weSPARK Universal Studios Backlot 10K RECAP!

My legs are still sore, ladies and gentleman, from the 10K race I ran on Sunday. That means I really pushed myself. And I’m really proud of how things turned out. But I’m jumping ahead of myself… I should start at the beginning.

Sunday was a beautiful day for a race: sunny and clear, although it was hot. It ended up being 90 degrees that day, and even though the race was held early in the morning, it was obvious that the day was going to be a scorcher. I got to Universal Studios a little before 8am, and met up with a bunch of friends that were also participating in either the 10K or the 5K run/walk. My buddy Mikael took this picture of me near the starting line…

Allison

My family was in town recently, for what turned out to be a really wonderful weekend. We headed down to Anaheim and did the whole Disney thing. It was my second time in each of the Disney parks, and it was a really fun and busy time. And even though the family has long since returned home, I can’t stop thinking about my four-year-old niece, Allison.

First, a picture of Allison, along with me, my sister Sarah, and Ariel from “The Little Mermaid.” I’m still wet from Grizzly River Run, the Disney California Adventure water ride we were on immediately preceding our meet and greet with Ariel:

Big Time Race Announcement!

At first, I considered titling this post “Shafted by Schmidt” – which will make more sense after you read what follows. Ultimately, though, I decided to focus on the positive. And I have a lot to be positive about!

I’ve been teasing a big announcement for the past two weeks, and I can finally spill the beans! I’ll start at the beginning. A year ago, I ran in my first 10k race, weSPARK’s 3rd Annual 10k Run. I chose it because of its location – the course winds its way through all the backlots at Universal Studios: up and down Wisteria Lane, past the Bates Motel, by Jaws Lake, and so on. Here I am running through the “Wars of the Worlds” wreckage:

Wanna see more pictures? You can see ‘em in my post recapping the race, which you can find here. Running that 10k proved to be an emotional event. It was the first official fitness-related challenge that I attempted after losing over 160 pounds, and to this day I’m still proud that I accomplished my goal of completing it without stopping. It turns out that recap post inspired a lot of people, including the folks at weSPARK, the charity that organizes the event, because a few weeks ago, I got an email from Nancy, the Executive Director, that stopped me cold. Literally.

Updated 10K Race Results

I got an unexpected surprise in the mail recently. It was an info sheet with finalized race results from the BolderBOULDER!

I ran the BolderBOULDER with my sister Sarah on Memorial Day, and it was a fantastic race. The course wound through the streets of Boulder and ended up in the football stadium at the University of Colorado. See pictures and learn more about the race here.

The info sheet came as a surprise, because

BolderBOULDER 10K Recap!

I haven’t had much experience when it comes to running races. Before yesterday, I’ve only raced in two of them – a 10K last November, and a 5K a few weeks after that (recaps of both can be found on my Races & Events page). But, despite my rather short race resume, I’m completely confident when I say that I will never have a day like yesterday.

The BolderBOULDER 10K Memorial Day Race is, simply put, unbelievable.

I had read the statistics long ago: 54,000 runners ran last year, from all over the world. It’s the largest all-timed race in the country, and the fifth largest in the world. Reading those statistics is one thing, though – being a part of them is completely different.

Let me take you through the race – I took pictures, and have memories that I won’t forget any time soon!

Six Days Until the BolderBOULDER!

My next fitness challenge is only six days away. Next Monday (Memorial Day!), I’ll be in Boulder, Colorado, running with my sister Sarah in the BolderBOULDER, a ginormous 10K race that attracts runners from all over the world.

Because of my back-to-back stair climb challenges, I wasn’t able to start focusing on 10K training until about two weeks ago, after finishing my 163-Story Burj Khalifa Challenge. When the time came to step away from the StairMaster (finally), and get into a running mood, I wasn’t very excited. I hadn’t run in a couple months, and, if I’m being honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to it.

Then I had a couple really wonderful runs in New York City last weekend (including one across the Queensboro Bridge and back), and since getting back from the Big Apple, I’ve had a couple more really wonderful runs.

