Master's University Winter Classic 5K - 2024

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Well, you can see how good a job I've been doing at keeping up with this blog this year.  So much for my once a week life updates, right?

Almost a month ago now, I took part in the Master's University Winter Classic 5K.  Last year, it was cold and threatening rain, with a little bit of sprinkles on us.  This year?  It was cold, but not nearly as cold.  But the sun was out.  Once we started running, I warmed up pretty quickly.  I finished in a little over 36 minutes (like 36:10 or something), which I was happy about.  I took a couple of weeks off from running in December because of my cough, so the last couple of weeks before the run were a struggle.  I took a couple of walk breaks, but did better than expect overall.  (And I generally walk at some point during my runs, even before I took the break in December.)

As always, I saw a couple of friends there, which isn't a surprise after attending school there and then my time working there.  However, it wasn't the friends I normally see.  Still, it was nice to say hi really fast to them.

Master’s University Winter 5K

I did the winter 5K race at my alma mater, The Master’s University, again this month.  It was supposed to be a cold day, but with the sun out, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  The wind, on the other hand did help.  My boss did it with me, and I was glad I was more bundled up than he was.

He stuck with me the entire time.  I was feeling comfortable running, which is a huge improvement over last year, when I felt like I should stop and walk a time or two.  I didn’t last year, and I didn’t this year.

Unfortunately, I was a little slower this year.  4 whole seconds.  I still finished in just under 33 minutes at 32:50, so I am running about an 11 minute mile these days, I guess.  At one time, I was able to run under a 10 minute mile, but I was also logging major miles while training for a Tough Mudder and half marathon.  Those days are obvious behind me.

As always, the course is nice.  And being back on campus is a trip.  They’ve changed so much, and I knew the campus so well since I worked there for so many years.  It looks good, the changes are definitely for the best.  It’s just always fun to see what has changed.

And, I got to run into some friends as well.  That’s always a fun bonus of running this race as opposed to running a race where I know no one.

Ascot Hills 5K

This Saturday, I did something I rarely do – a 5K.  Just a plain old regular 5K.

I signed up because a friend from work has been trying to get me to do a race with him, and this one was on a Saturday.  I figured that was a good thing.  Unfortunately, it was a ways away, and I had to wake up super early on a Saturday to go and do it.  Even worse, a friend from high school was in town last minute.  Fortunately, I got to see him Friday night because the friend I was going to do the race with flaked on me.

The race itself was in downtown LA at a park I had no idea existed.  Then again, I haven’t spent that much time in downtown LA, so that isn’t a surprise.  They call it a hill challenge, and they are right.  There are two hills in the 5K, and even though I regularly do run hills around my complex, these hills still got to me.  I had to walked parts of the uphill parts.

I finished in 38 minutes, which was a pretty good time as far as I was concerned.  I would have been faster if I had run the entire thing, of course, but given the hills, I’m very happy with that time.

There were so nice views of the city along the way.

I’m sure I would have enjoyed the run more had I not been so upset over my friend flaking on me.  But that kind of took the enjoyment out of it for me.

Hamstrings Getting Better

I mentioned my hamstrings being a problem when I was running.  Not that this has kept me from running.  I have the Camp Pendleton Mud Run coming in two months, after all.  However, what I’ve found has really helped is soaking them in the bathtub after I run.  Between that and stretching, they aren’t bugging me nearly as much between runs and when I am running.  I definitely have to keep this up.

And I have been running.  I jumped back up to my 3.3 mile run pretty quickly, and I’m wondering if it was too quickly.  I’m really struggling to get through it.  I am doing a slightly longer run as well, and it is a struggle, too.  But I’m holding my distance for at least another week and hoping that helps.  I will be adding distance after that, but slowly.  I have a feeling I won’t be setting any speed records in June, even for me, but I am confident that I will get through the mud run, and that’s what counts.

Insane Inflatable 5K – 2017

This last weekend was my last run of the year.  Okay, last paid for run; I still plan to run a couple of times a week around my condo.  It was the Insane Inflatable 5K, which was being held in Pasadena.

It was actually on the grounds of a country club.  I could tell that we were running on what used to be part of a course, but it didn’t look like it currently was in use.  It certainly wasn’t in use that day.  I suspect the course was actually 2.5 miles, but I have no way of clocking it.

