Human Race Weekend

My first 10K run was a success! It was a long, tiring, yet extremely fun weekend. Mark, J, Archie and I started off the trip by driving down to LA. First stop was Beverly Hills Niketown to pick up our race packets. We were all pretty much at a 9 hunger level, so afterwards, we headed to Johnnie's to eat. I kept hearing how tasty Johnnie's Pastrami is so I'm glad I got to try it for myself to see what all the hype was about. And my goodness, was it delicious! I couldn't finish the whole thing because it was so humongous, but it was tasty indeed. Just from the past week, I now have a list of top 3 sandwiches: Kinders, Johnnie's, Quiznos Chicken Carbonera. We then went to drop off J at Salve's aunt's house and hung out there for a while where we had the longest goodbye session ever. When we finally escaped, we picked up Boots and Celeste and headed to a random, unplanned trip to Vegas. I know, hella out of the way, but hey, its Vegas! We got there around 2am and went straight to the club. Had to change in the car/parking lot of the Palms. Then...straight to Moon/Playboy Club on the roof top of the Palms. I've never been to the Palms before and it was so nice up there! Great view of all of Vegas. Left the Palms around 7am, it was bright and hot outside already. Ate at Fat Burger then went to Archie's condo about 30 minutes away. No one lives in his place so there was no electricity and the water smelled like rotten eggs. It was super hot and we were sweating like crazy that we couldn't sleep. So after a couple hours we decided to just head back to LA. Got there in the afternoon. Went to see if the Attic in Buena Park had any good sales. No winners. Headed to La Quinta to check in. Chilled there for a while, and tried on our race gear. As tired as we were, we didn't want to waste the night so we went to Manhattan Beach to eat and also cruised down Sunset Blvd.

Race Day! Slept in til like 1pm. Picked up Brian and Antoinette at the airport. Got dressed and headed to the race sight. Ate at Togos and just chilled at the starting line of the race for a couple hours. Finally, 8:31:08pm on 8/31/08 the race began! I was planning on running with Ate, but there was so many people that I lost her from the very beginning so I just went the entire race by myself. Overall the race was pretty exciting. Constant high fives to strangers all around. Throughout the race, there were different cultural presentations which represented a country where the race was held. That was cool to have some entertainment as you ran. All throughout my training, there were points where I walked and the most I've ran/walked was 4 miles. But before the race, Mark and Muz advised me to just keep a steady pace throughout the run and not to stop and walk. I kept thinking about that as I ran and surprised myself that I did it! I ran 6.2 miles! Also, during the run, I was also wondering is anyone there was running in some Jimmy Choo shoes. Kanye and Common performed as the afterparty concert. Great show. Ate Pastrami burgers as our post-race meal and passed out afterwards. Next day, Ninong Jhun, Tita Shirley, TRF, J and Salve came by the hotel and we all went to go eat dim sum. Stopped by the mall and R.E.I before the drive back home. FUN TIMES! I'm ready to do it again.

Here's some pictures. Thanks Brian!