LA Cancer Challenge

Today was the annual LA Cancer Challenge in honor of Tyler.  I met Tyler four years ago when I first raced in the LA Cancer Challenge.  Alex asked me to come run in honor of his friend who was battling pancreatic cancer.  I accepted, made many good friends, and have been racing as part of Team Tyler ever since.

Alex and I drove down to LA yesterday, arriving very late thanks to some camera-related distractions.  We picked up Kenji on our way through Pasadena, and then we spent the night in Hermosa Beach with Alex's family.  Though we arrived around 9:30 pm, we were treated like royalty by Alex's aunt, his mom, and Bob.  They fed us gourmet cheeses on wonderful, crunchy bread and homemade pumpkin curry soup, while talking life and business and science.

We awoke early on this fine Halloween morning to get ready for the race.  We met up with Tyler et al. at the start and had a causal warm up.  It was fun to get to spend some quality time pre-race with Jesse and Kenji.  Just like old times!

Overall, I enjoyed the race.  I started slowly since I didn't trust my legs two-weeks post-marathon.  Then, my competitive drive took over.  The first mile is nearly all uphill, and I was running just behind these teeny, tiny girls.  I flew past them on the downhill and set my sights for a woman in black just ahead.  I caught her on an uphill.  Just after the next bend, a guy passed me who kept checking his GPS watch every 10 seconds.  I figured he was trying to make sure he kept up his pace, so I decided I would then try to keep up with him.  The second half of the second mile and the first half of the third mile are always a tough part of this race for me.  They're around the back of the hospital, and it's hard to keep my bearings on the race.  A woman in fluorescent yellow was just ahead of me, so I focused on her.  I passed her early in the third mile, and I looked ahead to the next woman, but I could tell I was giving about all my fitness would allow right now.  I focused on increasing my turnover, held my position (as fourth woman), and finished in 19:47.3. (As a side note, I was happy with my race, but I was sad that four years ago being out of 5k shape meant running in the low 19s.  I really have to start getting on the track again regularly!)  The rest of the team did well in their races, too.  I'll just list Alex's time:  he finished in 18:03.8.

After the race, we went back on the course to walk with Tyler.  He finished the 5k in 1 hour 33 minutes, a seven minute improvement over last year!  It was such an inspiring thing to witness, and I look forward to next year's race...

If you want to read more about Tyler and the race, check out his blog and a post written by Shannon Rowbury, another dedicated member of Team Tyler (yes, the olympian - seriously, there is so much that is inspiring about Team Tyler!).

Now on to my favorite camera-related distractions:

Happy Halloween!