As the name suggests, there was no mud or water.  Instead, it was made up of inflatable obstacles.  And it was a blast!  There were about 10 of them over the course.  It was pretty much climb up and slide down.  Sometimes, we had to climb through or go around something.  It was different, and a lot of fun.

I do think it could have been a little better thought out.  There were so signs pointing to the parking, which was about a quarter of a mile away from the start of the course.  I had no problem with the added walk (great warm up and cool down), but signs to let me know I was looking in the right place would have helped.  On the other hand, parking was free, which was wonderful.

The course was laid out with a series of yellow cones, but just on one side.  As long as you keep the cones to your left, you were okay.  It mostly worked, but it wasn’t the best way to lay out a course.  A couple of times while getting off an obstacle, it wasn’t obvious where to go next.

It seemed like a lot of people were walking this one, and there were some young kids on it.  I was one of the first to finish in my wave, which never ever happens.  And everyone was spread out, which is part of why marking both sides of the course would have been nice.

Still, it was a very fun run and I’d certainly sign up to do it again.

Brunch in Downtown Disney

It was a long weekend, and I really didn’t do much.  Sunday was my normal church and ultimate Frisbee.  Monday, I didn’t even leave the condo.  But Saturday….

Saturday, I went down to Downtown Disney and met up with some friends for brunch.  It was the weekend of the half marathon, so Shirley and Doug were down for the 5K.  Angelique came with a friend, as did Sue Ann and her friend Heidi.

As always we were at the Storyteller Café.  It’s a bit pricey, but it’s fun.  We always get the buffet after all.  And that included Caramel French Toast this time.  Yum!

We sat around talking for over an hour after we had finished.  None of us really wanted to go.

And when we were done, Angelique and I did hit the stores to look for pins and ornaments.  Surprisingly, we didn’t find any of either to buy, but Angelique did find a figure of Gus and Jacque she needed.

I must admit it was killing me seeing the people walking around with the shirts and medals from the race.  They’ve introduced a 10K this year and a double dare if you do that on Saturday and the half on Sunday.  Seriously thought about signing up, but it sold out quickly.  In fact, their races are getting to the point where you have to sign up immediately or you miss out.  Camp Pendleton was less crazy this year.  Anyway, I was wishing I were doing it even though I’m not sure when I would have trained for it.

In fact, I’m still debating about the half marathon in town in November.  If I hadn’t signed up for three mud runs in the next few weeks, I might do it.  But I don’t know when I’ll get my training in.

Anyway, on my way home, I took a detour through Glendale and visited with my friend Chris.  Hadn’t seen him in a few months, so it was good to catch up.  He was in the middle of doing the double dare, so I got to hear about how it was going.

I will admit the one thing that wasn’t making me jealous was the weather.  It was hot and muggy this weekend, unusually so for California.  It would have been killer to be out there running in it that far.

Still, overall, I think I wish I had run.

Men's Beach League Week One

The last few springs, there’s been a women’s ultimate Frisbee league on the beach in Santa Monica.  Well, this year, they’ve added a men’s league.  It’s Saturday morning for six weeks.  Naturally, I signed up.

This last Saturday was week one.  And, I appear to be keeping my streak alive.  Both of our games were close, but we lost.  We’re talking like 10-13 and 11-13.

I got the disc twice, once in each game.  The first time, I caught it and passed it on just fine.  But in week two, I saw a good up field pass that would required spit second decision making and accuracy.  I threw it no where near the guy at all.  Frustrating.

On the fun side, two of my team mates are people I know from the pick up game I used to go to on Saturday afternoons down in Van Nuys.  And my friend Luke is on another team, so I’ll be able to see him every week.  Well, every week I show up since I will miss two weeks for other things.

The games ran late, so I had to book it as soon as we were done.  I would have liked to stay and enjoy the ocean a bit more, but I was trying to get to a book signing.  And my parking time was up in the pay by the hour lot.  Yeah, I know.  If I get there late again, I’m just going to pay to park in the all day lot.  Beside, it’s right by where we play anyway.

I am a bit concerned about my left knee.  It was really bothering me by the time we were done with the second game.  Heck, it had been bothering me a little after game one.  Running on sand is not as easy as you might think.

