Los Angeles Marathon Weekend Day 2- 5K - My Anniversary Run

Today was an extremely special day for me. 3 years ago (2011). My spouse entered the LA Marathon, after watching him train I decided maybe I could do this too? I signed up for the LA 5K,bought my Nike+ watch, and jumped on the treadmill, for probably the first time in my life (actual running story to come in a later post). Basically 3 years ago, I couldn't jog at a 4.0 through an entire song. That's where I started. There was no couch to 5K programs, I didn't own a smart phone (the original Iphone) and so I kind of just aimed to get up to a slow jog for 2 songs, 3 songs, 4 songs, 1 mile...etc etc....

Fast Forward 3 years later, we knew we would be in LA for the LA marathon and with the combo purchase it made the 5K $15, I thought it would be fun to celebrate my first race I've ever ran with the huge leaps and bounds I've made. ...one thing is...i forgot HOW HARD this 5K was!!!!! PHEW lol..With 8-10 5Ks under my belt I still claim this as one of THE HARDEST 5K's. With 4 hills, you are proud of yourself finishing this one!

Knowing I had a marathon the next day, I decided I wanted to break my 2011 31:00 finish time but not crush it. I wanted to save some of that energy for tomorrow.

We arrived at the Stadium around 7:15, plenty time to park, walk, and have a last minute bathroom stop. The crowd isn't near as big as the marathon so, getting to the stadium isn't crazy site as the marathon day is.

Welcome to dodger Stadium!

It was really cool, this year they had Dodger Stadium open so, I sneaked in and took a few pictures. I've never been inside before :)

                                           A picture of the finish line before the race began

It was amazing HOW hot, it had gotten before the start of the race. I could feel the sun on my shoulders and arms. I was really worried that if it was like this tomorrow, I'd be in trouble.

ANYWAY, I started farther in the back than I wanted. I ended up having to run around a TON of walkers, some even carrying banners. It was around the time I got out of the stadium I had finally found a group of runners that were around my pace. It was oddly familiar. Even though it was 3 years ago, I remembered the hills....every, one , of them! lol

I didn't want to push it too hard because I had remembered them. I don't how well this picture is going to come out, but here is the elevation map from my nike+

The Green line is my pace, the faded blue is the elevation. (i'll work on getting a better picture asap)

Anyway, I really enjoy the course. It's not extremely scenic, but the greenery and forestry is really relaxing. You don't feel like you're in downtown LA until you wind back down to the stadium.  The last hill is always a tough one and suffered some real bad side stitches .I think I pushed it a little too much going up the 3rd hill and by the 4th my diaphragm was trying to catch up .

I was really excited to see the finish line and raced towards it.  

The finisher bag was pretty awesome for a 5K. It had a towel , a hat, a bracelet, and few food/water items . 

I ended up having a decent finishing time considering I was at a 65% effort  and the temperature was quickly rising.

Anyway, it was great race, well organized, and a challenging course. I was really happy I was able to participate and celebrate my first race again. :)

Los Angeles Marathon Weekend 2014: Expo - Day 1

Well, after registering in October, training since December, It's HERE! The marathon weekend is here!

This will be my 3 marathon as well as celebrating the beginning of my running career. My first race was the LA 5K in 2011 the year of the Monsoon LOL

I was super excited to get going to the Expo. Luckily, living in LA, we were able to drive to a Metro Train and take it all the way into the convention center.

My coach suggested we take advantage of being in town and visit the expo on Friday. I'm so glad we did. Running Disney and Marine Corps, it was probably one of the least crowded expos I've been to.

Wearing my traditional expo skirt, we made it to the beginning of the entrance line to get in :)

After doing a loop around the building we were in. Picking up our bibs was kind of a weird situation. We had signed up for the LA 5K and Marathon, as a package, however we were only sent one bib number. We ended up having to go to a bib lookup booth line, find our bib for the 5K , and then go back to the line to get our big, then get in another line for our shirt. This process (minus the bib lookup) was repeated for the marathon as well. AGAIN, super thankful we cleared the whole afternoon AND we went on Friday, I can only imagine that process taking almost an hour (waiting in line to get in, going to 3 different booths before picking up a bib) . But, that's what you sign up for when you register with 20,000+ other people. 

