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

Bonelli Park Fat Ass 50K Report

The first Bonelli Park Fat Ass 50K (or Less) went on without a hitch. There was a total of six of us to take on the challenge. They where Marty, Bruce, Jeannette, Tim, Tanya and Me. Tanya and I had run and marked the course late in the afternoon the night before so we decided from the beginning we where only going to run 2 of the 11 mile loops. We were confident the others would step up to the challenge and run all 3 loops. But as the morning progressed; I'm not sure if it was maybe the difficulty of the course, or that fact that after each loop you returned to your car to refuel (which made it easy to stop), but everyone decided to call it a early day and no one completed the entire 33 miles. I still see potential in the course and maybe we can do it again next year and everyone will complete the course. Nonetheless we had a terrific day out there, running just brings so much JOY!! Stay fit, Stay strong, and LOVE LIFE. Life is great you know.

MJ

Orange Curtain Race Report

Tanya and I arrived in Cerritos early and the morning temperature was perfect for running. The Orange Curtain is run along the San Gabriel River Trail, the course is a 10K loop that will be repeated 5 times or 10 times depending on which race you are running. As I mentioned in previous posts my goal was to go under 5 hours, my strategy for the day was to break the run down into 5 short races. Meaning I wanted to focus on each 10K section one at a time and run each as close to an hour as possible. I hoped this strategy would keep me from thinking about the monotony of running the same road back and forth over and over again. It worked because the miles and the morning passed by very quickly.

10K: 1:00:00 perfect right on pace!
20K: 1:57:12 feeling good body is loosening up, the sun is breaking through the clouds.
30K: 2:58:23 best lap of the day feeling Strong, feeling good about next two laps.
40K: 4:01:42 how quickly things change, feeling fatigued stomach a little upset but sub 5 still in reach.
50K: 5:16:55 Damn! couldn't hold the pace and an unscheduled bathroom break(#2) didn't help. But no excuses. Knocked almost 30 Min's off of previous 50K PR so I am still Pumped!

Tanya ended up calling it a day at the 50K, she was entered in the 100K race. She still had a terrific finishing time of 5:28:41, and was conserving to go 50K more.
Overall we had a great time, it was great seeing and running with so many friends. I rate races on their Aid stations and Jay(RD) his wife, and the volunteers had their stuff together. Look how

clean and neat this aid station is. That says a lot, and I took this picture after I had finished running, it was clean and well supplied like this all day! Maybe this is why I like running ultras the food!; marathons only give you water or a sports drink.

Get out there and run!!

2009 Orange Curtain 50K PR!

I did not break 5 hours which was my ultimate goal, but I did set a 50K PR. I will post a report with more details soon!.

MJ