Remember the crowded public transportation in DC? Not here.
During the expo yesterday, the Hollywood Half Marathon’s Facebook page blew up with complaints about traffic and parking. I figured everyone would wise up for race day and say, “Forget it. Let me hop on the subway so I won’t have to worry about any of that.”
Nope. ‘Cause I live in LA.
This morning, in the words of Paolo Nutini, “I put my new shows on, and suddenly everything is right.” I cannot believe I neglected to mention in my post about Ohio that my family bought me a new pair of kicks!
As you know, I’ve kind of been a little obsessed with Brooks ever since I saw the amazing Brooks carnival display in New Orleans.
While in Ohio, I tried some Pure Connects, and was hooked. They’re so light! I can fly in them – and I don’t mean fly as in go super fast, I mean fly as in Peter Pan – get lifted off the ground and fly around.
I’ve been sort of breaking them in-ish, over the last couple of weeks with short jogs or walking. In my heart, I knew I should’ve definitely done more actual long-distance running in them before today.
I knew they weren’t totally broken in, but I figured they were broken in enough. My other pair (my Asics Kayanos) were getting tired of being raced in every week. I knew I really needed to start alternating. I threw caution to the wind and put on my new sneaks.
My shoes felt so amazing in the morning. As the day wore on they started to feel tighter and hurt a little. Brooks is an awesome company with awesome shoes that shouldn’t take any blame for my mistake.
But definitely, the longer that half marathon went on, the more my feet hurt. I ended the day with 4 blisters (all on the same foot). (You’re welcome for omitting the picture of that.) But, blisters can be fun, so I didn’t mind.
As I get ready for the race, I pull out my Hollywood Half bib, but there aren’t any safety pins to be found. Luckily, I have a number of them left over from other races, so crisis averted.
Also, there weren’t any zip ties or any kind of tying apparatuses that usually comes with timing chips. I just used my shoe laces to hold it in place. Problem solving in the morning. Woot woot.
I head out the door and onto the nearly empty subway, where you would never have any idea that a race is taking place that morning. When I get up to Universal Studios, I’m unbelievably pumped to finally find my very own picture to submit to The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks.
This morning, I also meet Joe, Ragnar runner #7 on the team for which I’ll be volunteering in 2 weeks. (I’m so stoked about that!) He was incredibly nice!
As the race gets closer, we all line up in our corrals. I do an absolutely awful job of trying to find Joey McIntyre. (Read: I don’t try to find him at all… I was caught off guard when he ran in Pasadena, but had ample warning about his appearance in this one.)
I should’ve at least done one of those nonchalant strolls around. “Oh, I’m just checking out the scene… Joey McIntyre? What are you doing here?”
Alas, it was crowded and I lamely didn’t have hope he could be reached by me (the slow common-folk).
By the time my corral crossed the start line about 30 minutes-ish after the race started, my feet were sort of already over it. I’d already been standing around in my new shoes for close to 2 hours. Tsk tsk, Aurora, for not breaking them in.
I’ll pick up here tomorrow!