Half #18 coming right up

Disclaimer: I received an entry into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Los Angeles Half marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro(ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews! All opinions are my own. 

There are only 4 more days to go until I run my 7th half marathon of the year and my 18th half overall. Yay! I have been extremely fortunate to have such a great racing year with little to no injuries. *Knocks on wood*. I’ve run races in San Diego, Long Beach, Vancouver, Chicago, and in a couple more days, I can finally say Los Angeles. Woohoo.

I’m no stranger to LA having been in a relationship with someone who lived there for years. I’ve enjoyed delicious food in LA – tacos at El Chato’s Taco Truck, ramen at Shinsengumi (YUM), and pizza at the Luggage Room just to name a few. I’ve visited the Hollywood walk of fame and been to Univeral Studios where I geeked out on Harry Potter paraphernalia. I’ve run up and down most of LA’s beaches using the Strand and caught a lot of pokemon at the Santa Monica pier. LOL

Tonkotsu ramen at Shinsengumi

But with the awesomeness that is LA, there is also the bleh part of it. Parking is a HUGE pain not to mention the traffic. I’ve been stuck in traffic for hours trying to drive just 25 miles and trust me, it’s no fun. With that being said, I will have the pleasure of causing more traffic by running the Rock N Roll LA half marathon this Sunday morning. LOL. Sorry LA! It’s going to be extremely satisfying running around the usually busy streets of LA without any traffic. Hooray!

So what is the plan for RnR LA? Hmm, well that’s a great question. It’s only been 2.5 weeks since the Chicago marathon and I don’t think I’m in any shape to try and PR again in the half distance. I know I can run the distance, but at what pace is questionable. My past few runs have been just okay and I found myself having to stop every so often so my legs could recuperate. I will try and hover around a 2:05 and if I feel strong enough to shoot for a sub 2, I will. I probably won’t though. Southern California is experiencing an odd heat wave and with temperatures expected to reach 82F this Sunday, I will probably be taking it easy.

Training during sunset after the heat had subsided

This race is Halloween themed and unfortunately, I just wasn’t inspired by any costumes and decided to not dress up for the race, but don’t you fret, I will be dressing up for my Disney races in January and you can bet I’ll look adorable in Disney related attire. HAH! I kid, but really, I’m super excited to dress up.

On another note, my friends will be running RnR LA with me and it’ll be awesome because I ran my first half marathon with these guys. I always try and get these guys to come out with me to race and every so often, they cave and sign on. This is one of those rare times. Woohoo! I can’t wait to run another half with them again.

Those are my pre-half marathon thoughts for the week. So tell me, do you have friends that you always run races with or are you like me who tends to race solo?