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

Archive for the ‘photos’ Category

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!

Happy Friday! We all know that right after a marathon our appetites are out of control! The Monday of the San Diego Marathon weekend, some of us went to Hash House A Go Go. We had to take a picture of one of their entrees next to an iphone to compare the size of that thing! What did you eat after the marathon?

After 26.2 miles, the LAST thing you would want to see are a few flights of stairs! That was one of the way to get to the victory party. You know we all took the escalator up! The Victory Party consisted of dinner, drinks, and dancing. We all exchanged stories, and some wore their medals proudly, as you should! Festivities continued to the hotel for some fun, then on Monday, people who stayed played in the pool for a bit.

View Victory Party Photos Here
View the SD Monday Photos Here

Our Honored Teammate Laura Maloney crosses the finish line with an entourage of Westside LA’s coaches, captains and mentors

4:00am meeting time. Who does that?!? We do! Some of these pictures already have surfaced on Facebook photo albums, but this massive set has them all! Again, we are all so proud of ALL of you who finished the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon! It was such a long journey with months of training, but all the hard work paid off! I had fun running with people in my banana costume too! Congratulations! Go TEAM!!

View the SD RNR Marathon Course Photos Here!

The Westside LA TNT SD Marathoners!

The Red Carpet introduction surprised most of the TNT participants throughout the nation as they entered the dinner area. Staff, coaches, mentors, captains and alumni were dressed up with horns, signs, noisemakers, and pom poms. The energy was amazing! At the dinner, our very own Elli Wolpe told Team in Training about her story and was presented an award for being the top fundraiser of the nation having fundraised $103,000! She was greeted off the stage with a standing ovation. She’s such an inspiration to us all!

View TNT Inspiration Dinner Photos Here

(Note: if you want any of the high resolution photos, especially the group photo, go to that photo’s page, and above it is a link “All Sizes”. You may download the original there, or could even order prints if you’re a Flickr member)

Sometimes finishing photos could be used for marathon marketing purposes, and out of the thousands of thousands of runners, Elite Racing picked one of our own. Remember Marcela? She’s was one of our Featured Alumni last month. Some of us already knew she was on their website and a few marketing flyers, but this past weekend at the San Diego Health Expo, we were surprised to see her at center of the main entrance in one large banner! So we had a little fun with it.

View Health Expo Photos Here

(A LOT more pics to come soon!)

Last night, the team gathered for a pasta party dinner at Bucca di Beppo in Santa Monica, celebrating the send-off of our teammates who are about to run the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon this Sunday! Gifts were given to our coaches Chris and Craig, assistant coaches Emily and Kelley, and our campaign manager Kristen. So far it has been a successful season, breaking our fundraising goal (and still counting!), and we still have 3 races to run! Amazing job everyone! Go TEAM!

View the Team Pasta Party Photos

I didn’t Photoshop that plastic bag out of the group photo because if you look through the set, it’s in several photos before and after the photo, and no one picked it up!

Last Sunday was such a fun run, being our end-of-season costume run tradition, and everyone running at taper mileage at 8 miles. Sunday had the most people dressed up on our team for a run, the most people I’ve seen on the beach take pictures of us (and video too), and I’ve never seen so many people with smiles as we ran past them! Good job everyone! Can you believe the race is only 5 days away?!?

View Week 16 Photos

Coach Kelley running with Jean-Paul, returning from an injury, doing 20 miles!

Sorry for the delay, but this is for the previous Sunday (5/17), where the SD Marathoners entered their taper week with up to 12 miles, while the Alaska & Seattle Marathoners ran their longest of the season with up 20 miles. The 20 miles started at Shutters, north on Ocean, up to Wilshire, back to Ocean, then back up San Vicente twice to 26th, and back.

View Week 15 Photos

Congratulations on a very successful week 14 run! Up to 20 miles, depending on the event, but everyone finished with a smile! We were lucky to have the morning overcast, which was exactly how San Diego was the past few years I was there (you never know though!). You’re all doing great and now marks taper time for most of you! Please read Coach’s e-mail as it contains VERY important information on what to do now until raceday.

For the Alaska and Seattle runners, next week… 20 miles!

View Week 14 Photos Here