Half Marathon #3

Three half marathon's down, four to go. At least four to go for this year. Maybe more. Who knows at this point... I'm addicted and I love it!

The Hollywood Half Marathon. April 7, 2012. Inaugural year. Starting at Universal City Walk with the course running down Hollywood Boulevard. And of course, in true Hollywood fashion, we were encouraged to dress up.

We decided that even though this race was only three weeks after completing the full marathon we couldn't pass up the opportunity to be included in the first year of a race. Unorganized? Yes, but that's to be expected the first year of any race. Our thinking is that this will be the half marathon course we race every year in order to keep our new titles as "Legacy Runners" for the Hollywood Half.

We were slightly disappointed when we got to the starting line and realized that not a lot of people dressed up. There were a few people here and there (Marilyn, Elvis, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz among others) but we were expecting a lot more participation. It really didn't matter though, because we were the dynamic duo and throughout those 13.1 miles we had so many people cheering us on because of our costumes.

Batman and Robin. Better known as Rachel and Tracy.

The first 10 miles of the course consisted of downhill and flat surfaces. Easy enough, except for the heat. Then at mile 10.5 it was straight uphill until mile 12.5. What were they thinking? Making the last 2 miles uphill... LOL! It wasn't too bad for me though.

Rachel started overheating early on, about half way through the course. It didn't stop us though. Our time goal was to finish in under 3 hours, and we did. With about 40 seconds to spare..

It was a really great day, and I think it shows why Rachel and I are such a good team together. We don't leave each other behind when we are running a race together. I probably could have PR'd. I was having a great running day. I felt great and was ready to go. But you don't leave your hero behind. At least not when you're the side kick.

Me crossing the finish line.

"Whale" Watching

Going out on a date is not something Patrick and I do regularly. We've been together almost 3 years, engaged for 7 months and we are getting married in 6 months. Add to the mix full-time jobs, three children, an apartment, families, friends... the list never ends. It's just way too easy to make excuses to not have the time or energy or money to go out on a "date."

Enter groupon and the opportunity to go whale watching for half the price.

I've been whale watching on three previous occasions, but only saw whales on one of the trips. Patrick had never been. I bought the tickets and we planned a random Wednesday to take off of work and have a mid-week date.

Me on the boat. The weather was perfect.

I kept checking the whale report from the Channel Islands website. They had a lot of sightings of humpback whales, gray whales and even killer whales. I had high hopes that we'd get lucky enough to see something.

Unfortunately we didn't see any whales on our adventure, but we did see a lot of dolphins! There were so many of them surfing the waves from the boat. It was pretty amazing to watch.

We also got a nice little tour of Anacapa Island. There were thousand of sea lions sun bathing. They were just as curious about us as we were about them.

Patrick and me with Anacapa Island in the background

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful date. We had so much fun together and it wasn't something we'd normally do. Maybe we'll try again to see whales next year.