On the other hand, I was able to keep up relatively easily with my guy.  Yeah, I still got scored on a time or two, but their take off and go wasn’t as bad in the sand as on the grass.  And by the second game, my stamina wasn’t as drained as theirs.

Sadly, I can tell my lack of running is catching up with me.  I need to run consistently, especially up through the Camp Pendleton Mud Run in June.

Boston

I had a very busy weekend, so I had other things I had planned to blog about today.  But I just can’t seem to focus on them.

The last couple of years, I’ve started following runners and running organizations on Twitter, so this morning I was seeing all kinds of posts about the marathon as people were getting ready for the start.

I was just checking Facebook really fast before I came back from lunch when I saw the news about the bombs going off in Boston at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Naturally, I switched over to Twitter to try to get some more news on the issue.  It’s been several hours now, and I’m still in shock.

While I would never qualify for Boston (I’m just not fast enough and never will be), I couldn’t help but place myself in the race.  Based on my half marathon time, I figure I would be somewhere in the 5 to 5:30 time if I ever ran a marathon.  So in other words, I’d be right in the blast zone.  That sobered me up pretty quickly.

Of course, another part of me wonders why the bombs went off when they did.  Did they get delayed somehow?  I mean, Boston is the best of the best.  By 5 hours, the majority of the field should have finished.  For maximum casualties, the bombs should have gone off sooner.

But that doesn’t help those who died or those who were injured.  As I write this we know nothing.  I’m sure in the next 48 hours, we’ll have motive and suspects if not people actually arrested.  And then we can pick about who did this and why.

But it still saddens me.  This is a day that is supposed to be fun.  There is a huge sense of accomplishment for even finishing the thing.  And now someone has gone and ruined it for everyone to make some kind of point.  But who makes that point by killing others?

Of course, there are people who are trying to politicize it.  And that just makes me sick.  I mean, we know nothing.  How can you point the blame to anyone or speculate who is behind it without any proof?  That’s not reporting.  That jumping to conclusions.  And anyone with half a brain knows better than to do that.

Still, this is a sad day in our nation.  I am proud of the people who are banding together and jumping in to help.  I will be praying, and if there was more I could do, I would.

Mardi Gras Madness 5K 2013

This past Saturday was the Mardi Gras Madness 5K here in town, and I did it for the second year in a row.

The course was the same as last year.  It was pretty much flat except for the bridge they have us use to cross over the main street and get to the bike path.  Starts and ends in a strip mall. It’s actually kind of fun that way for something different.

Last year, it was my first time doing a 5K in under 30 minutes.  I was a bit slower than that this year – I completed it in 30:38.  But considering I’ve been running once a week most of the year, I’m actually okay with that.  If I’d been using my watch to pace myself, I probably could have done it under half an hour, but I really didn’t care.

Another difference this year was my roommate did it with me.  He beat me, but I was kind of expecting that.  And I think it was only by a couple of minutes.

This race benefits a program that trains teens in town to run the LA marathon.  What was fun is that two teens I know are part of the program this year, and I spotted one of them at the race directing traffic.  I got a kick out of that.

The weather was perfect, a tad nippy but warming up quickly.  In fact, it was so nice, I went to play ultimate Frisbee that morning after the run.  I just couldn’t sit inside on a day like that.

It did cool off that evening by the time I went out for a friend’s birthday party.  We were sitting outside for a while, and I wished I had brought by jacket.

Lazy. Or Is It Tired?

Okay, so it’s probably really a little of both.  I think there’s only one week where I ran both Tuesday and Thursday so far in February.  I’ve been making it out once a week and then playing ultimate both Saturday and Sunday.

Last night, I was so tired by the time I got home, I could hardly function.  So I decided I just wasn’t going to run.  Yes, it was probably partially laziness on my part.  After all, if I had a race coming up, I’d be getting ready to run for sure.

I do have a 5K coming up in just over a week.  But really, I can do that no problem.  It will be building up for Tough Mudder in June that will really start to force me to run.

It doesn’t help that Wednesday is my big TV night right now with three shows since I didn’t give up Survivor.  And what is the one night of the week I’m not home to watch TV?  You guessed it.  So I find it calling to me by the time I get home.  Maybe now that I just have 30 minutes on Thursday itself, I won’t be quite as tempted to sit down and watch the instant I get home.

