is not good. T saw I was struggling and kept encouraging me to keep going and that we were almost done.
FINALLY we saw the mile marker 25. The last few miles were around a lake, which was pretty nice, but the camber was a little hard on the ankles, especially at those high miles. There was a little bit of a trail in this section and it was a little rough being so late in the race. When we saw that mile marker though, the end was in sight and I knew we were going to make it. I never though that it would be so long and torturous but we were finally in the final stretch of our maniac march.
The last mile was a little uphill and we started running about half way away from mile 26. I was struggling but T kept telling me that we were almost there and I couldn’t believe it when we turned the corner and saw the finish line up ahead! I couldn’t believe it. I never thought that I would do two marathons in a month none the less in two weeks! I struggled a lot but I feel like I am a much stronger person because of it. I feel like I can conquer anything! It sounds so cliche but it’s true. Though our time still wasn’t what I thought it would be, it was 1o minutes faster than my LA marathon time the weekend before, and if we would have raced it, I know we would have come in around 4:45, no problem.
The tigers are extinct! Not only did I find out a lot about myself on the double journey, but I found that I have an awesome friend in Tara, which I knew from before but now I know we are more bonded than ever before. We have been maniac sisters for a year but this really strengthened our relationship and I know that she will always be there for me no matter what. It was amazing to spend that much time with her and I truly value our friendship and maniachood! We both started it together and finished together and pulled each other through.
Though looking back I feel like an idiot because it’s totally unnecessary to do what we did, but at the same time, I’m glad we did it together and that neither of us let the other one quit. Poor T has a serious bad sprain in her ankle and is laid up in a boot for two and a half weeks! :( What a trip and a memory, one for the books for sure!
Last night I hit the gym and felt awesome, so awesome that I went out and felt great on a 4 mile run and it was amazing. I’m pretty sure my legs are so happy that I’m doing some shorter distances for a while. All my miles were sub-9 minute miles and my legs felt so fresh and happy. Take that marathons! No mas!
I feel like I was just writing up a goal post…oh wait I was last weekend. I definitely didn’t hit many goals last weekend, besides getting to the finish, which I was still very happy with. This weekend, without rain in the forecast, and my body feeling pretty okay at this point I am looking at most likely running the full. I am sure I will regret this decision, but alas, it will be fun with T and I know we can at least struggle through it together, just like we battled the elements last weekend. :) So here are my new goals for the mountainous beast I’ll be running this weekend.
A. Finish around 4:30-4:45. This was my goal last weekend, and when my shoes started weighing me down, I knew we would struggle for the rest of the way. Oaklands course isn’t forgiving in the least bit, so hitting this would be pretty much a huge miracle.
B. Finish around 4:45-5:00. I never thought I would write that giant 5 in front of my time as a goal, but we are in survival mode here people.
C. Not get another personal worst and beat my time of last weekend, which was 5:28.
D. Per usual, my final goal is one that I know I’ll achieve no matter what, I’ll make it to that finish line and I’ll have fun doing it. Even last weekend with Tara, when we were both soaked and chilled, we were still laughing at our predicament, and the predicament that quite a few people were surrounding us were in as well.
I leave to fly up to Oakland tonight and will be up there until Monday morning when I fly back just in time for work. In other not related too running news, B and I are going to put an offer in on a house!
It actually wouldn’t be closed and ours until Mid-August, but it’s something to look forward to and we both have our fingers crossed! It’s a three bedroom, two bathroom, not far from where I live now. It needs a little bit of TLC but it has many more perks than negatives. I love the porch! We’ll see! I totally forgot about the giveaway I was suppose to have this week too, so I’ll have something next week and it’s a good giveaway too! :) Onto Oakland and to get this one done, and then it’s time to enjoy running and the hopefully warm weather that’s headed our way soon!
So here’s a video that a friend posted that someone else took of this weekend.
More and more pictures are being added to the photograph section and man, it just looks miserable. Then to think oh yea, I was one of the idiots out there.
As I am in recovery mode this week, I am pretty surprised at how not sore I am, comparatively to the previous races I have run.
Here’s another hilarious video from the race from Jimmy Kimmel Live. It’s funny if you start it around 1:15. I wish we would have seen the tiger blood! Sadly, we were probably too delirious to even notice much else was going on besides the pounding rain. I can’t believe people just take the stuff and eat it! Hilarious!
So I am thinking about going for a short run tonight, or at least hitting up the gym and riding the bike or going to the elliptical. I’m so excited to watch American Idol! I have been feeling good though and I think perhaps tomorrow I will post a giveaway that I’ve been keeping for a bit! :)
(if you are reading this in google reader, go to Chic Runner, for some reason the pictures aren’t showing up in reader, and I’m working on it :) also, sorry for the long load time because of all the pictures!)
The weekend started off with working the LA Marathon expo for about 9 hours on Friday, where I also got my bib and t-shirt.
