2012 Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon - Race Recap

Date: October 28, 2012
Location: L.A. Live
Start: 7:30am
Finish: 1:45:19




Elevation:  

I ran this race last year and I apparently liked it enough to sign up again. I drove up to the convention center on Saturday morning to pick up my race packet. The LA Women's Show was also going on this weekend and I actually spent more time there than at the expo. It was an estrogen overload over there and based on the vendors in attendance, apparently LA women like chocolate, big fake jewelry, wine, hair styling, cosmetics and spa-ing. Did I cover everything? Anyhow, I saw Deidra Hall of Days of our Lives and Duane of Dog the Bounty Hunter but did not wanted to get in line for a photo. Celebrity stalking fail.

The race expo was organized but boring. The race shirt was pretty nice. My little sister was nice enough to model the shirt below. Not much came in the swag bag. I walked around the expo a bit but didn't buy anything.

The night before the race was our annual family Halloween party and this year we dressed up as characters from the video game genre. Fun times!

My youngest sister and I got up pretty early the next morning to make the drive to the LA Convention Center. We got to the parking structure before 6am but there was already a really long slow moving line to get in. I later find out why the parking lines were so congested that early in the morning. When I finally make my way to a parking spot, I parked and made my way into the convention center to look for the restrooms. As I entered the main hall of the convention center I see bright lights flashing and hear loud music playing and then I noticed that there was some sort of Hispanic/Latin concert going on and there were families there with little children and grandmas. Yeah, that's normal right, a family rock concert at 6am in the morning? Anyhow, the attendees of that concert were looking strangely at all the runners walking around dressed in Halloween costumes while we runners were wondering who the heck holds a concert that early in the morning. There you have it, the reason for the slow moving line into the parking structure as I had mentioned earlier. Moving on...

After grabbing a drink from the Starbucks inside the Convention center, I made my way back to my car to change into my costume and headed to my corral. Sister J and her future husband finds me shortly after I get there. They were dressed up in bride and groom costumes since they are getting married in a couple of weeks. Sister J and I were in the same corral so we stood around chatting a bit until the race started. I want to take a moment to mention that Skylar Laine sang one of the best versions of our national athem that I've ever heard. Shortly after that the wheelchair division was on their way and moments later they started releasing the corrals one-by-one a couple of minutes apart. As we neared the starting line, I told my sister to have a good race and we were off.

I wasn't sure what my goals were for this race even after I took my first step. I even sand-bagged my finish time a bit to my sister's surprise when she found me in her corral. Naturally I am always aiming for that PR but wasn't sure if I had it in me. I thought that I would formulate a goal based on how I felt in the first couple of miles. Turns out it was a good day for racing and I ran one of my fastest half marathon times. No PR but I also wasn't dying at the end so that was a good sign. I had a blast running that course because lots of people were dressed up in costumes and it was like one huge moving Halloween party. Plus, this was my 30th half marathon.

Putting my blue sparkle skirt to good use.

What's happening here? Obviously having too much fun running up an incline.

I found out later that Will Ferrell also ran the race. I really should pay more attention while I am running.

Source

After I crossed the finish line, I went back to my car to changed into some dry clothes and headed back out to the festivities to look for my little sister. I've never stayed around after a race before so it was interesting to see what goes on in the aftermath. Apparently, lots of drinking, picture taking and rocking out. I ran into Emil near the gear check area and we chatted for a bit before parting ways. He ran a great race despite some minor setbacks.

So the reason why my little sister came with me to the race was because she was a volunteer. She did things like guard the corrals and worked at the gear check area. Woohoo for volunteers!

2012 Wet & Wild 5K - Race Recap

Date: June 16, 2012
Location: Soak City (Knott's Berry Farm), Buena Park, CA
Start: 7:30am
Finish: 56:33

I had not planned on being at this event but due to a bib becoming available at the last minute, I decided to scrap my long run on Saturday morning to spend some time with some Ragnar van mates. That ended up being one of the best decisions ever!

