Magic Shoe 5K Run: A Race Report

On Saturday, June 13th, I ran the Magic Shoe 5K in Newport Beach. This is the first time that I ran the Magic Shoe. It used to be called The Bastille Day 5K, I ran that two years ago. This race started and ended at Corona del Mar High School.

I trained for this race with my favorite run club at the lululemon store in the Irvine Spectrum. We trained for four weeks. My running pal, Monique, was also supposed to run it with me. Monique slept through her alarms, and was unable to make it.

It was a pretty easy flat course. It was also a smaller race, with less than a 1,000 people. Lately, all of the races that I've done have had quite a bit of people, which adds to the fun.

Unfortunately the day prior to the race, I started getting sick. I got some kind of cold from Angry Toddler in the middle of the week. I thought I was fine, but it got worse on Friday night. Of course I paid for the race on Thursday night. I didn't want to waste the $31 that I paid. So I sucked it up and ran.

My chest hurt a little and I was tired during the run. I didn't PR, but finished decently. I go back and forth between the same 30 seconds for the past 3-4 races. It's probably because I need to lose some weight and work on some speedwork. I do so well at the beginning, and then I seem to hit the wall.

Once again, another FAIL at the finish line. I had to run through the finish line, and then walk around the corner for water. Is this a new thing? What happened to getting water at the end? Seriously, I'm tired of walking through the crowds trying to get to water.

I had to leave immediately after the race to take Angry Toddler to his sports class.

After the 5K race, they had a High Heel Dash. I would have liked to see that.

My next race is the Huntington Beach Fourth of July 5K-The 2009 Surf City Run. I have a love/hate relationship with this race. I love the patriotism and the great feeling of running in Huntington Beach. It's such a festive city. My hate is that it's not a timing chip race. It is usually very hot and muggy.

Unfortunately, I have no photos of me at this race. Hopefully, there will be some decent official race photos. But that is highly unlikely.

P.S. I did something new this race too. I ran without music. Yep, no iPod. It really wasn't that bad at all.

Race Report: PCRF "Reaching for the Cure"

On Sunday, I participated in the Pediatric Cancer Foundation's "Reaching for the Cure" run. I did the 5K with a friend, Ris, whom I met through my run club. Everyone in the run club did various distances, some did the 5K, 10K, and even a 1/2 Marathon. We had been training for this race for 10 weeks.


I got to the parking structure of the Irvine Spectrum around 6:45am. I got there just in time, because there was a huge line of cars behind me. I was able to collect myself. I put the timing chip on my shoe, my race bib on my run club tank top, and tightened my shoe laces. I then drank my breakfast, yep liquid for me. It's always best to follow your normal breakfast routine for race days. My breakfast usually consists of one of these items: Muscle Milk, Kirkland Weight Loss Shakes (generic Slimfast from Costco), Yogurt with Flax Seed, and Oatmeal. I try to avoid dairy on race days, so I consumed a Muscle Milk Light. And I wanted some caffeine, so I did something I usually don't do before a race...I drank a Monster..


I met up with my girls at 7am, and we walked to the starting line. We took some cute pictures and got ourselves prepped for the race with some stretching, etc. Everyone went to the bathroom in those lovely porta-potties, except Angry Julie. This was a total epic fail that would haunt me later...

The half marathon started at 7am, so we weren't able to witness their start. But the 10K was starting at 7:45am, and my 5K was starting at 7:50am. Ris and I started off the race with a good start. We were pacing at mid 8's, which was perfect for us. I knew that we were at around the 1 mile mark so I looked down at my Garmin. Apparently, my Garmin had a mind of it's own and somehow changed modes. It was now on some kind of training mode, and I did not know how to get it to it's original mode. Ack! I had to pay attention to running so I stop focusing on the Garmin. At least I could look at my splits. We hit mile 2 and did a little loop around. Ris and I were pacing with the Orange County Sheriff's Department recruits. They were singing a cadence and running at a perfect pace. The weather was perfect and everything was right on track for us to finish under 30 minutes. Then all of the sudden, I freaked. I had to go to the bathroom. I had to pee. And I had to pee bad. I've never had this issue during a race ever. I didn't even think about going to the bathroom before the race. I should have known after drinking all of that fluid. I tried to hold it in and keep up with my pace. I couldn't do it and slowed down. I had to walk for a tiny bit otherwise I was going to burst. I would do this in patterns, walk a little, run a little.

