The Santa Monica 5000

Amy planned this 3 day visit to see two colleges in the LA area for our daughter. The day before I checked to see if there were any races that weekend. The Long Beach Marathon was scheduled, but since I ran a marathon a week ago, I didn't think that would be a good idea. Then, I saw it. The Santa Monica 5000. A 5k race just minutes from our hotel on Sunday morning.

It was a bit overcast and in the low 60's at the start of the race. About 800 runners were planning on running the 5k that started south of the pier, looped around and thru the downtown section and then past the pier for another loop to finish at the pier.

I did it around 33 minutes. Not anywhere near a PR, but it was fun anyway. The cool Ed Hardy shirts were given after the race at the small expo on the pier. My daughter knew who Ed Hardy was. I had no clue.

Below are a few pics from our LA trip. First is one of the Japanese Gardens north of Santa Monica. We, also went to Little Tokyo in downtown LA.

A sailboat at Santa Monica beach.

Running past the Santa Monica Pier. The shirt I got is like the one the lady is wearing.

Hey, that's the ocean out there.

Me at the finish. I need to practice putting my bib on straight.

State #4 is California

On the 28th I ran the Bumble Bee 5k at the Big Balloon Parade. It is the race right before the Holiday Bowl Parade in San Diego, CA. We got to start our run in front of the grandstands, run the entire parade route in front of thousands of supportive on lookers. The race was very congested in the beginning. It took about 25 seconds to get to the start and then we walked for a bit before it thinned out and I could take off. My family was watching around the 3/4 mile mark and got to take my picture. I did have to circle around so that my wife could take it adding 20 seconds or so to my time, but it was worth it. We raced downtown San Diego passed the Padres Baseball stadium. Looped around the convention stadium and ran along the bay. Thru Seaport Village to the finish. From start to finish I timed myself at 33:16, another PR for me.

The official time was higher, but in my defense, several people passed me in the shoot and they collected my bib tag about 100 yards away from the finish. It could not be a very accurate way to get a finish time.

Vacation: We had a great time. My daughter got to see the set for Gilmore Girls. She's a fanatic. The whole Warner Brothers tour was great. We got to go to an aquirium, museum and the San Diego Zoo too. I didn't get to run as much as I'd like, but oh well.

Weekly running: On Christmas day I ran 3.88 miles in 47:10.
On Wednesday I ran on the treadmill at the Holiday Inn, San Diego. 1.77 miles in 23:05 and then I ran another 10 minutes, but didn't keep any records.