Despite knowing that I had to get up early the next morning to get to the race, I still spend Friday night playing on my XBox for many many hours. That may not have been the best decision.

Race morning packet pickup area. It was organized chaos over at the shirt pickup area for some reason. The volunteers were hustling and bustling to get the correct sized shirts to everyone. It just looked crazy but the lines were moving pretty fast.

So I got to Knott's way too early because I was worried about the long lines to get into the parking lot, like for the Snoopy race last year but somehow they managed to correct that issue so I ended up with lots of time on my hands once I parked. I walked around a bit and finally ran into Heather and Shannon. Julie, Julie's brother and her friend Jane joined up shortly after that. If these names sound familiar to you, that's because Heather, Shannon and Julie were some of my van mates from when we did Ragnar SoCal back in April. I guess you can say that we are friends now because I still like them even after spending many hours in a stinky van with them. Plus, just look at how sparkly, colorful and adorable they are.

Just to warn you, this post is photo intensive. I love taking photos and my girls were dressed so cute that I could not help myself. It started with this one. Innocent enough. 

Believe it or not, we did run...

...from one photo op...

...to the next.

So this is just one of the reasons why I love these ladies. They are just so freakin' fun!

So much fun, it should be out-lawed.

 

The others will never tell you but I'll say it...it's exhausting to look this cute.

I told them that there would be refreshments at the finish line but they told me it could be ages before we got there so they decided to see if they could get Becka or Sandy to bring us a pizza. 

Entering Soak City...

...are you ladies trying to let me know how warm the water is?

 

The final stretch! 

Refueling at Hof's Hut afterward. Another good decision.

Skipping the dessert case. Bad decision.

Best decision ever!

2012 Tinker Bell Half Marathon - Race Recap

Date: January 29, 2012

Location: Disneyland, Anaheim CA

Start: 5:45am <-- sleep running

Finish: 1:59:09

Elevation: Mostly flat!

This is the inaugural running of the Tinker Bell Half Marathon and my second Disney race. Sure Disney races are expensive as all heck but you get pixie dust, a huge medal at the finish line and a well organized race. Sometimes that is all it takes to suck me in. 

I got up this morning at 3am! I can't tell you how not normal this feels to me. I am not a morning person and I really dislike when races start so early that I have to get up at 3 am! I'm Asian and all but I was so sleepy that my eyes look "squint-ier" than usual. So here's my costume. I decided at the last minute to wear that black jacket. I was going to go with black arm sleeves but I was cold like I always am so I decided to wear the jacket.

This was taken at the starting line in corral A just minutes before GO time! There were ALOT of people there. Mostly women. Dressed in pretty costumes. It was like one giant pixie dust cloud.

So I didn't stop to take too many photos this time around. I skipped a lot of character photo ops because the lines were insanely long for some of them and mostly I was just trying to survive the race but this was taken around mile 3 or 4 on Main Street USA. The course was a little bit different from the Disneyland Half. Just different routing but pretty similar. I like this course better than the Disneyland Half. Just a personal preference.

The castle!

This was towards the end of the race. I decided to stop to take one photo with the cast of Toy Story when I realized how sucky my time already was. No use beating a dead horse. Mile splits are below. I negative split this race. Strange. I'm starting to feel a little bit better and hope that my upcoming race times will reflect this. One thing is for sure, I need to start running a whole lot more in the next upcoming weeks/month to regain my running endurance. I've lost a lot of fitness lately and racing is less fun when you are wheezing and huffing and puffing and not being able to enjoy the race.

My sweetie took this photo of me about half a mile away from the finish line.

 
Ah, I really like this medal! It is huge!

January 28, 2012: Expo

I decided to go get my bib today at the Disneyland Hotel since I am going to be busy tomorrow. Luckily I had just ran the Disneyland Half a couple of months ago so all the logistics were basically the same. I was able to get in and out of there in 30 minutes. The parking people only give you a 30 minute "grace" parking allotment if you decide to park in the hotel lot. So you need to be quick about things. If you loiter around too long they will charge you extra. You don't want to be charge extra because you know everything at Disney is expensive. So I did what I had to do and this included walking the entire expo floor in about 30 minutes. Yeah I'm skilled like that. Don't mess with me, I'm small and can slip in and out of places quick-style. Like a ninja.

