New Year's Day I pretty much napped all day. I think it was more to do with the workouts on Monday than any New Year's Eve partying. Either way I allowed it since the next day was back to work. Wednesday I really wasn't in the mood to run and got home later than expected but I forced myself out the door and went exploring my neighborhood. Despite living here since May I've seen very little of the surrounding neighborhoods. I usually drive a few minutes to run along the beach or on trails. My main concern was just getting home quickly but it ended up being a great run. I did a lot of exploring without getting lost and I even found a private road with gorgeous homes stacked nearly on top of each other. Almost looked like a studio backlot. I logged a little over 3 miles before returning home.
Thursday I decided to try something that has been a goal of mine. I want to be able to run from home to Bar Method and back. It's about 3 miles each way which is doable but harder than you'd think. I started by parking about a mile away and since I was running late I ran much faster than usual. So fast that I actually logged my fastest mile at 8:02 min/mile! I was pretty worried that this would make for a really terrible class but it wasn't any harder than usual (which is REALLY hard). The run back was quite a bit harder but definitely not my worst. Overall it was a pretty successful evening.
Saturday was the day of the New Year's Race. The race started at 9pm but the expo (and packet pickup) ended at 5pm so I planned to meet friends at 2pm and spend the day Downtown. The expo was pretty small and not very exciting but the bib pickup was quick and easy and that's more important to me. I met up with Sandy and she showed me how to purchase a TAP card and take the subway to Shojin for a super early dinner. Then we went to Babycakes for dessert. Both were delicious!
We had about 4 more hours to kill and had talked about seeing a movie but decided to listen to our bodies and instead chose to nap in the car! It was very reminiscent of a Ragnar Relay. When we woke up we got our race gear on and headed over to the start line where we ran into some friends and waited in the corral for the race to start. It started about 15 minutes late but the weather cooperated and it wasn't a big deal.
The course took us around Downtown LA with a good chunk of the mileage coming from the Dodger Stadium parking lot. Although that part was a bit tedious, it was worth it to get to run on the field inside the stadium! The course was pretty hilly but I felt pretty good thanks to my recent hill training. Didn't have a PR but still had a good time.
Thankfully this week I also saw progress with fundraising! My parents both made donations and now I'm more than halfway to my goal! Still a long way to go but hopefully more donations will come in as the marathon draws closer. My next race is the Carlsbad Half Marathon which I'll be running with my cousin Carmen who inspired me to get into running races in the first place! I'm so excited for her and hope I do a good job keeping her motivated throughout the race. It's 3 weeks away!!
If anyone would like to make a donation, I'm more than willing to wear another costume so make your suggestions in the comment section on Crowdrise (or you can mail me a check with a note indicating your suggestion). Click the Donate Now box at the top right of the page or contact me for info on sending a check or making a cash donation.
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