But really, if I would just go to bed earlier most nights, that would go a long way toward helping as well.  I’m surprised my alarm has woken me up most mornings.  I’m trying to do too much right now, but I don’t want to cut anything out.  I just wonder how long I can keep this pace going.

Running in 2013

Wow, we’re 22 days in the new year and I am finally talking about my running plans.

Fortunately, my running has been quite that bad.  I have been running, although only once a week plus ultimate Frisbee on the weekends.  My legs have been okay.  Not perfect, but better than they were the end of last year.  And it is issues that seem to be better when I run than if I don’t run.  Weird, I know.

And that’s a good thing since I am already signed up for several mud runs.  My roommate is doing all but one of them with me, too.  We’re doing two in April and two the same weekend in June.  There’s one in May we’ll most likely sign up for as well.  The one he isn’t joining me for is a second go at Tough Mudder.  I don’t think I’ll be the weak link in the team this time, but I need to train for it so that is definitely the case.

There will probably be some other runs along the way.  And there will definitely be more mud runs as the year progresses.

The race most on my mind right now is the Disneyland Half.  They’ve added a 10K to the weekend and a challenge to do both.  I am so tempted to sign up for both, but it would mean two very early mornings and two nights in hotels down there.  Not sure I should/could commit.  But it would be awesome to get the first medal for the 10K and the challenge.  Registration on this one opened today, so I need to decide soon.

Last 5K for 2012

Yes, I’m still talking about 2012.  That’s how behind I am on blogging.  But I did get one last race in during the year.  That brings my total to 14 over all.

This was the Holiday 5K and was held on the Saturday between Christmas and New Years.  It was put on by the cross country team of my old employer.

My roommate has started working out more, and he joined me for this one.  Or should I say he beat me for this one.  He finished about 5 minutes faster than I did.  Honestly, I don’t know if I would have been able to keep up with him even if I had been running.

That’s right, I ran only once the entire month before this race.  My legs had been killing me thanks, mostly I think, to some very bad dress shoes I’d been wearing for work.  As a result, there were days I could barely walk let alone run.  That seems to be behind me now.

Fortunately, I was able to run the entire thing.  And I finished in a time of 32 minutes, which isn’t that bad at all considering.  I figured I’d be much later.

The course itself is mostly off road and is beautiful.  Unfortunately, it was also very cold that day.  We’re talking almost snowing.  And it was sprinkling a bit as we started.  Yes, I know I enjoy doing mud runs, but that’s when the temps are warmer.  Waiting for the race to begin was the hard part.  Once we got going, I was fine.

Still, I’m glad I went and did this.  Plus it’s proved my legs are doing better, so I am back to running.  Which is a very good thing since I’ve started plotting out and signing up for mud runs in 2013 already.

Santa’s Arrival Family Fun Run aka 5K in the Rain

I know the last time I talked about running, I said I was done racing for the year.  Turns out I lied.

Saturday, there were actually two 5K’s in town.  Don’t worry, I only did one of them.  This one was at the mall, and it was to celebrate Santa’s arrival.  He was supposed to kick off the race himself, but rain kept him from showing up.  I guess he’s okay with snow but not our rain.

It worked out perfectly for me.  I dropped my car off to get an oil change, walked over, did the race, and when I got back it was ready to go.

We started at the mall, but quickly jumped on the bike paths that snake all through town.  I use them for my long runs, but this was a section I hadn’t run before because it was so far from home.  It was fun getting that much more territory marked off.  There are some I still need to see where lead.

We were supposed to be wearing antlers and jingle bells.  I left my antlers in the car, but I was one of the few.  I did tie my bells on my shoes, but they fell off not too long into the race.

The race itself was actually 3.2 miles, and it was raining.  In fact, a couple of times it rained hard.  I got a little cold waiting for the race itself to start, but once I was running it felt great.  I had a grin on my face the entire time.

And the reason I did this run?  The medal they gave us at the end turns into a Christmas tree ornament.  Now perfect is that?

Of course, by the time I got home, the sun was coming out.  We did get a few more pockets of rain during the day, but that was the worst of it.

And it was the start of a very productive day.  I put lights on my Christmas trees and put my outside lights up.  This way, I’ll just have ornaments to hang when I get home.  This is always the unfun long part before I get to that.  Then I wrote or edited a ton of reviews.  I have two more I want to write before I head home for Thanksgiving, but that’s it.  Normally, I have a bunch of stuff I’m trying to finish, so this is nice for a change.