In total, I’ve run four times in the eight days since getting back from New York:

Freezer Surprise AND My New Challenge

I promised at the end of yesterday’s stair climb recap (Did you see the awesome photos? And the awesome video?) that I would announce my next fitness challenge today. And I will. But first…

1) Cinco de Mayo! I had a fun surprise at the end of last week… I was on TV! A year ago, I was working at Warner Bros. when I was captured, on hidden camera, being startled by a mariachi band. It was a prank for “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” and they ended up using the footage on the show. This year, for Cinco de Mayo, they used the footage again!

You can watch me getting startled by clicking here. I’m at the 1:10 mark (the link is what they aired last year – it features a few more seconds of me than the version they ran this year).

10K Pictures… Finally!

On November 13th, I ran my first race – the weSPARK 3rd Annual 10K Run. The course was through movie sets at Universal Studios, and I had a ball. You can read all about here, and see a bunch of photos, too!

In my follow-up post, where I shared my official time (59:06!), I mentioned how I was hoping to post a couple more pictures – the organizers had photographers scattered throughout the course like paparazzi, and I just had to wait until the photos were uploaded online.

Shortly after that, after a heads-up from my friend Jen, I headed to the Super Sports Photo website and looked around. In total, they had snapped 14 pictures of me, and a couple of them I liked! Because it was my first race, I decided to splurge and purchase a couple. The cheapest option, a low-resolution digital photo, cost $12.75. I decided to buy two. After paying $25.50, I got a receipt and an email saying that a second email, with instructions on how to download my purchase, would be coming within an hour. I checked my email all day long – I was excited, because I was still on a high from the race itself, and I was geeked to share the pictures on the blog. That was on November 16th.

Guess when that second email arrived? December 1st! During those two weeks, I called twice to check on the status of my order. The first time, I left a message that was never returned. The second time, I was told that I could expect my photos that morning, but it took another week for them to come. Super Sports Photo gets no bonus points for customer service.

But the photos are now in my hot little hands, which means you all can see them too! They aren’t low-resolution, either – the files I got were high-resolution, so maybe that’s their way of making up for the delay.

Here’s the first photo – taken on Mexican Street at Universal Studios:

I think I’m trying to smile and breathe at the same time! And look, my pants are a little short!

Here’s the second photo – taken at the War of the Worlds set, which basically replicates what it would look like if a jumbo jet crash-landed on a suburban street (so, lots and lots of rubble and debris):

Again, trying to smile while focusing on the run – when this photo was taken, I had about 1 kilometer left, and I was really starting to ache.

So there you have it! I wish I could’ve posted these sooner, but it was out of my control. I think they nicely round out my photo collection from that day, which was pretty comprehensive but lacked action shots of me actually running. Now that I have these, I’m feeling a desire to quote from The Little Mermaid:

“Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat?
Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete?
Wouldn’t you think I’m the girl, the girl who has everything?”

Keep it up, David!

Burpee Update, Chart Update

Two different updates today.

1) Burpees Update. Remember when I committed to the No Excuses 30-Day Burpees Challenge? It’s a workout challenge hatched by Scott over at Your Inner Skinny where you do burpees every single day for a month, adding one burpee each day. I was feeling a bit in a rut when the challenge began, and even though I hate burpees, I made the commitment as a way to push myself into doing something new.

Tomorrow would have been my 30th day, but I’ll cut to the chase: I abandoned the challenge a long time ago. I dropped it like a prom dress. In the end, my dislike of burpees won out, and after missing a couple days of burpees, I couldn’t rally to get back on the burpee train. The 10K didn’t help, either, as it was a workout goal that really excited me, so I had no problem focusing on that and letting the burpees slide.

I did complete 14 days of burpees before pulling the plug, and I had worked my way up to 28 burpees on that 14th day. Add in the 4 days of practice burpees before the challenge actually began, and I completed 361 burpees. I can be proud of that, and proud that I’m man enough to share my shortcomings, even if I’m not proud of my quitting.

I’m also a little worried that Scott, once he reads this, is gonna emerge from his northern Canadian igloo, strap on his snowshoes, and find his way down to Los Angeles to kick my ass. And he totally could – that guy is jacked. Better sleep with one eye open.

