Ok...ok...ok... Firstly I want to thank
First Lady Benson and
Stepping Higher, Inc. for sponsoring my run and constantly supporting me in my quest for wellness in our communities! Now...let's talk about this run. Well...the day before (June 2nd) I organized, with the sponsorship and assistance of
ING Kids Rock (also...a special shoutout goes to
John Nunn, a 2012 Olympic hopeful in the 50K race walk, for his assistance.) We took students from
Nubia Leadership Academy out to get fit and experience the fun and excitement of an organized, (semi) competitive run (kids were involved, so they are no losers, only winners!) This was fun and a little
stressful but mostly
fun!
After the kids run, we went to the annual Expo in the downtown Convention Center and it was GREAT as usual! Vendors, vendors and more vendors and I had to also pick up my racing bib. I was also "given" a $30-40 parking pass "out of the blue" and that was a blessing because it allowed me to park at the "finish line"(Sea World) before the race began.
Now, the morning was a little challenging because I was looking for my shorts at 4 am and couldn't find them. I found some cool red shorts, but they didn't match so I went with my black shorts which happened to be missing the drawstring. I didn't think it was a problem because I had safety pins to hold them up...BOY...THAT CAME BACK TO HAUNT ME!!
We started the race in Hillcrest along with the other 40,000 runners and proceed to trek 13.1 miles to Sea World...yay! ;-/ I had recently sprained my calf muscle that week in
TKB, but I couldn't back out because I had to "do what I gotta do"...right? Well, I was cool for the first 4 miles, then Mr. Calf started acting up. Now, I'm foolish sometimes and I deal with the pain, but believe it or not, that wasn't the worst of it...the worst came when I had to constantly pull my shorts up FOR THE WHOLE RACE! Stupid, stupid, stupid!! I should have just wore the non-matching red shorts and ran a comfortable race, but noooooooooo...I have to match and it cost me my sub-2:00 time! I ended up running it in
2:05 (not bad, but those shorts messed me up...Lol!) Other than the "wardrobe malfunction" the race was great, the course was great the music...the music...the music?? It wasn't my "cup of tea" so of course I had my headphones on the whole time (Thank you
Snuggbuds) Oh, yeah...there was that ONE group playing "California Love" by Dr. Dre and 2Pac which got me HYPE right when I was passing the Mission Valley YMCA.
Overall it was a great time and I look forward to the 2 month break before my next Half Marathon. We will be attempting to kick butt in the Vista Half Marathon (formerly the Big Money Half) on August 11th and then the America's Finest City Half on August 19th! Wish us luck!
PS: Thank you Mr. Tracy Morris and the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Western Region and Nubia Leadership Academy for sponsoring me for these runs!
Also...Please it is not too late to donate towards the ~> "Dash for Dad" run to benefit Prostate Cancer research. (Anything is helpful) I'll be running in December 2012 at the Rock n Roll Half in Vegas for this cause which has personally affected me, with my father passing at the young age of 55, and knowing that it affects countless lives across this planet!
#RunNasaraRun
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