There were tons of fairy accessories on display and even a booth with Disney hair stylists to turn you into a princess! For $39.95 of course. 

Team Sparkle booth and all their cute accessories. $10 wings people! If you need wings and who doesn't need wings, go and get them there!

I'm all set for race day! See you at the starting line!

Course:

Mile 1 - 9:37 <-- Very crowded in the beginning
Mile 2 - 11:05 <-- Potty break
Mile 3 - 9:57 <-- Struggling with shin splints for the next 2-3 miles
Mile 4 - 9:07
Mile 5 - 8:40
Mile 6 - 8:39
Mile 7 - 8:43
Mile 8 - 8:31 <-- Things starting to turn around for the better
Mile 9 - 8:23
Mile 10 - 8:24
Mile 11 - 8:15
Mile 12 - 7:07 <-- Went nuts
Mile 13 - 8:28

2011 Chapman 5K Recap

Date: October 15, 2011
Location: Chapman University
Start: 7:30am
Finish: 23:18 (New 5K PR!)

The last time I ran a 5K was back in 2008 at the Corona Del Mar 5K. I almost threw up that day. I think that is why that was my one and only 5K race ever. I am just not a fast runner and doing sub 8 minute miles is challenging to me. Then one day on Twitter I saw that fellow Ragnar teammates Sarah and Heather had signed up for this race as part of Team Sparkle. [Insert: I finally met Sarah and Heather in person. It's nice to meet people who are just as they seem on their blogs. I've missed out on the last couple of meetups but made up for lost time today. It was so nice to meet you both. I promise to make every effort to attend any future gatherings. Looking forward to getting to know you and the other teammates better.] So I went on the Chapman 5K website and liked what I saw. Plus, I've always wanted a Sparkle skirts so this was a win-win all around. I wasn't very familiar with the area around Chapman University as I've only been here once for a food festival. I liked that it was flat and fast. I've been running so many hilly courses this year that I don't even remember what flat and fast is like anymore. This race may be the beginning of my foray into 5 and 10Ks again.

I woke up at 5:15am this morning to get ready. I didn't want to be late. I've been jaded by marathon traffic and crowds one too many times. I managed to get out the door at 5:50am and arrived at Chapman U around 6:15am...way too early! I had a lot of time on my hands so I walked around the campus taking photos. It's been awhile since I've done a 5K and forgot how nice logistics can be at a smaller race.

They are still setting up the finish line here. 

Coach's Oats sponsored the post race food...an oatmeal bar complete with brown/regular sugar, cinnamon, raisins and fresh berries! It was delicious, I need to buy some for the house. I inhaled my bowl of oats shortly after crossing the finish line. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the actual oatmeal bar because my camera was in my car after the race but it was such a nice touch to have a warm meal after a race.

It is starting to get light outside.

The finish line all ready to go. This was about 30 minutes before the start of the race.

This fountain again but with more light. 

This is actually a photo of me back home after the race but I wanted to show off my really cute new purple Team Sparkle skirt! 

I asked Teddy to help me model off the medal but he was being a real jerk this morning. 

I had a really good time at this little race. So many students, community members and runners alike came out in full force to race the streets of Orange this morning. It was very organized. I've forgotten how pleasant it is to maneuver around a small race. And as much as I love running for 4 hours at a go...running for 23 minutes and getting a medal for it is pretty sweet!

Group photo courtesy of Team Sparkle.

The following two photos are also courtesy of Team Sparkle.

The race shirt.

The goodie bag, which was actually a reusable drawstring bag...

...and look at this! An iPhone armband...score!!! Best goodie bag ever!

In conclusion, this race was well organized, had a flat fast course, good on-course support, yummy oatmeal bar at the finish, medal for running 3 miles and best goodie bag ever! I mean what more can you ask for? I shall be back!