Eating M&M’s

Please let there be M&M’s in here

Thanks Ninang!

Our lil boy is trying on his new Thomas the Train backpack :/

Grandpa helping Andrew during the indoor egg hunt

Not a big spoon user but look who’s suddenly a pro when at YogurtLand

I know it’s not Halloween but Andrew decided to don the helmet!

Andrew ready to find them eggs!

As far as running races go, I have to admit that the start time for the race was real early (6AM).  I had to wake up around 3:30AM so that I can pick up Kim at 4:15 to head over to Universal.  I was pleasantly surprised that parking was pretty organized in the morning (more on parking issues later).  Headed out to the 11-minute corral, after persuading Kim to move up from the 15-minute, 14-minute, 13-minute and 12-minute corrals  She’s a lot faster than she thinks and just needs a little push lol.

Pre-start

Unfortunately, we did not start the race until about 6:15 or so.  Kim and I were pretty much together for the downhill portion of the start.  I reminded her before the race that we have to consciously slow down to save our legs for the last 3 miles of the race, where we would be going up the same hill we were going down in.  After that, we lost sight of each other and proceeded to try reach my goal.  My goal for the race was to run under 2 hours and 10 minutes.  To do that, I would need to average a sub-10 minute mile.  For the past few months, I’ve been trying to train with little or no hydration.  It has been working since most of my training sessions have been short.  For today, I decided to not hydrate (due to early morning start) as much and if need be, I’ll hydrate during the second half of the race.  As you can see below, for the first half of the race, I was pacing myself pretty well (first mile is off because of the crowded start).  I was feeling pretty darn good.  Checking out the Hollywood and Sunset sights and enjoying the race.  I was able to see Marilyn, Andrew, my parents and Courteney at the turnaround, which just happened to be at Sunset and Maltman, which is right down the street from their house.

As you can tell, I was feeling pretty good when I saw them

During the turnaround, I saw Kim and she wasn’t that far behind me.  Tried to cheer her on but she was in a zone lol.

Around mile 8 or 9 is when the fun began.  As you can tell by the pictures above, the sun was already out by the time we saw my parents.  Well, that’s when the cramps began.  It started in my right calf and I was like crap.  I know it was too late since I was cramping but decided to start hydrating  That’s when I discovered that the race volunteers had run out of cups within the first hour or so.  Well that makes things interesting.  Call it a brain fart because I didn’t think about drinking from the water jugs until later.  At that point, I decided to slow down to about a 10 minute to 10 and a half minute pace to see if I could delay the full onset of cramping.  A mile later and the cramp in my left leg hit.  Hahaha…rookie move.  At this point, I practically had no choice but to slow down even more to an 11-minute pace.  I was able to to my shuffle and thought I could power through.

Throughout all of this, I totally forgot that the last 3 miles were uphill.  Not gradual mind you, but pretty much straight up lol.  Once I made that right turn from Hollywood to Cahuenga, it dawned on me…I’m pretty much screwed  I shuffled my way past Hollywood Bowl but once past that, I had to do the walk of shame.  Both my legs were cramping and I still have not had a drink of water.  At the next aid station, it dawned on me to ask for the jug so I can drink from the jug (don’t even both asking me the dirty look I gave to this girl who was in front of me who put her lips on the jug…I went to the next volunteer).

As I was walking, all I kept thinking about was “When will Kim pass me?”  It was that motivation that kept me trying to run.  It was the realization that my “run” up the hill was pretty much the same pace as my walk up the hill that I said, forget it.  If she catches me, she catches me  Then I’ll just have to eat crow for all the smack talk I’ve been doing lol.  With a half mile left, it thankfully became a downhill run.  I half-shuffled and half-limped towards the finish line.

2:21 was my official time.  Kim’s was 2:37.

Here we are with our finisher medals after the race.  Unfortunately, the finish line was about a quarter mile away from the parking lots.  Now this is where I was disappointed with the race organizers.  They funneled all the runners in one sidewalk and basically gave right of way to all the cars trying to get to Universal Studios.  There were a lot of standing around and people were getting pretty annoyed in line.  We were all tired, hot and we weren’t moving.  It would have made more sense to divert traffic from that area since there is more than 1 way to get into Universal Studios.

This was the first of many races that Kim and I will be doing.  Very proud of her time since I know she’s had little training.  I have to take advantage when she doesn’t train because she can totally kick my butt when she does train

Andrew drifting with Lightning McQueen at Toys R Us…

After a couple of months searching, we finally found the Sienna we wanted.  With the new baby, more family trips and the practicality of another car we both can use, we’ve been actually looking for a van for a while.  Through research, we narrowed it down to the Sienna and Odyssey.  You really can’t go wrong with either vans since they’re both great.  Both were very safe and reliable.  It basically came down to aesthetics and we really liked how the Sienna looks.  Also, we wanted it to have everything, except for the DVD.  We really did not want Andrew and his brother/sister watching in the car.  Surprisingly, it was hard to find a Sienna that just had the Navigation without the DVD entertainment.

So we’ve never really purchased a new car before so did a little research on the best way to do so.  We found a method called the Fax method, which you really can’t call anymore since I didn’t use a fax machine.  The premise is that you spec out the car you want and then get a quote from as much dealerships as you can.  You include a note that tells them you are planning on purchasing soon and will go with the dealership with the lowest offer.  The whole point is to not walk into a dealership (where they can talk and talk and talk) until you have your lowest bid.  We were a little wary as to how successful the method was going to be but we were actually surprised.  A lot of bids actually came through.  We would categorize each bid into separate buckets: possibility, look into more, out of the running.  We narrowed down the list to 3 dealerships after 2 weeks and basically informed them what the lowest price was and see if they could beat it.  Saved us a pretty penny so I would definitely recommend this method to somebody buying a new car.

So, here is a picture of us picking up our new swagger wagon…