Westside LA Team In Training - Summer 2009 Marathon & Half Marathon Team

Last weekend, 3 of our team (Jean-Paul, Traci, and myself) joined forces with the rest of the Greater LA Teams (Southbay, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Central Coast, San Fernando, San Gabriel, and Westside LA) in Anchorage Alaska. The campaign manager of the team was Santa Barbara’s Erin Pearson, who is also a Westside LA TNT alum. This was a different experience from San Diego because compared to the 18,000+ that I was used to, there were only 1,000 full marathoners and 1,700 half marathoners for this event.

Overall, it was a really fun experience. The full & half courses were different, so I could only speak for the full course. The first 17 miles or so were hilly with most of it being on a trail of dirt or gravel. The weather was overcast most of the time with a few sprinkles here and there. Weather was about 50-60, which was perfect for running. There was a hill at the very end of the race, but we all conquered it. This course required more mental preparation as there is hardly any spectators except the aid stations, and there was no music like the Rock N Roll events. The beautiful scenery and clean air made up for it though. It’s definitely a race I would come back to.

Greater LA TNT

I took A LOT of photos, so here they are:

• Day 1 – Exploring + Trade Show
• Day 2 – Excursions
• Day 2 – Inspiration Dinner
• Day 3 – The Marathon!
• Day 3 & 4 – Post Marathon

Oh yeah, we were careful to stay away from the bears too:

As you read this, some of our TEAM is up in Seattle for their inaugural Rock N Roll marathon. Good luck to all!