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

The Golden Hour

             THE HOLLYWOOD TOWER HOTEL 

I waited for the light on this picture to be perfect for about one hour, I remember driving by last year around this time and seeing it all lit up by the afternoon sun , I remember thinking it would make for a great shot if I was to be on the other side (inside of the park) but when We got to the park it was too over casted and cloudy with odd shadows here and there and I wanted a fully lit tower so we stuck around eating rainbow colored popcorn until the time was right. I hope you like

"Take a picture it will last longer", they said

My Favorite Fish and this is the most awesome way I've had it.
risotto with cilantro , spinach, pineapple all complementing a perfectly cooked salmon .
too expensive to have on a regular basis , let's just say is a meal for 3 or this month's payment on the Lexus

Bike Month in Long Beach

Long Beach is on its way to becoming one of the friendliest bike cities in the country (watch out Portland) I rode down town a few weeks ago at night but took the beach path back home didn't get to see the new bike lanes, I rode again monday and got to ride the bike lane it was awesome but i didnt have my camera so I got me a brand new excuse to go out again for a ride !!!

The City just spend 700 grand building the separated bikeways downtown (first in SoCal)

Which include some awesome bike traffic signals

More Funds have been allocated for bike safety education programs, all buses now have bike racks and if you are not sure how to use them you can stop for a quick class at the Bikestation 

The Bikestation offers 24hr indoor bike parking which is free during regular business hours but you can also park your bike in one of the  bike lockers  available downtown or just chain it to one of many bike racks

If you are a business owner you can request a free bike rack and not just a stick on the ground bike rack , oh no sir! you can get any one of this designs.. although it seems the yoga posses are not available at this moment  

For more info go to Bike Long Beach there are more programs available and tons of events coming up , freebies and discounts at local stores on saturdays .

I got my bike a month ago and already put more than 60 miles on it oh she is a heavy beast at 59lbs and

IS HUGE TOO !!! over 7 feet long (btw I think is heavier now with all the stuff I added to it)

Required by law a horn or bell audible to 100 feet  I went with the clown honk-honk type 

Got a mirror on the other side because apparently I can't turn my head and keep a straight line

oooh ooh check out the tires on it !!

Of course I have my baby girl with me all the time so she gets to enjoy the ride in her own seat , straps , buckles and a helmet and off we go. Have a fun and safe Bike Month !!

Club 33

We had lunch at the super exclusive  Club 33 and of course I took my camera inside.


















more pics coming soon

We ran the Revlon 5k in our Vibram shoes

This was the first time she joined me on a 5k, we did a few training runs around our neighborhood but mostly we stuck to walks and a lot of bike rides. We wore our fivefinger shoes and yes matching sweat pants 

It was great to run with her !! love you babe! !!

 

We got there a little early , most teams had a meeting point in the stands but our team didn't register so we headed out to the starting line , which turned out to be better, since there wasn't a lot of people there  we got to go almost all the way to the front. We got to see the announcers up close and we were quick to get started, some of the other people on our team took up to an hour to get to the starting line. I think they were expecting about 45000 people I wouldn't be surprised if there were thousands more than that.

Running in to the Coliseum was awesome!!!

Once we got to the tunnel we all knew it was so close to the finish line and no one could contain their excitement hootin and a hollerin we all tiredly ran in, fist pumping,  for a few moments became cool again.

We got our lunch bags and water and went up to the stands to watch the rest of the runners trickle in 

Every now and then We would muster our meek sounding YEAY for all those crossing the finish line 

Hey they even got our bodies perfectly portrayed up by the entrance !