My First Half Marathon

Late February I took my first painful steps to a healthier life, got my shoes on and went for a very slow mile, "ran" the first few feet thinking I would do one quick mile then go home , but my body decided to only go for about 30 seconds then came to a sudden stop.

I looked back towards my house wanting to go back, hacking and gasping for air I flailed my arms about and kept walking hoping that would make it look more like a scheduled stop in my warm up routine , after a few minutes I took off again , this time a lot slower and a lot more aware of all the extra me jiggling and bouncing with every step, 24 minutes later I was back home, humbled and ashamed I noted my time for that first mile and took a shower.

The next day I went out again and again but my knees were killing me after that first week, I was running on very flat sneakers , after some browsing online I found out about the barefoot movement , I live in dirty Downtown so barefoot is not really an option for me but saw an add for Vibram shoes and looked them up , I got a pair the next week and felt the difference almost immediately.

I walk barefoot in my house all the time, My wife is a strictly no shoes in the house type of girl and well, whatever she says goes ;) so no shoes  indoors for me for the past 5 years but turns out , it came pretty handy making the transition to the Vff's , I wore them for a whole mile the first time and never looked back, month later I ran a 5k on them then a few weeks later I went 4 miles,  last week I did a 10k and felt great so then yesterday I went out for a full 13.1 miles

of course I am aware of the  "only increase your distance 10% at a time... but .. anyway

I went the first 8 miles just amazed at the fact that I was doing it, around  the 9th mile, Pacific coast Hwy. looses the sidewalk and I was forced to go on a dirt trail and it felt pretty good I was almost all the way back to were the sidewalk starts again when I kicked up some dirt and picked up a small, tiny, tiny , tiny pebble, it was tiny but it went straight into my shoe and  I felt it poking and rubbing around the ball of my foot until it went between my toes, by then I knew there was going to be a blister coming out soon and by mile 10 there it was , right on time to give me a decent excuse to quit but I was almost to the end and I was doing a good time and I figured I was going to be in pain today either way so I kept going, I got up the steep incline to the beach path and a lady coming down yelled at me " keep it up, you almost there" delirious or just wanting to tell someone how far I've gone I yelled back " this is my 11th mile 2 more 2 more ! she opened her eyes wide open and yelled as she passed me " way to go , you got this !!".

Oh man , that gave me that extra boost i needed and made it all the way to my road marker, but i didnt want to go home and find out I only ran 12.something so I went an extra 10 minutes, then called my wife to come pick me up hehehe . 

when we got home I went on racekeeper and plotted my run , it came out to 13.48 , I am calling it a half a marathon and this will be my base  

13.1 miles  in 3 hours 

The Olvera Street experience

Took the Metro last weekend to Union Station then walked across the street to Plazita Olvera

Los Titeres (The Marionettes) 

This puppets are from a Mexican sitcom from the 70's called El Chavo del Ocho ( the boy from the eight) The puppet in the front is El Chavo an orphan kid living inside a barrel in the courtyard of a low income apartment complex or a Vecindad. The Puppet in the background is The Chilindrina , El Chavo's (not so) secret admirer . Her name comes from a Mexican bun or pastry with chocolate sprinkles on top reminiscent of the character's freckles
The Characters were played by Roberto Gomez Bolaños and Maria Antoineta de las Nieves the show ran for like ten years i think but is still on re-runs mostly in Mexico, Brazil and the US

Las Mascaras de los Luchadores (the wrestlers'  masks)

The Main characters haven't changed in a long time , this are the same masks from the big names of the Mexican Wrestling arena, the white mask is  El Santo (the saint) the biggest name in the history of the sport a legend in his own time  with over 50 movies and a wrestling career that spanned 5 decades. He was never caught in public without his mask in fact the only time He removed it was for a brief second on a tv show to bid farewell to his fans , He then died a week later of a heart attack

Las Calaveras (the skulls)

Mostly used for decoration around Dia de los Muertos the day of the Dead. They can be found year round in Olvera street most of them are made from paper-mache but they are a few made from candy , creepy and delicious has always been a winning combo in my book

G'tars, calendars and piggy banks

The rest of the souvenirs are the American version of Mexican culture most of the stuff is made in China all of it is considered "authentic" but is all cute, colorful kitschy stuff , We didn't get a chance to try some of the food but then again if you want excellent Mexican food you need to come over to my house... then We can walk over to Enrique's Restaurant , I recommend the stuffed chile Poblano