The back of the LA Marathon t-shirt. I also was able to find my name on the car that was the pace car! Though it was a lovely day at the expo, it was also a long day! I got to see some fun people though, which makes the day go by much faster.
I picked up Tara on Friday night and we went basically straight to bed. We were both super tired and slept in on Saturday morning before heading out to the Nike Outlet and finding some gems. We ate at a pizza place in Santa Monica as well for lunch and finally met up with Maritza. We headed off to the hotel and checked in after of course hitting up 7-11 for some tasty snacks. We all already had gotten our bibs and were all set for race day the next morning. We went to this awesome Mexican restaurant for dinner, where I got a delicious mac and cheese and carne asada fries, which were both to die for.
Sadly, I only ate about half of both before I was SO full! Delish none the less. We traveled back to the hotel and got ready for bed and our early morning wake up call of 3:00 am. We have heard so many times, arrive early! arrive early! So we knew to set our alarms and not chance anything. I woke up at about 2:50 and thought Tara was snoring. I realized that it wasn’t her and thought it was our neighbor in the hotel. I kept listening to figure it out. Oh wait, it’s the wind howling outside our hotel. We woke up to monsoon like conditions. Since we stayed in Marina del Rey, there were tons of palm fronds everywhere and it looks horrible outside. Wet, windy and cold. Three of my most hated weather terms. Tara said, “It’s all about survival today, that’s it,” and in a few short hours I would find out how that statement was so true.
We headed over to Maritza’s boyfriends house, who would be dropping us off at Dodger Stadium that morning. THANK YOU MARIO! We arrived with no problems at around 4:00 am….and then realized we had to wait FOREVER for the race to start at 7:25. We huddled together and tried to fend off the wind before the race started, we were freezing on the first floor of the stadium. Once we moved up to the 2nd floor of the stadium, we found a little cubbie area and stayed there until about 7:15. We shed our throwaway t-shirts and donned our trash bags and headed down to the start area.
It was nice to have bathrooms that weren’t portapotties, even if there were long lines. As soon as we got to the start, we were in the general vicinity of the corral for 11:00 pace. The race was suppose to start at 7:25, but it didn’t start until around 7:50 and we were about 11 minutes back from the clock.
Right when we started, there were FAT raindrops falling. Now, I know that a rainy marathon was something I told myself I would never do. If Tara and Maritza weren’t there, I most likely would have not done it, but thankfully, they got me to the start line and didn’t let me wimp out. I kept telling myself it was just water and it would be okay. I was really worried mostly about my feet being mangled from being wet but I figured I had no choice but to just keep going.
Miles 1-5 were fine, I remembered the course well and just traveled on my merry way with my little tiger visor and T by my side, we were cruising at a good pace, traveling at about a 4:30 finish. We both really wanted to push each other to get to the half way point and from then we would decide how to run the rest of the race. We knew we wouldn’t have any trouble getting half way. Around mile 5 it started to rain just a tad harder and there are quite a few hills in miles 4-5. Mostly long steady climbs. We got to mile 6 and ate a little bit, and were working hard at pulling each other along. There were a few missing mile markers, but I risked Claude’s death and wore him. Thankfully, he survived the bath of the year and I could tell what miles we were at for the race. Most of the race, all I could hear was the swishing of the bags of all the runners around us. Swish, Swish, squish, squish. My hands and feet were so cold the entire race. We were soaking wet by mile 5. From miles 5-10 it was pretty uneventful. A few long inclines and we just pushed each other along. There were SO many walkers out. I think LA is one of the races where a huge number of people are walkers.
We got to mile 10 and I knew it was only a little bit more until the half way point. So we chugged along. I felt much better this race than last year and knew that the half way mark was right around the corner. Tara and I kept pushing each other and just thinking about being half way done. Every time I heard Claude beeping because a mile was passed I knew it was one mile marker closer to our goal, the finish! We got to mile 14 and we ate again. At mile 18 we decided to head under an awning for a second because I wanted to take a salt tab. I knew that the salt pills would be ruined in the rain and I wanted to keep them safe just in case I needed to take one more later on during the race. Once we were under an awning it literally started POURING. There were about 10 times during the race when I thought it might actually be hailing because the rain hurt it was coming down so hard. I don’t know if I have ever seen this rain like this in a long, long time. It was crazy. We just looked out at the rain and looked at each other and kind of laughed. What we were doing! We started off again and knew that we with every step we were getting closer and closer to the finish.
From mile 18-21 it was just a downpour. Obviously there were quite a few gun to the head moments out there. We tried to keep going, but the course was flooding and rerouted into the grass and only in the center of the road at many places because the gutters were overflowing. I have never seen such a thing. Here is another picture taken by a friend just to show you the gutters.I’m not actually in the picture, but it just shows what a glum day it was.
