Mission Peak Hike

Kicking off Half Dome training with a hike at Mission Peak in the East Bay. 5.6 miles out and back, with a 2000 feet elevation change. Ouch! 

Sonoma, Baby!

So, maybe it doesn't have the same ring to it as Vegas, Baby!, but it definitely suits the girls much better.

We took off for a night in Sonoma to celebrate the soon-to-be Mrs. Manda. Unfortunately she came down with the stomach bug. After biking to two wineries we spent the day at the pool relaxing and indulged on Mary's Pizza in the hotel room. It wasn't exactly the send-off to married life we had planned, but it was so relaxing and nice to spend time together.

Stadium to Sea 2010

I swore I would never run another marathon after I crossed the Chicago finish line back in 2004. Fast forward five years, numerous races, and an overachieving BFF new to the racing world. Somehow in the Fall of 2009 I excitedly found myself signing up to run the 25th anniversary Los Angeles Marathon.

We started off on Saturday in the blistering sun at Dodger Stadium to pick up our race packets. We treated ourselves to t-shirts since the only official race shirts they had left would nicely fit your average sized troll. It was HOT so we didn't stay long, all quietly wondering how we were going to run 26.2 miles the next day when we could barely stand around without melting.

We dragged the boys to Michael's with us to get crafting supplies. When you need to bedazzle, you need to bedazzle. Too bad the bedazzling wore off somewhere around mile one. Our Support Team (of one) joined in on the crafts and made some of the days winners in signage.

Side Note: Matt was awesome and deserves the award of the day for crafting on a Saturday night, going to a senior citizens dinner, getting up at 4:30 for no reason, traversing the streets of LA in a car and on foot, and capturing awesome finish line pics of us. 

Getting ready to start with Alexis!

The race itself was great. Alexis, Meredith and I started off together. Lex pulled ahead around mile 1 to look for a bathroom and unfortunately we didn't meet up again until after the race. Meredith and I ran until 15 then went our own ways. She now refers to the race as my LA Snack-A-Thon. Let's just say I tried every item the crowd had to offer, from bananas to licorice. I had a smile on my face until about mile 23. Then I wanted someone to cut my feet off. But I plodded away, especially once I realized Becky and Arek would be at the finish. I crossed under in 4:51:17. Wasn't exactly a PR, but I am proud of it. The best part of the race was crossing the finish line and not having the "I will never do this again" feeling. Two down, hopefully at least eight more to go.

Crossing the finish line 26.2 miles later. 

Some of my favorite badass rockstars. 

What's left of the bedazzling. 

Not sure what's next. New York 2010? International Something 2011? 

All the pictures are here.