Pasadena Marathon Report 09

The Pasadena Marathon was rescheduled from it's original race date in November 2008 to last Sunday March 22, 2009. To be honest I wasn't all that excited about running this race, lets say I had a sour taste in my mouth about the race organisers not rolling over the entrants from the canceled race to the rescheduled date. They had a lame excuse about forgetting to purchase cancellation insurance, and that the previous entrants to run the race needed to re-register at the price of $50.oo. Remember we had already paid $90.00 originally. NO MARATHON is worth $140 big ones!!!

Nonetheless Tanya and I showed up. We had stopped by to see Pamela the night before at the Expo where she was displaying her AWESOME running art. It was great seeing her again and spending a few moments talking. Good peeps!

We decided to run the race with our client and friend Rose.
The rain came down in buckets for the first hour or so, I think we three really enjoyed that part. We don't get much rain here in So Cal, so instead of complaining like so many others who live here we embraced God's gift and danced in the puddles.
Over all I had a fun and relaxing run, the course was OK nothing spectacular. But running with my wife and friends it doesn't get much better.

MJ

Sol Cal Wildfires

Sunday morning Tanya and I woke up at 4:00am prepared to run the Pasadena marathon. While eating a bowl of oatmeal, and watching the 24/7 coverage of the wildfires a flash bulletin came across the screen "The Pasadena Marathon has been canceled due to poor air quality because of wildfires". We had a hunch this was going to happen, but it was for the best. The marathon can be rescheduled, but the health risks associated with the ash and particulates in the air could have been extremely detrimental to the thousands of runners.



Here are a few actual pictures of the wildfires in Chino hills.
Saturday morning Tanya and I were heading to the Orange County Airport, and this is what we ran into on the 91 fwy.

The inferno is ahead
Just above the Green River golf course
About to Drive into the Smoke storm
Jammed Traffic we made it past the fire and to the airport just before

the freeway was closed in both directions.

Increasing the Miles

We had another great weekend of running, the weather was incredible; nice and crispy. The winds blew all of the smog away and you could see the mountains for miles and miles. Absolute Paradise. I can only speak for myself, because Tanya always seems to be feeling great; but I feel I am coming out of a mental and physical fog. We are ramping up the miles again and committing to races. I guess if we are serious about going back to RR100 in February we had better get the quantity of miles up. With that said we have committed to 3 upcoming races. This Sunday we will be running the inaugural Pasadena Marathon. In December we will be heading back to Ridgecrest, Ca to run the friendliest Ultra in America the High Desert Ultra. The High Desert Ultra was my first and and one of my favorites. Then in January we are heading to Arizona to run the PF Chang's Rock and Roll Marathon .

Much love and may all your days be blessed!

MJ