We just started walking. We could see our breath in the air when we were running and it was so cold. Our clothes were sopping wet and every step was just splashing. I almost think running made your feet lighter because when you walked they got so weighed down with water. I swear I watched rain wring out of my gloves every time I swung my hands back and forth. From mile 21 to 23, we were both feeling pretty defeated. I think the rain, wind, everything just was wearing on us. It’s a long time to be doing anything, none the less running in a monsoon.
Up the hill at mile 20, with the water pouring down the sidewalks. This was right before the course got rerouted up into the grass/mud because of the flooding area. I seriously wish I got pictures, but sadly, my iPhone stayed safe in it’s bag in my pouch on my belt. I was not risking it’s life for pictures. From mile 20 to about mile 24, we just walked. We were so out of it, cold, shivering, and tired.
Check out that awesome power walking. T and I were walking some parts and she taught me how to go for it with power walking. I was so slow at the beginning, but by the end I was shaking it and power walking along! I still wasn’t terribly sore or anything, just cold and super wet. Finally around mile 24, we were walking and running off and on. Tara was having some foot pain and I told her I wouldn’t leave her, no matter what. I really wanted us to finish together. She came down to trudge through it with me and I wouldn’t let her out of my sight! During the entire race we really wanted to go to the bathroom, but we knew if we stopped we wouldn’t be able to get our clothes back on our bodies! They were that drenched. There were also pretty long lines for the bathrooms throughout the entire race, so we opted to just try to keep going. Toward the end my capris were so heavy with water they were starting to feel like I was wearing a diaper. Awesome. I saw so many little Students Run LA just shaking like leaves along the course. It was so sad.
We traveled forward and hit mile 25. As soon as we turned the corner onto Ocean from San Vicente, I was still feeling pretty alright body wise, but I was FREEZING and the wind on the corner hit us like a ton of bricks. It was a crazy. I have never seen anything like it. Branches everywhere, rain pouring down. I couldn’t believe it. We were running in about half an inch of water and couldn’t even see the finish line up ahead because it was raining so hard. I looked down and saw dirt and debris on my shirt from the wind blowing up on us.
That was right before the finish. I remember splashing down and just watching my feet to make sure I didn’t slip in the huge puddles that were accumulating every where. I know that there are such things as a great run in the rain. I’ve had a few when I put on my big girl face and brave it, but this was sadly a sopping wet mess. A huge thanks for all the people who DID come out. It was kind of a bummer, because even though I had such a poor race last year, because of my own fueling issues, one thing that was awesome was all the crowd support. This year there were tons of volunteers who braved the elements. I think I only saw one abandoned water station but the crowd support was so minimal compared to last year, as expected with the crazy weather. I think that’s what made the race so fun for me last year. Oh well, lets hope for no rain next year!
Anyways, once at the finish, and having a big fat 5 in front of my finish time. (5:28) My times are so all over the board for all my marathons I’ve done thus far. SD 2009 – 4:28, LB 2009 – 3:55, Malibu 2009 – 4:14, CIM 2009 – 4:22, LA 2010 – 4:41, Camarillo 2010 – 4:25, LA 2011 – 5:28. GAH! I was shivering and my teeth were chattering. I grabbed the space blanket, and we both had to hunt down the medals. We found a portapottie and quick hit them up. They were over in this muddy area, so there wasn’t much of a line. Once we got both got done with the medals and space blankets, we traveled over to where all the bike fencing was just scattered around and got out of the finish chute about 50 meters into the chute and started walking to where I parked my car the day before. It was just pouring the entire way. We both just were shaking and knowing that we HAD to get to the car. FINALLY we made it the mile back and were so happy to just get in and try to warm up!
All in all, I’m glad I didn’t quit. I thought about it numerous times. I have never thought about it as much as I did this Sunday. I think I am pretty defeated by my time. I never thought I would run that, but on the upside, I’m not really sore at all. So that’s a good thing. As for Oakland next weekend, if it’s raining, I’m going to do the half. I will not purposely subject myself to that ever again. I have never felt so cold and sick. I still feel cold. If it’s not raining, I will have no problem doing the full. I also am going up to hang out with T, so it will be a game time decision for us. I’m so thankful for all the volunteers who lined the streets of LA to clean up the water stations and hand out oranges and water to everyone. It takes so much to put on a race and I thought about the organizers throughout the day. I can’t even imagine the heartbreak I would be feeling in their shoes. They have no pictures to market the event from this year really, and so many peoples experiences are marred by the rain, which they had nothing to do with. I couldn’t imagine putting so much into something and then having it turn out like that.
Though I didn’t have a great time on the clock, I did learn quite a lot about myself during the race. I’m a lot tougher than I thought I was, and I’m glad that I didn’t give up. I never, ever imagined that I would ever do something like that in my life, and I didn’t quit.
Here’s a video from Glenn, who pretty much captures the day. :)
And here’s another person’s blog post with lots of pictures!
After the race, I’m really glad we stuck it out and finished it. I seriously had my doubts during the race. Even though the only goal I hit was my D goal, I’m still proud that I finished and that I had a great weekend with some of my best friends, which was what I planned on doing.