2) Chart Update. Stepped on the scale yesterday, and I liked what I saw. Here’s the update on my weight loss chart:

Down 1 pound! Not to sound like a snot, but I should hope so. I worked my ass off last week, pushing myself while training for my 10K, and then actually running that 10K. What I’m most happy about is that I’ve turned around my recent slow gain:

I’ve lost 1 of the 5 pounds I gained over the 6 weeks. Four more to go! A weight of 236 puts my total weight loss at 166 pounds. A couple more weight loss chart shots, because I know you love ‘em (and so do I):

Keep it up, David!

TOMORROW: My recipe for a healthy, delicious fall salad!

10K Follow-Up AND My Next Race!

It’s Monday evening as I write this and my legs are still sore from Sunday’s 10K race. I love feeling sore – it means I did something right – and I’m still on a high from the race, so I don’t mind being reminded of it with literally every step.

The soreness didn’t stop me from hitting the gym – I’m not exactly sure what laurels are (some sort of tree/leaf?) but I’ll be damned if I’m going to rest on them. There was 5 minutes of warming-up on the treadmill, then a half-hour of weightlifting (emphasis on upper body, because I didn’t want my legs to collapse under me). I would have gone another 10 minutes on a few other machines, but I bonked my head nice and hard on a pull-down bar, cursed a little, got annoyed, and decided to move on. So I finished with 17  strong, but not excruciating minutes on a stationary bike while I flipped through an issue of Time magazine that had a great article on the new Muppets Movie, which I can’t wait to see.

There’s some follow-up information on the 10K that I’m excited to share. We all ran with microchips attached to our shoes, and today, the data from those chips were uploaded to the internet, so I have my official race results. And it’s one of the reasons I’m still on this high.  So, without further ado:

David’s Official Results From the weSPARK 3rd Annual 10K Run & 5K Run/Walk, 11/13/11:

• Total Time: 59:06.5
• First 5K: 28.29
• Second 5K: 30:36
• Pace (my average time for each mile): 9:32
• Place: 129th out of 432 runners.
• Place in my Age Group (Men 30-34): 18th out of 28 runners.
• Number of other runners with the last name Garcia in the 5K and 10K races, all of whom are unrelated to me: 8.

Two thoughts:

1. My pace only slowed by about two minutes between the first lap and the second, which I’m very proud of. The second lap seemed, at the time, to go much slower for me, because I was tired and the runners were more spread out, but I kept up my pace pretty well!
2. 129th out of 432 runners? HOLY CRAP, I finished in the top third!

 

I was also hoping to share more pictures on today’s post. The race organizers peppered the course with photographers who were snapping away with their high-powered zoom lenses like paparazzi, and the pictures were supposed to be uploaded today, but it hasn’t happened yet. I don’t know if they got any good ones of me (thankfully there were no photographers around during my ugly cry at kilometer 6), but my fingers are crossed for a decent action shot or two. Stay tuned.

One of the questions that’s been tossed my way a ton of times in person, in blog comments, in tweets and in Facebook posts has been: “What are you going to do next? You should do a half-marathon!” or “You should do a marathon!” My answer has been some variation on “I don’t know yet. I’ve been busy focusing on this 10K.” Time to come clean – that’s a lie. 

I do know what race I’m doing next, and it’s coming up quickly. I’m going to my sister Sarah’s place in Colorado next week for Thanksgiving, as I’ve done for the past 7 or 8 years, and last week, Sarah signed me, herself, and our other sister Laura up for a race: the Louisville, Colorado Turkey Trot 5K.

It’s the morning of Thanksgiving Day, and it’s pretty close to Sarah’s house. I don’t know the route (yet), but it shouldn’t be nearly as hilly as the Universal Studios route, as, generally speaking, that part of the world is pretty flat. I’m looking forward to running it with family, and having a good workout on Thanksgiving is a great idea. I hope all of you find a way to move before tucking into the turkey!

As for longer races, whether they’re half-marathons or full marathons… well, I don’t know what my next running goal will be. Even with a successful 10K under my belt, the thought of running more than twice that distance seems terribly daunting, and that’s just a half-marathon! A race like that would require some very dedicated training, and right now, I can’t commit to running more than once or twice a week (even that can seem excessive sometimes), because variety in exercise plays a huge role is helping me not get bored or lazy.

I’m not going to flat-out say I’ll never run a longer race, but at the moment, I’m not actively searching for my next challenge. I’ll keep my eye on upcoming races, and I’ll keep an open mind, and we’ll see what happens.

Keep it up, David!