Fun Start to a Quiet Weekend

Friday night, I got a call from my friend Donald.  “I’m in town, you want to hang out?”  I consulted my complex plans for the night to see if I could squeeze him in.  Since my TV shows could always be watched the next day, I waited two seconds before I said yes.

We headed out to dinner and dessert.  I hadn’t eaten a Oggi’s pizza in forever and forgotten just how good their specialty cheese pizza is.  Then we hit Cold Stone.  I’d just been thinking I hadn’t eaten their much recently.  We finished off the evening with our favorite board game – The Stock Market Game.  The last time we played, I beat him handily.  He returned the favor.  I mean, it wasn’t even close.

The rest of the weekend went about as planned – not much of anything happened.  I did get my two Christmas trees set up.  Don’t worry, nothings on them yet.  That’s what this coming weekend is for.  Yes, I do intend to get my lights up at least on Saturday but probably not much more than that.

Sunday afternoon was ultimate Frisbee.  This is the first time I’d played or run in two weeks since I’d hurt my calf.  Not quite sure what I’d done to it although sitting differently on the couch seems to be helping.  It didn’t bother me at all, so I think we’re good.

And my roommate came home after a week away on Sunday night as well.  It’s nice to have some company around the place again.

So as you can see, it was a mostly quiet weekend.

The Ultimate of Weekends

I played ultimate twice this weekend and could have played a third time.  I mean I went to a book launch party in addition to playing ultimate twice.

I started the weekend by heading to my Saturday morning pick up game.  That was a mistake.  See, we were having Santa Ana winds Friday and Saturday morning, and it was pretty much impossible to throw the disc with any accuracy.  It was a game of chance and luck.  I should know better than to try to play in weather like that.  I really should.

Saturday afternoon was the launch party for Laura Levine’s latest book.  And being a Halloween themed book, the fact that it was so late to launch turned out to be a good thing.  At least it was themed correctly to the weekend.  This was down at a restaurant in Santa Monica.  The wind was much, much less down there, and that was a huge relief, especially since the party was outside.  Got to chat with several friends we have in common or we’ve made over the years, so it was a nice time.

But at the park across the street were people playing ultimate.  I kept watching when I wasn’t talking to someone.  At one point, I did wander over and saw that I did indeed know several of the people who were playing, so I said hi.  I was really wishing I had some water and wasn’t wearing jeans because I would have loved to join them.

I did get a chance to play again Sunday afternoon at my other normal pick up game.  The weather was perfect and there was hardly any wind, so that won the day over my calf, which was bothering me that day and has been bothering me off and on.  I probably shouldn’t have gone since I’m trying to get it to heal up, but the weather was just too nice.  In fact, I probably should have run last night for the same reason, but it was feeling great when I left.  I quit before everyone else did because of my calf, but I’m still thrilled I went.

My calf seems to be doing better most of the time right now, and I’m making a point of stretching it.  However, it’s still not at 100%.  I think it’s more my dress shoes (which I’m only wearing twice a week) instead of my running.  I keep hoping it will get used to my dress shoes, but that doesn’t seem to be working.  I’ll have to see how to progresses before I decide for sure what to do with it.

Shelia Stride 10K aka 10K Goal Met!

Yesterday morning, I ran another race. This was a regular road race and not a mud run.  Even better, it was here in town.  I was very happy for that since it started at 7AM.

I was doing the 10K, and my goal for the race was to finish in under an hour.  The last two I did were both in 2011, and I had finished just over an hour both times.  As a result, I’d done a couple of 9 mile runs over the last couple of weeks, hoping the longer distances would help my legs and cardio be ready to push it on race day.

Then Wednesday, I came down with a cold.  I blame the 2’s and 3’s from church the previous Sunday.  I wasn’t sure how I’d do, but I figured getting my goal time was pretty much out the window.  I canceled my last short run on Thursday to give my body more rest in hopes it would heal.

It turned out to be a mild cold, and by the time I got up Sunday morning I was feeling pretty good.  Maybe I could PR after all.

I’m still not quite sure what happened Sunday morning.  I got to the race in plenty of time and wandered around a bit.  I hit the bathroom one last time and then walked back to my car to empty my pockets.  I thought I’d have about 5 minutes before the race started, but as I got back to the start line, they shouted go, so I took off.

