Category: Travel

Posted in Running, Travel

Princess Challenge Weekend

Posted on by teresamunoz91

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to post this trip recap. This trip took place almost three months ago!!! Oh well, better late than never!

February 23-26 2018
I have travelled to a few different places throughout the United States- Portland, Oregon, Washington DC, Las Vegas, to name a few. However, I usually travel with other people, either my travelling partner Giovanna, my sister Destiny, or my family. I had never travelled anywhere alone. That is, until February. That’s right, I went on my first solo trip at 27 years old.

I first travelled to Orlando, Florida last year in March 2017 for WrestleMania. I was there for almost a week and went with my travelling partner, Giovanna. This time I went to Orlando for four days and I went for the Disney Princess Weekend. I was there for about five days and had sucha blast!

I have to admit that the thought of it freaked me out so much!!! In fact, there were a few times that I even considered cancelling my trip rather than going alone. But after thinking about all the cons and pros of travelling alone, looking online, and speaking to someone who has gone on many solo trips, I decided to go for it. After all, what was the harm in travelling solo at least once?

Airplane Ride/Airport
Just getting to the airport was a mission! I walked to the bus stop from my house. Then I took the Metro Gold line to the Union Station, from there I got on a shuttle to LAX. I barely made it to the plane on time. I got to LAX ten mins before the gates closed. Lucky for me, there was no line for security checkpoint. As soon as they checked me and my things, I ran all the way to my gate. I got there four minutes before they closed my gates. I have never been that close. I am normally at the airport at least an hour before my flight is scheduled to leave, sometimes even two hours. I was so scared that I would miss my plane.

I got to Orlando airport around 430am/5am on Friday. I stayed there until about 830am/9am. I just listened to my ipod and used my tablet. I also ate chick fil a for breakfast. I think I even fell asleep for a while. I finally decided I had been there long enough and went to the expo to pick up what I needed for the two races.

Expo
The expo to pick up the bibs and shirts was huge. In fact, they had three different locations to pick everything up. The first building is where you pick up your bib. Then you have to go to another building for your shirt. In the second building, they also had non Disney vendors. I bought some running stickers and energy gels. Then I went to the last building to pick up some pins I had preoredered and in this building they had Disney vendors. I wanted to buy everything! They had such a huge selection of things, including cute leggings, pins, cute shirts, anything Disney Princess thing you can think of! It was way more than I had planned to spend. Since the lines were really long, I decided not to get anything after all.

Hotel
After the expo, I decided to go to my hotel to check in. The hotel I stayed at was in Kissimmee, Florida about 15 minutes away from Disney World. Unfortunately, it wasn’t ready when I got there. The people at the hotel told me I could go to the pool for a while, so I went in for an hour. It was really hot outside and the pool felt really good. I went to see if it was ready and they still needed more time to finish cleaning. So I decided to walk to Target, which was about 1.5 miles away, and window shop. Went to eat lunch at Burger King and then I walked back to the hotel, which was finally ready.

I spent three nights there. For the price I paid, I was expecting a small room. I was shocked when I walked into my hotel room. It was much larger than I expected. The first thing I saw when I walked in was the kitchen. It had a full size kitchen with a fridge, microwave, stove, dishes and utensils, and a sink. Next up was a dining room for four, the first bathroom, and even a living room with two small couches and a television. As if that wasn’t enough, there was a bedroom for me with a television, another bathroom, and get this, a Jacuzzi in my room!

It was awesome staying in this room, but I admit that I did get a bit scared at night, to the point where I slept with all the lights on and the door locked. The first and second nights I only slept about 3/4 hours each. The final night I slept maybe 5/6 hours, which still wasn’t enough.

Saturday morning I ran my 10k race. I did pretty well. I didn’t really go anywhere once I got back to my hotel because I didn’t want to be too tired for my half marathon and because I was a bit scared to go out by myself.

Sunday morning I was at the race by 330am! I went early to take pictures in the morning. After the race, I took some pictures with some of the Disney Princesses. Instead of going to the hotel, I decided to go to Downtown Disney. I knew if I went to the hotel, I would fall asleep and not want to leave the room for the rest of the day. I changed out of my race clothes and wore my three medals around.

Disney Springs/Downtown Disney
I went there last year. We went on the last day, so I didn’t have much money to spend. This time I was able to visit Hard Rock Café and got myself a mac and cheese burger. Kind of on the pricey side, but so worth it! I also got a creme brulee from one of the bakeries and a strawberry frozen margarita. I basically spent my whole time at Disney Springs eating lol One of my favorite things to eat was the poutine.

