La Jolla Canyon Race Report

Today I completed my second trail race with Coastal Trail Runs. I first ran a 10k race of theirs back in November at Malibu Canyon. This time, I went for the 11 mile run through La Jolla Canyon which is technically still in Malibu but it might as well be in Oxnard! The drive from Eagle Rock took over an hour...and that is Sunday morning 6:30 AM with zero traffic! ;)

When I arrived, there were several folks getting ready to run the 30k, marathon and 50k. The longer runs all followed a similar course and began promptly at 8:00. The 11 mile race was to start next at 8:10 with the 5 mile race having the last start time of 8:20. The races began right on the money...well I'm assuming the 5 miler started promptly as well! My race started off with an immediate uphill on a single track. I think i ran for about a mile or so and then began alternating run/walk for the remainder of the steep uphill. Around mile 3 or so I hit the top of my first incline and was delighted to see fog breezing by! From this point, there was a glorious downhill on fireroad until the first aid station at mile 5.2. Like before, the station was totally well equipped for being in the middle of a canyon.....cliff shots, GU gels, pretzels, water. While drinking my quick dixie cup of sports drink, the staff at the tent offered to fill my handheld bottle up in an effort to expedite my stop! In race world, this is the best customer service a runner could expect! I continued down the road for a little less than a mile and was overwhelmed at my first turn.....a mega incline! Ugh. I started off running, but honestly, had to walk for a considerable amount of time due to the steepness! I eventually began to run/walk alternate as soon as the worst of it had passed. By this time, marathoners were running our way so there was a need to be mindful on the narrow parts of the trail. I did see one marathoner coming my way with a bloody knee.....probably one of the falls I heard about at the aid station...but it didn't seem to be slowing him down! The last 2.6 miles were downhill, but single track so I was unable to get the speed like I did on the fireroad.

I crossed the finish line at 2:25 which I was satisfied with. That gave me a 13:08 mile pace which while considerably slower than my PR, I had to take into consideration that this race was considerably harder than any road race! At the finish line, Coastal had any and everything we could want! Cokes, water, electrolyte drink, chips, fruit, pb and J, cinnamon rolls and candy! I look forward to running an event with them again! Until then, I am doing the Hollywood Half in April! ;)

No Bad Luck...yet.......

Against the advice of traditions, I went to try on some wedding dresses today with David. It seemed only natural as I accompanied him to sample suits! And who better to help out in the fitting room! I had made an appointment at J Crew at The Grove about a month ago. The Grove location is one of what I learned today were just three J Crew stores that have dresses available to try on. Prior to the appointment, it was requested that I send in a list of preferred dresses from their website. The list was sent in and much to my initial dismay, my favorite, the Tiered Analisa gown was not one that was at the store. In the long run in was just as well as the dress was close to 3,000!

When we arrived, the sales person was ready and waiting. San Pelligrino was offered (and accepted!), a book of dresses was waiting in the generous sized fitting room and one of the dresses I requested to see was ready to be tried on. LIke I said, I was initially bummed out because not all the dresses were on site. The sales woman brought in a couple suggestions and at first glance I was not too psyched but still willing to give them a shot. She must have been onto something because the Clarice Gown, when on, fit pretty incredible. So much so that I had that "omg I have got to get this dress" feeling. In my mind pictures of BHLDN dresses and unavailable J Crew.com dress were flashing about. However, even with the visual flashbacks, there was something still so standout about the Clarice. It felt good. It was an elegant off-white. A little shiny but not too much so and very figure flattering. It trumped the v-neck gowns that I had tried on just moments before. One thing I learned very quickly today was that the same dresses that look so incredible on the sites are all donned by 5'11 models who have very little on top. When the more average sized girl wears a similar dress, she runs the risk of looking like a stripper with the amount of cleavage that shows. Not exactly the wedding day look I had envisioned!

Of course, after my delight was shown towards Clarice, the saleswoman returned to tell me that only size 10s were left in stock. We had a long chat about the possibility of having the dress tailored 2 sizes down. It must have been a pretty lengthy conversation because midway through our chat we received the good news that there was one size 8 in Baltimore that would be put on immediate hold. Seeing how I learned I was between sizes, an 8 would be perfect for the tailor to work with! So, to make a long story short, I ordered the Clarice Gown. It will show up to my doorstep next week! And at $750, I couldn't feel better about the decision!

a picture of me and David with Clarice! ;)

Budget Wedding Discoveries

In the midst of the wedding planning, I have uncovered some tidbits of information that I found to be useful in regards to planning a wedding on a budget.

1) Skip the Saturday! I know Saturday is such a perfect day to get married. Most folks have Sunday off of work to rest the next day. Also, for your Monday 9 to 5-ers that you have flying in from other cities, a Saturday is perfect for those that have to be mindful of how many days to take off. However, when pricing venues here in Los Angeles, I was surprised to see such a price difference for Saturday. I can't speak for all venues, but the location we chose, Marvimon House, deciding to have the ceremony and reception on a Friday night rather than Saturday saved us a pretty penny. Had we been willing to do the wedding on a Thursday, we would have saved even more. However, with our work schedules and those of our guests, this wasn't an option with the amount of out of towners on our list.

2) Multiple Cakes! While we haven't secured a cake yet, we have found out that they are pretty pricey if one has a typical fancy and multiple tiered cake in mind. In my cake searches, I have seen many weddings have multiple small cakes in lieu of the big one. This way you can appease different tastes and also save some serious cash. Some places here in LA that we are looking at are Lark Cake Shop and Delilah's. We are also planing on having additional goodies like Mexican Wedding Cookies!


3) Invitations....make 'em! It does't hurt to have a crafty friend here, I'll be honest. Having gone to art school, I am surrounded by creatives! This makes the homemade invitation thing a bit easier to digest, but fear not....it is not that difficult. Just time consuming. If you have patience and some basic organizational skills, this is an areas to save some serious cash. A simple google search for "DIY wedding invites" will pull up several ideas as simple as cute xeroxes all the way to hand made letterpressed invites for those rare folks with access to a press.

4) Dress. I am still on this one, but what I have learned is that one can find BEAUTIFUL white evening dresses in the fancy section of upscale department stores. Because they are not "wedding" dresses (although some look just like them....) they are considerably less expensive. I have my heart set on a BHLDN dress but an torn with the idea of buying the dress without having the ability to try it on. And it is not one that could really qualify as a budget dress! ;)


I'll post more as I continue may way through this process!!!