Believe to Achieve

10 recovery miles...big square around disneyland area....harbor to ball road to broomhurst to chapman to harbor.   10@ 825.   disney ca adventure from 8am to 10pm.  walkes to/from park entrance.  1 mile each.heel pain back after five miles   figure due to concrete dips from driveway entrances on roadways.

no watch but met melanie at her hotel at 5 am. 0.3 wu.  ran 1.2 wu (7:37, running with melanie :)  )  stopped and mel set up watch for 15 min on /off --1 min on/2min offs. accidentally started with an on at 2 minutes....realized this at 1 min 20 secs into it. so had a 40 second recovery then started with the garmin beep for the first minuted. does this make sense? it does to us :-).  on paces 535 to under 6. mel had watch. i felt really good the whole time and could have down a few more. two minute recovery faster than i would do but totally felt good so it didnt matter. cooldown too fast so i had at least a 0.3 jog back to my hotel. so happy to have melanie to run with. very fun! would not have run any speed this week of she werent here. :)     oh and heel not a single problem til the cooldown mile when we were on more concrete that had the dips for driveways.  bummer cause now i have to take on disneyland for 14 hours. kids and husband asleep right now. i am in front desk area hanging out. time to shower and wake them. :)

bed at midnight. 15 hour day at disneyland. ran into mel and her family several times. :)   even waited  in 45 min jungle cruise line together. time flew by in that maze. this am just ran easy..close to same route as speedwork except ran tnru downtown disney. ran at 630 am. 9.36 miles @ 815 ap.  first mile 8:42. last mile 7:33.  still at disneyland. going to be here til midnight. fast passes for space mtn at 1125pm :-)  

no plan. hey operating on 16 hour dayz at disneyland. kids actually slept in. had to wake them up finally at 840.  ran at 7am.  busy time with traffic but able to get in 2 mile repeats- 615, 615.  had to slow on second one. almost took out a group hogging the side walk. geez come on it is vacatio. here.  8 at 724 ap.    got myself in a mess...o. a whim sigmed up for hollywood half marathon....yup it is t mr.hollywood.  

disneyland for 7 hours......then off to hollywood.  37 milez in 1 hr 47 min. how do californians do this? 

Okay--signed up for this race on Thursday while at Disneyland with family on Day Four of 15 hour days walking around park. I ran all week getting up early before family and running between 9 and 10 miles each day.  Two speed work days as well.  Seriously what was I thinking?  By day six -- "race" day my legs were hamburger.  Friday we drove to Hollywood.  Who knew 37 miles could take 1 hr and 45 minutes???  How do Californians do this day in day out traffic????  Got to hotel and drove only 4 miles to Univeral Studios and picked up packet at the Hilton there. The expo was nice.  I couldn't stay long.  Husband was outside in car...avoiding parking fine of 15 dollars.  They didn't give the Half marathoners a break. 

