Say No to Drugs Universal Studio 5k race- Race Report

This morning was my 10th race since I started running in March of this year.  It was 5k #9 and by far the hardest course I have ran so far.

This was in the race info: "course will wind you through the back lot, up and down several steep hills and through some of Hollywood's most famous sets."

Well they did not lie about the hills!  Wow...I don't think I knew what a hill was before that!

So the whole family got up super early to head to Universal Studio for my race.  It is about an hour drive so we left at 5:30 am...thank you husband and kiddos! 
There were over 2200 runners total, they had a 10k race also.  Found a parking and went to get my bib and goodie bag.  They had a really nice bag with lots of samples in it, pretty cool.

Next stop, the always fantastic porta potty...boy I hate those...:(  They had a group warm up set up but I decided to skip it and I headed to the starting line to avoid being  to far back.  Found a spot and I waited..it was pretty chilly at 8 Celsius so I was happy to have my gloves and warm hat!  I was next to some people who had ran the race last year and they were telling someone that the hills were the worst they had ever seen on a course.  I wanted to ask where they were to be prepared but I did not and decided to take it as it comes.

First mile went by fast, fairly flat, lots of people to pass before getting to a good pace.  I looked at my watch at mile 1 and I ran it faster then my usual pace, wasn't tired so I kept going at that pace thinking the hills would slow me down when I get to them and a minute later there they were.....A whole mile of super steep hills with lots of turns and no flat section.  That was really hard, I felt my age for that mile!!! I had to walk for a few minutes, I fought as much as I could but it was just too hard for me.  At the top there was the house from the Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho and Norman Bates, with a dead woman in his arms, came out of the house to scare the runners !  I thought we were done with the hills after that but no, no....more were to come after a short flat section.  Then we went down for a little bit and I knew the finish line had to be close because Lance Armstrong (via Nike + app) told me I was done and he always lie to me but usually not by too much.  One more turn and there it was: the finish line and yes of course at the top of the last hill!!!!

I saw my family and good thing I did because they would have missed me!!! My husband thought I would come in slower because the course was so hard so he was not paying attention!!!  I crossed the line and almost puke on one of the guys there...but I didn't!  I got a medal so that is always really cool and my kids think I won!! So cute!

Looks like I am skipping instead of running!

I finished 322/1587 overall, 119/1032 women, 14/119 in my age group.

After we went to  Universal Studio city walk looking for a Starbucks!

That place is usually very crowded but it was still very early so we were able to take some pics of the boys with the huge Christmas Tree they have in front of the Hard Rock Cafe.

And my guitar fanatic sons saw this thing so we had to take a picture in front of it!

And one last one at the Universal Studio entry.