Not too far past the start line, I was passed by a friend.  I was supposed to be doing this with two friends, but I hadn’t seen them before we started.  One of them caught me and said the other couldn’t make it at the last minute due to a long night with a sick daughter.  Then he took off at his own pace, and I was on my own.

We hadn’t made it more than a quarter mile when my shins started bothering me.  I hadn’t given them much thought, figuring I’d be up in plenty of time for my legs to warm up.  Obviously not.  I stopped for a few seconds to stretch them, but they still were bothering me.  Not enough that I couldn’t run, but enough that they were noticeable.  I decided to keep going and stop and walk if they got to bad, but after mile one, they began to feel okay, so I just kept going.

Most of the course was on the bike path that travels through town.  Since it was the other side of town from where I live, it was very nice running an unfamiliar stretch.  It’s the nice part of the path, too, not the part right next to the road.

I kept a close eye on my watch, trying to keep my pace around 9:30.  If I was under that, I didn’t back off, but if I was over, I’d start speeding up again.  Every time I passed a mile marker, I’d check my time, and I was under10 minute miles, but not by much.

When I hit 3.1 miles, I checked my time again.  I was just over 30 minutes.  That’s when I knew it would be very close.  The suspense was beginning to kill me.

It wasn’t until I hit mile 5 at 48 minutes that I began to have faith I could actually make my goal.  My legs didn’t feel too badly, and I wasn’t nearly as tired as I thought I’d be.  I pushed just a bit more, always aware that I didn’t want to overdo it and miss out at the last minute.

I made the final turn toward the finish line at 59 minutes.  Fortunately, I just had a few feet to go, and I poured on the speed.  According to my watch, I finished in 59:16.  My official time via the race organizers was 59:20.  I’ll take either.  Even better?  I finished 24th overall out of 90 something people doing the 10K.  Actually, I saw lots of people walking the course behind be after I turned around about mile 4, so that doesn’t surprise me.  But it still made me feel good.

So, despite my potential set backs, I made my goal.  Might I have gone faster without them?  Probably.  But for today, I was rejoicing in my time.  Plus, I’m happy that I didn’t feel like I was going to die like I did when I hit my first 5K in under 30 minutes back in March.

My shins are definitely a little sore today.  I’m debating about trying to run on them tomorrow or if I should let them rest all week and wait for ultimate Frisbee this weekend.  I’ll probably decide based on how they are feeling tomorrow.

Life Update

I've been a bad blogger.  BAD!  So how about a general life update.



Well, that was exciting, wasn't it?

Seriously, there isn't much to report in my life right now.  I've been working at a part time job for a couple of weeks, but that appears to have ended last Wednesday.  It was a mess of a job, and I'm glad to be out of there.  I'm started a new job at a new company tomorrow.  It'll be full time, so with traffic that will cut into a lot of my free time.  And let me tell you I've gotten used to that.  And it will be a lot of tax work, which I hate.  But the pay is wonderful.

And I've been running still.  I've got three more races this year, and I know what they are.  Two are mud runs (and one is this Saturday!).  But the other is a 10K here in town.  You'd better believe I am aiming as hard as I can for that under one hour 10K time.

Because of that, I've been running 9 miles once a week.  Last week was hard, but today wasn't so bad.  One big difference was I went first thing in the morning when it was still relatively cool instead of when it was hot late in the day.  Still got hot weather wise by the end, but not as bad.  Ran it in 1:41 and an 11 minute mile average, so that sub hour 10K is going to be a hard task in a week and a half.  But both times I've come close, I was running long and training for something.  I can do it.  I know I can.  And if not, I'll just keep running and working on lowering my time and try again.

I think that's about all going on here right now.  As I said, nothing really super exciting.

Running a Half Marathon

As I mentioned yesterday, I did it.  I ran the Disneyland half marathon on Sunday.  This has been in my sights for 8 or 9 months, so I am quite happy to have accomplished it.

The race started at 5:45.  Yes, that is in the morning.  And yes, I signed up for that knowing when it would start.  Even as I type that, it's a little hard to believe.  But I got up and I was there in plenty of time.  I would have liked to have gotten there a bit earlier, but the parking was a problem.  Then I had to fight to get to my corral.  But I made it.

