Sunday, April 8, 2012

Welcome to Hollywood #42



I did a race in Hollywood this Easter weekend. It was a tough, hilly course with a killer hill from mile 10.5 to 12.7. I saw only a handful of people jogging up it. Everyone else was walking. I was disappointed in my time because for the first 8 miles I was actually making much more of a decent time than usual. In March I did a 10K and 15K and at the 10K and 15K point in this race, I was 10 minutes ahead of my finish time. But that last hill killed me. It took me 15 minutes/mile to walk up the hill. I did get to run down Hollywood Boulevard along the Walk of Fame and the Sunset Strip.

There were a few problems with this race:
1. They ran out of cups and they just had to give us water by the handful.
2. The finish line was suppppperr crowded. They had a fancy step and repeat on red carpet set up for runners, so everyone wanted finish line photos.
3. They had shuttle buses running for runners, which ended at 9:30am due to traffic. So this left a huge amount of foot traffic for everyone. Just to walk back to the cars took forever.

I did get to go on a party bus after the race, however. It was better than a limo! It had music pumping, lights all over, TVs, a reader board. Very classy move!

After the race, I walked to the nearest LA Fitness, which was just down the road from where I parked my car. I ran into, literally, a former soap opera actor there working out. I then headed to Universal Studios for the entire day and rode lots of rides and saw the backlot, lots of sound stages, and Wisteria Lane where they film Desperate Housewives. I then saw an actor from American Reunion and another TV actor walking around the City Walk.

Sunday I went to see my uncle and had Easter dinner with friends. It was beautiful weather and a lovely weekend.

#42 half marathon done!

Here's another quoted article:

http://www.spryliving.com/articles/6-most-common-cycling-mistakes/