I could see the finish line ahead of me. I still had that incredible urge to pee. I put on the speed and proceeded to the finish. I kept going after going through the finish line. They were asking me for my timing chip, but I ignored them and kept running. I ran all the way to the porta-potties. I barely made it there. What a relief!

After going to the bathroom, I went back to the finish line and gave them my timing chip. After dropping off my chip, I realized that there was no water and the finish line. Seriously, I'm really getting tired of these races where you have to hunt down the water at the end. Don't these people realize that runners are expecting water at the end? After meeting up with the everyone from our group at the finish, we went and hunted down the water. We had to stand in a huge line to get water and fruit. Everyone kept cutting into the line, and it was really annoying. This was like 30 minutes after we had finished the race. Yes, that is how long it took for us to get water.

After getting our water and walking around, we headed to the Beer Garden. For $10 we received two Tecates and a burrito from Wahoo's. I'm not one for beer after running, so I had a few sips. I did stay for a bit and enjoyed the company. Everyone was able to relax and enjoy each other's company.

Here's a photo I took of Doris and Tammy, enjoying the Beer Garden.



I learn something new every time I run a race. It may be something big, or something small. These are the things that I learned from this race.

1. Go to the bathroom before the race. Even if you feel like you don't need to go, go anyway.
2. Not wearing my moisturizer with sunscreen made my run much better. I usually get burning around my eyes from the sunscreen in my moisturizer. I did not have any problems with it.
3. Learn how to properly work my Garmin. Know all the functions and how to change them.

It was a great end to my running club. I can't wait for the next event.

Joining a Run Club

I am not new to running. I've been doing it off and on for the past few years. When I had Angry Toddler, I slowed down a little. I totally regret that. I should have been running more during that time. Running would have really helped alleviate the stress in my life of having a reflux-y baby.

I've been pretty dedicated to running lately though. Why? Cause it's easy, free, and you don't need a partner to run. But like everyone else, sometimes I felt that my running routine got a little boring.

In February, my 24-Lift instructor, Doris, mentioned that a running club was starting at lululemon. She said that it would be on Thursday nights and that they would be training for the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundations "Reaching for a Cure" Race. I figured why not and showed up. I only knew Doris, and no one else at the running club. I don't think I had ever stepped inside lululemon.

We started by splitting our groups up into 5K or 10K runs. They were a variety of people and everyone had different running backgrounds. Some people were beginners, and some people were advanced. Every Thursday, I do 24-Lift in the morning. I was still sore that night. I knew that there was no way that I would be able to do my Lift class and then run 6.2 miles later that day. I stuck with the 5K group. Because we started the group before Daylight Savings Time, it got dark outside about 15 minutes into our run. Some of us wore lovely headlights to guide our path. We were running during prime traffic time. We wanted to make sure that the cars saw us.

We ran the same path every week for 10 weeks. It was a great path, that included 2 pretty steep hills. I was able to make it all 10 weeks without an absence. Not everyone made it every week, but people made it most weeks. We chatted about what had been going on in our life while we were trying to focus on running. This made things go much faster.

Last week was our last week of run club. I was kind sad about it ending. This was something I had to look forward to every week. We got some great t-shirts from lululemon for our run and took some pictures. On Saturday night, we had a pasta night at the store also. They have some great people that work there.

On Sunday, we all headed out to the Irvine Spectrum and ran the PCRF Run. Some people ran the 5K, some ran the 10K, and we even had one run the 1/2 Marathon. We then all headed to the beer garden after the race and celebrated.

I will do a race report tomorrow to specifically talk about the race.

I would have never thought to join a "run club". It was a great experience. After talking to everyone at the beer garden, I think they are going to start another run club soon. I think we are going to take a break for a few weeks though. Angry Husband will be happy because he will get to hang out with his friends even earlier on Thursday nights.

Here are some other Orange County Running Clubs if you are interested in try one out:

Cal Coast Track Club
Orange County Track Club
Run Club at NikeWomen, Various locations throughout Orange County (contact store)
Snail's Pace Running Club
South Coast Roadrunners