You'd think there were 15,000 or so people running it.  I mean, it was a zoo at the starting line.  I was in the fourth group to start, and I was surrounded by people the entire time.  Yes, we spread out enough eventually that I had some room to maneuver, but I was never lonely.

We started out running around the outside of the parks before heading into CA Adventure and Disneyland.  The course took us through just about every way we could go through the parks without hitting a dead end, including back stage a couple of times.  We did get to run through Cars Land, which made me really happy.

After that, we hits the streets of Anaheim.  And we were only about 3 miles into the race by that point.  The next stretch was fairly unexciting.  But then again, my training runs are on city streets around here, so they aren't exactly exciting either.  I did like one store we passed along the way.  They had changed their marquee out front to read "Finish lines are just dreams with deadlines."

Around mile 9, he reached the Honda Center, where the Ducks play ice hockey.  And we got to run through the parking lot.  Thrilling again, right?  Then we hit a bike trail by a creek/drainage ditch before we reach Angel Stadium.

Now that was actually fun because we got to run around the outside of the field itself.  They even filmed us and put us on the big screen, but I missed seeing myself up there because I realized it too late.

From there, it was a run back to the finish line outside the Disneyland hotel.  And by this point, I was so ready to be done.  I knew I could finish, but it took all my willpower to get me through the last 3 miles.

But I finished.  My official time was 2:35:27.  I finished in the upper half overall, but in the lower half of the men.  What's funny is that almost twice as many women as men run this race.

Unfortunately, my family, who had driven down especially to see me finish, got some bad information and then were stuck in traffic and got there after I had finished.  However, I did meet up with them and talk to them afterward.  Since they couldn't have seen the finish line anyway, I'm more upset for them that they didn't make it than I am for them not actually being there.  The fact that they made the effort means the world to me.

I had two friends who ran it as well.  Marsha, from my Trixie boards, and Chris, who I've run several races with this year.  Chris was finished long before I was (started in first coral and finished 45 minutes faster than I did), and I never did connect with him.  But Marsha finished in about the same time I did, and we chatted some at the finish area before hashing and rehashing parts of the race over the rest of the day in Disneyland.

New 5K Personal Best

I ran a 5K, my 8th race of the year, on Saturday.  It was over in Ventura for their Fair.  Actually, the race was in town down, two laps up and back on Main Street, which was a fun and different place to run.  I ran it with my friends Chris and Stacy.

It was a costume race, and I got a mask to go with my Incredibles shirt, so I was Mr. Incredible.  Chris was a Ghostbuster complete with a pack that actually had light and sound.  Stacy was a cheerleader.

The pack slowed Chris down, and he and Stacy stayed together.  But I took off and ran at my own pace.  I wasn't trying for anything other than having fun and finishing.  The course was uphill one way and downhill the next, then we got to do it all again on the second lap.

I did my normal finish somewhere in the middle of things, but the amazing thing was I finished in 28:15, which is a full minute better than my 5K time in March.  Obviously, all my running this year and my training for Tough Mudder and the Disneyland Half are paying off.  Now I need to sign up for a 10K quick so I can get my goal of a 10K in under an hour.

Another good thing?  When I ran the 5K back in March, I just about died finishing in under half an hour.  I honestly felt like I had a whole lot left in the tank this time.

Now, if this would just translate to better ultimate Frisbee playing I'd really be happy.

Running Update

I haven't blogged about it much, but yes, I am still running.  I have to be since, as you can see on my side bar, I've got a month until the Disneyland half marathon.

A month!!!

That's both excitement and a bit of fear in there.  I just hope I'm ready.

I ran 11 miles on Wednesday night.  I don't know how long it took me since I forgot to recharge my watch, but I'm guessing it was somewhere in the 2 hour neighborhood.  Probably around 2:10 based on where I was finishing up my 10 mile runs.  It was a struggle.  My legs were so sore and I was so tired when I was done.  Not that I could go to sleep when I went to bed that night.

But as tired as I was, there is always a great sense of accomplishment when I finish a run like that.  If you had told me in 2009, when I did the Disneyland 5K, that I'd be doing the half marathon, I would have told you you were crazy.  In fact, I think I might have said something like that to Sue Ann.  Yet here I am.  It still amazes me how far I've come and how much I enjoy running.