I was running on 4 hours of sleep today (my body woke me up around 4:30 and I just couldn't go back to sleep=tired look

The double shirts and big goodie bag is always nice. I love the local coupons, water bottle, and all the tons of free handouts at the LA Marathon Expo. Of the 3 marathon expos I've been too, this one is always the biggest, when it comes to samples and free items. 

Last time we found the names on a car, this time, a wall. I was excited to finally find mine :)

I was mostly excited about the jewlery booths that seem to be more popular at expos. I'm starting a "running bracelet" and haven't been to impressed with the prices online :) but found some cute charms 

Anyway, we connected with my coach, and was able to sneak a picture with him before he had to run off and do his VIP work with the marathon. 

We walked around and made it to all the venues to our sanctification and made our way home. A pretty organized expo and glad that it's finally here!...

I know I was covered HEAD to TOE in pink...but.. Honestly so many of these marathons are male heavy I wanted to support the girls at the race. I'm like of course i'm going to wear my New awesome Pink Brooks (new minimalist shoe post marathon training). I actually quite some compliments on the shoes :)..AND proudly sporting my Marine Corps Marathon Jacket... I don't think i'll ever qualify for Boston so I call it my Boston Jacket..I'm sorry but at the MCM expo I saw that it was hot pink..I begged for it..It was calling my name!..:) 

I still haven't decided on what I'm going to wear for the Marathon day..but..You can bet I Will have pink...somewhere :) My Asics  Kayanos are busting out with the Lime Green and Neon Pink. Can't wait to introduce them to their first marathon after all the training runs they've gotten me through as well as my AH-Mazing Nike Plus Watch :) already got 100+ miles on that watch since I received it as a birthday gift in January :)

More on the 5K and Marathon later!

Thanks for reading!

2014-Update- Runs, races, and California,OH my!

Man oh Man, Can it really be 2014 already?!

It's been a while since I've posted! ( It looks like since October..eesh!) Well, I guess it's time for a new post!

It was a busy last half (and start to the new year) We were in the arctic zone of Wyoming (- 30 wind gusts and snow, NOT FUN for running/Biking) So... I spent a lot of hours on the treadmill in the gym . During that time I was "training " for the Marine Corps Marathon (there will be a post on that later). All I will say on here is that well, I finished. It wasn't pretty but it was my own fault. I lost motivation during training and didn't put in near enough miles as I should have.

ALSO...with the annual Kona Ironman World Championships on broadcast it fueled our racing addiction, thought about it, researched it, and decided to compete in our first Half Ironman in Augusta, GA in September of this year!!! Super excited! But, we had a lot to do. While spending time in Denver, we found some amazing Craiglist road bikes. Since then we've invested in some tri-gear, and only have wetsuits left to invest in (I plan on making a post about the 1/2 Ironman as well, so STAY TUNED! lol)

As mentioned before, we had enough of the cold weather and decided to revisit the land where the traveling began, and moved back to California! Since back we've been hitting the road with a running group, training for the Los Angeles Marathon. We really feel like this could be a great race! We've been training harder than usual and have put some long miles in already. I've also been really focusing on speed work this time around and set a personal record for my half marathon at a local race. I was pretty happy but was 3 minutes over a sub 2 hour race. I had placed myself too slowly at the beginning and had to really push the last 6 miles to make up for that time. Oh well, it was "the easiest" half I had ran and hope to catch that 2 hour record later this year .

With moving back to CA I've reconnected with some friends, but mostly my favorite fitness studio that fueled my passion for fitness and gave me the confidence to pursue a career in that industry. This weekend is very special! I will be learning from the creators of Yoga Booty Ballet and will be going through a teacher training certification program to eventually teach this class. I'm very excited but nervous as well. My confidence level in performing in front of people always waivers, I know what I need to do but that pressure of performing in front of my teachers/peers always gets me nervous.

So, that is all for now, I hopefully plan to keep this updated through out the month, now I don't have to fight for the laptop anymore LOL . Anyway as always, thanks for reading...Stay Posted, Stay healthy :)