Dianasauries: The Running Misadventures of a Dianasaur: The Inaugural Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon

My first back-to-back weekends of running half marathons. Friday night I got off work early to cover the last shift volunteering at the expo. I arrived a little early to get my bib and shirt, then put on the Rock n Roll Race Crew shirt and before I knew it I was handing out shirts to people. It was crazy seeing the system from the back. It's really very chaotic, but I have to give the Competitor Group major credit for managing all the volunteers. If I have the time, I'll gladly do it again.

Sunday morning I drive into downtown Los Angeles, where I work, and parked next to the convention center. I hopped on a shuttle bus to Griffith Park. I've lived in L.A. for 3 years at this point and have never been to Griffith Park. I was again wearing my Half Fanatics shirt. On the shuttle bus I was sitting next to the door and shivering from the wind. I looked around at all the skinny runners with ripped calves and quads in their bitty shorts and felt like a poser. Who knew it was my 6th half marathon? They were probably thinking "fanatic my ass." Or so I felt. This feeling was quickly squelched when I got off the bus and walked towards the sign for the park.

My friend Tony from the Long Beach Marathon was standing there with a group of people. I saw his cape. They were about to take a picture. I thought, what the hell? I jumped in!

Then I met all these amazing people, some who have wound up becoming some of my best friends! Little did I know that some of them I'd run entire races with - including today. Turns out the woman in the cake hat, Stephanie, was celebrating her birthday that day too. Happy Birthday to Stephanie! Mohan and I would wind up running an entire whole marathon together! Who knew at the time though.... I introduced myself, and the other fanatics were super sweet and inviting. We quickly started talking races and places. This was lingo I could handle! I obliged and followed Stephanie to the secret meeting spot for more photos!

This was the first of many Marathon Mitch Photobombs:

We all talked about future races, and what our finish time goals were. I was nervous from having done a half a week before. Tony, who I'd met the week before also was doing back to back weekends. We jumped into the sea of people about to run, and we were off. Tony and I ran the first mile together, then we both slowed down. We weren't intending to run together, but it just happened that way!

The first 3 miles were next to Griffith Park, then we had a nice jaunt down Riverside drive and a turnaround. Usually I have a hard time with out and back portions of a race, but this was super fun because we were waving and yelling to all our pals coming up behind us. We turned onto Glendale Blvd. and ran down that a way, running into Jessica, Fanatic #27. She was waiting for someone else, so Tony and I went onward, turning around at Boyce and heading back toward L.A.

I started getting really hot at this point, and with it being our first real incline, I realized I was overdressed. I hated to do it, but I stripped off both layers of shirts down to my sports bra. I handed them to Tony as I tried to untangle my headphones quietly playing the new Devo album... "I feel like I'm holding onto your umbilical cord." he laughed as I tied my long sleeved shirt around my waist and put my loose and cool Fanatic shirt back on.

We walked up the hill, and were happy to turn down Rowena to Silver Lake Dr and past the reservoir. We were getting sweaty! Thankfully, someone on Silver Lake Dr had a hose out and were cooling off hot runners! Tony ran through it, while I caught the mist.

It felt so good, after all the running I'd been doing the past week, to make it to mile 8! I wasn't honestly sure how I'd fare. I was going slower than I wanted to, but I was in good company and we were certainly not thinking twice about stopping to snap a few pictures! And, there was another really big hill before we got up to Sunset.. We walked up that one too. We were able to run on the flats, but I think both of our quads were tired from the last race. Thank goodness for the Taiko drummers! They know how to get you up a hill!

Tony and I stopped again on Sunset, in front of my favorite mural by the local artist Cache.

He even got a picture of me with the chicken and the ninja!

And then, we were at 10.

This is where we ran into our friend Louie! He came up to Tony, from reading his blog. Little did I know I'd run 2 half marathons locally with Louie! We chatted him up for a minute and I think he blew past us, but I'm not sure.

Tony and I were getting tired, as tends to happen with me around mile 11. We actually sped up a little bit to run down Temple though, until we found this:

I love the work Cache does... but what is up with the 8-legged sheep?

Baudry was another long hill, uphill. We walked up the whole dang thing. It was rough having it right there at the end of mile 11. Oh did it feel good to get to the top of that hill and hit 4th. We zoomed down the hill and turned onto flower... zig-zaging about downtown. Flower, to 9th, to Hill, to 11th... I felt like a Dash bus.

I believe somewhere on Hill we ran into our friends Sherry and Ethan, fellow Fanatics (but wonderful Maniacs!) Turn the corner and there is the finish line! We were greeted by Jenn, who was waiting for her husband to cross the finish. She's super sweet.