Race Morning--- slept poorly.  Nothing new.  I was having chills for some reason so took some ibuprofen before bed and sweated it out while I slept.  Woke up achy and TOTALLY forgot to drink or eat anything.  Troy drove me over to shuttle at the Hotel at 445am.  Met Dexter, a runner, a nurse and a photographer, asian.  Very nice, social.  We talked a lot.  We got along real well. He is in his fifties. Sadly, shuttle GOT lost.  We didn't get there til 535am and I had to go potty real bad.    I almost didn't make it to a potty and there were not outdoor spots that didn't have police surveillance.  I found a hotel.  That was the extent of my warmup.  Running to that hotel when I saw it.  Made it just in time.  Then still had another 0.3 mile walk to starting line.  It was dark.  Race starts at 6am.  I got to starting line at 550am.  It was fun hearing the DJ and hanging around up front.  The elite runners got to take off a minute early--they had a rope holding us back.  Funny thing was that several NONrunning looking people stood up by the elite runners. The DJ had to announce "okay now If YOU CAN't RUN a 5:00 minute mile you shouldn't be up here" .  It was funny.  A few came back but a few still stayed up there.  Seriously????  Dexter took several pictures of me at the starting line then made his way back to his corral. Anyway, next was my corral. I started up front.  I had no idea about competition.  A skinny blonde girl began running by me.  It was a little nerve wracking wondering what I got myself into and who are the runners beside me?  It was quite dark for the first four miles.  I am not a very good fast runner in the dark but I managed okay.  I think my first mile was a 6:33.  Then 6:34, then 6:39, 6:39, 6:45....DEATH BY A HILL-- 7:24.  DEATH by a HILL again 6:55.  Then recovery downhill but for some reason I couldn't pick it up more- 6:43.  Legs were trashed.  I could now FEEL the OVER 50 miles of walking I did at Disneyland (our hotel was just over a mile away and we walked there and back every day and twice I did it again to put something in our hotel room-- this would be after long days at disneyland--rarely sitting down, going from Park to Park and Ride to Ride, like any other diehard Disney fans).    The course had TWO U-turns and one monsterous climb from 4.5 to 6 miles then from 6.2 miles to 6.8 miles and the entire mile from 8 to 9.  Then rolling hills all the other miles-- nothing steep just rolling on uneven concrete.  My running buddy stayed ahead of me after mile four and she was about 30 seconds ahead at the first Uturn at 6.2 miles (10k was 42:02).  Blah.  The second uturn was just after mile 9.  I no longer saw my running buddy.   I really thought she just stopped running and ended the misery cause I didn't see her coming back (later I found out that she saw me and waved but I was in a zone she said-- must have spaced out on that hill).  That mile was 7:14.  One might think that time could be made up but it just wasn't happening for me.  I was tired.  I needed a nap.  Not a race.  6:55 was all I could muster.  I calculated that if I just ran 7s I could get sub 1:30--- but I didn't factor the course being off by .07.  BUMMER.  Mile 11 was merging with all the 10k and 5kers.  WE all started at the same time.  Seriously funny to pass that many people when we started at the same time.  I was feeling pretty good about myself.  A couple of guys passed me (three total) and I passed a few girls that started in the elite corral.  Not sure why mile 11 was slower...it just was 7:06.  Could have used a 6:50 there!!! The next mile was okay. Still not fast enough but mentally I was giving up passing all the slow joggers and wondering how off the course would be.  6:55 was all I could get.  Followed by another 6:55.  Then hello--- must have got some fire in me-- 6:06 for the last 0.17 miles.  I was the first female master (I chipped the elite female who is 41 and started a minute ahead but finished only 14 seconds at the line ahead).  I got a STAR trophy for winning my division.  There is supposed to be prize money awarded but they have to figure it out.  They weren't expecting the second wave women to catch the first wave women.  Blah.  It was well run for the second year of holding the race.  People were encouraged to dress up as their favorite movie star.  As we were leaving a guy dressed up as Joe Dimaggio was running along side FIVE Marilyn Monroes!!!!  too funny.  The finish line was right next to the concrete "star" with Michael Jackson's name in it.  We of course took a picture.  I got to meet my running buddy. She finished in 1:27:21.   She hung out with Troy, Courtney and I for over an hour.  Very pleasant , social girl.  She is 33 and would fit right in with my running group here in Utah.  She is from Hollywood.    She ran 3:04 at LA marathon last month.  She came in fifth today.   I came in 8th.  I thought I was 7th but I was chipped by a girl.  Oh well.  I chipped a girl too, so we're even.  The top women ran 1:15, 1:15.  The first place girl is Bernard Legat's sister!!  Third place girl ran only a 1:24 and won 1,000 dollars.  Wish Rachelle were here she would have had some easy money :D.  There was then a girl who ran a 1:25, then Erin in 1:27.  Then a girl that chipped me with 1:29:53.  Not sure what the other time was for the 6th place girl.  I ran 1:30:31 for 13.17 miles.  Not bad on tired legs and honestly kind of a not so fun course on tired legs.  If I tapered or didn't run speedwork and walked 50 miles I would have felt differently in this race.  Ran cooldown to the starting line 0.7 miles away.  Then back to finish.  Had to pick up my drop bag.  They were taking down the starting line and I hooked my bag to the gate. That gate was gone when I got there.  And I turned around and asked one of the workers if he saw a Hollywood Half bag.  He happened to have one in his hands and it was MINE!! with my warm pullover I wore all winter. So glad I had good timing.  He said he was about to throw it out.  We left the race at 930am back to hotel. Sore throat came on hard after race.  Chills and fever that night and continued all day at work on Sunday-- a NON call in sick work day unless YOU have a dr's note.  No time or money to get a Dr.'s note.  So wore a mask.