Thank you to the awesome people at the Sunset Strip Half who let me do this race for free!
I was volunteering at the LA Marathon expo this year, and during my dinner break I walked around to the different booths to see what was going on.
I talked to the Sunset Half people about how cool their race seemed (especially when they showed off their super awesome, amazing medal at the booth), and how much I wanted to do it.
We talked about my blog (and I was kinda fishing for a free race… I never know how to go about that stuff, but I know I love running for free!).
We talked about some of my projects and one of the guys in charge checked out my Instagram. Then he wrote some kind of special code on top of a registration form and handed it to me, giving me a free race!
So far, I’ve gotten a whole bunch of cool things through Twitter… But this is is the first one mainly due to Instagram! (Thanks Instagram!)
I spent the majority of the day before this race on a bus heading home from my amazing trip to San Fran.
I totally ate my favorite pre-race meal (chips and salsa) while on the bus! (I can barely smell anything, though I am aware that I think sometimes salsa has a strong smell… Hopefully I didn’t annoy any fellow bus passengers with my mini-feast!)
As soon as I got home, I tried to hit the blankets. This race started a little later than some – awesome for getting extra sleep, not awesome for how hot it got… But there was some shade. It was all good.
I loved the signs along the course that gave you little tidbits about places you were running around.
It also was somewhat interesting to me to run around West Hollywood, ’cause I’m terrible at knowing where things are in relation to other things.
I have gone to WeHo a lot for various workout classes, dinners with friends, jobs, (even to get dolled up for The Emmys!) and so forth. So to see everything. And how it fit together was interesting to me. (Though let’s get real, I could not draw a map of any of it right now if you asked me to.)
(For real, though, what is wrong with my hippocampus?)
Aaaaanyway, I wasn’t too terribly concerned about my time on this race. I didn’t start an app or anything to keep track.
I was taking it easy after a wonderful active vacation full of hiking and workouts, and I still did the half in under 3 hours and 6 minutes – which was closing in on my best time from 2012 (the year of 52 half marathons in 52 weeks) (that I huffed and puffed and struggled for).
Now my PR is under 3 hours. But when you look at what I used to struggle to do vs. what I do on a lovely 13-mile jog, it’s really nice to see that running’s getting easier (or better or something good). (Yay!)
There was a little stretch where I was running down the street without anyone around me, and it wasn’t too bright out where I was, and I just remembered, “Goodness I love running. It feels so good!” (I should keep doing more of these half marathons, huh?)
After the race, we got Gatorade in a can (which I didn’t know was a thing)! And we got the super cool medal. Then I walked on over to Bar Method, and did another workout!