Morgan, Stephanie, and Ron ran in the Los Angeles Firecracker 5K held in Chinatown. This is the first Firecracker for Morgan and the third one for Stephanie. Ron began running the 10K version more than 20 years ago, but his knee can only handle the 5K now. It is a very hilly course (uphill to the halfway point, downhill on the way back), with a taiko group performing at the turn-around.
Feb 232009
Mar 232008
Ron and the two girls ran in El Segundo’s Run for Education, benefitting the El Segundo PTA. This was Stephanie’s third 5K and Morgan’s first. It’s a fairly hilly course (El Segundo has an incredible number of hills for such a small town). Luckily Morgan is a slow runner, so Ron could hobble along beside her. Stephanie finished with a time of 36:00, and Ron and Morgan finished in 40:31.
Feb 102008
Happy Year of the Rat!
Stephanie and Ron ran the Los Angeles Chinatown Firecracker 5K. This was the second year in a row that they ran together. The weather was much better (it was pouring rain last year). They went with Ron’s co-worker/friend, Tom, and his wife, Aya. Tom’s friend, Paul, also met them at the course, which started in Chinatown over by Little Joe’s restaurant.
They ran into Ron’s Uncle Sam about a half hour before the race. Technically, Sam is Ron’s first cousin once removed (his father’s first cousin), but, as Chinese tradition goes, Ron’s always called him Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam said that he and maybe one other person are the only ones who have run in all of the Firecracker races since it began 30 years ago. Ron ran in a couple of the Firecracker 10K races about 20 years ago, and, man, it was (and still is) a hilly course.
Paul finished in 26:04, Uncle Sam ran in 29:36 (pretty good for a 73 year old), Stephanie came in at 33:20, Aya made 35:21, and Tom’s time somehow didn’t get posted. Ron ran in 38:27, about 5 minutes off his usual mark, but his knee has been bothering him the past few weeks and he’ll probably need to take a couple of months off from running to fully rest it. Hopefully it’s not a longterm thing.