Universal City Walk

On Monday, my last day in Orlando, I decided to visit Universal City Walk after checking out. One of my favorite things about going to Universal City Walk last year was going to the Chocolate Emporium and getting a red velvet milkshake, which had a giant red velvet cupcake on top! So I couldn’t wait to go back. I also went to Fat Tuesday and got myself a blue raspberry icee. I went to the movies and watched Fifty Shades Freed. After my day trip at City Walk, I headed over to the airport to go back home.

Trip Back Home
After the scare I had getting to LAX really late, I made sure to get to MCO at least 2 hours early. I am so glad I did, because the security checkpoint line was huge! I had a stop in Colorado. Right when we got off the plane, we could feel the freezing cold air! I guess we were close to the mountains. I was only there for an hour and then I was back on the plane to LA. I got to LAX around midnight, I was exhausted when I got home.

Travelling solo was a lot more fun than I ever imagined! I would definitely recommend that everyone travels solo at least once in their lifetime. Yes, it can be scary, especially for someone like me who is an introvert and very shy.

My only complaint about travelling is having to use Uber or Lyft all the time. It can get pretty expesnive, especilly when going to Disney World or Downtown Orlando. I would rather use the public transportation or rent a car.

My next solo vacation will be a weekend trip to San Francisco during the summer. It will be another racecation, I will be running the San Francisco Half Marathon!

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Posted in Running, Travel

Disney Princess Races

Posted on by teresamunoz91

The night before the 10k race, I told myself that I would try to be asleep by 9pm in order to wake up at 3am to be at Epcot parking lot on time. That did not happen. It was really difficult for me to sleep so early, especially given the time difference. By trying to go to sleep at 9pm, it was like trying to go to sleep at 6pm! Plus, I was a bit scared of spending the night in a different state by myself, so that didn’t help. I eventually fell asleep around 11pm or so. I woke up a little before 3 am. I had scheduled an uber to pick me up at 330am, so right at that time, I went outside. I got the message that they were on their way. However, after waiting outside for 15 minutes, the driver cancelled! I was so mad. Had to request another uber and waited an extra 15-20 minutes.

10k
For the 10k race, I was in corral B. Although I have done many 10k races before, I was still pretty nervous about this one. Mainly because I had heard so many bad things about the Disney Princess races. I did much better than expected though. I finished in 1:04 hours. However, I didn’t end up stopping for any character stops. After the race was over, i did take a few pictures. I took pictures with both Ariel and my favorite Disney princess, Belle.

Half Marathon
For the half marathon, I was in corral C. This time, I made sure to try to stop for as many character stops as I could. I got to the Epcot parking lot around 330am. Since I was so early, I was able to take a picture with Anna from Frozen! I waited about an hour in line. After that was over, I went to the corrals. There were so many people! I think at least 15,000+ people ran/walked the Princess half marathon.

So I ended up running my second slowest time ever, 2:36 hours! But it didn’t matter because I had fun. I took pictures with at least 5-7 characters.

Posted in Running, Travel

San Diego Weekend

Posted on by teresamunoz91

Two weeks ago I went to San Diego with my boyfriend and our friend. We went because I had signed up for the San Diego Half Marathon. This was my first time going to San Diego in almost 10 years. This was also the first weekend getaway trip for my boyfriend and me.

We left on Saturday morning. It took us about two and a half hours to get there. It rained the entire first day that we were there. However, we did not let that ruin our day. I went to the expo to pick up my bib and shirt for the race. After that, we went to go eat. Our friend took us to a pizza place. Since I wasn’t eating any meat at that time, I decided to get a pizza that had artichoke, tomatoes, and jalapenos on them. This was my first time tasting jalapenos and it was better than expected.

Later on, we went to the Donut Bar. We got there around 430pm and unfortunately it was closed. They opened at 5pm, so we decided to just wait until it opened. The donuts were worth the wait! I bought myself four donuts and ate two that same day and two the next day. My favorite was the strawberry shortcake donut and the Harry Potter butterbeer donut.

We went to Coronado Beach, but it was still raining too much and way too cold, so we ended up going back to the hotel. My friend slept over at his family’s house, but my boyfriend and I stayed in Downtown San Diego. When we checked into our hotel, we were shocked to see that it was actually a hostel. Even more shocking, it looked nice. We got a private room, it was small but cozy. In the hostel, they had a kitchen, laundry room, and even a small library! There were many paintings on the hallways from local artists. The only thing missing was a tv in the room.

For dinner, we walked to a Mexican food place accross the street from Petco Park. It was really good. I just wish I had been able to try their food with shrimp.

I woke up Sunday around 630am for my half marathon. I didn’t plan to PR this race since I had the LA Marathon the following week. My goal was to run the half marathon in 2:30 hours. I ended up finishing in about 2:15 hours. Not bad, considering I had been dealing with calf pain and knee pain during my runs. The course was really nice. For the most part it was flat. I think it was around mile 9 or mile 10 that we hit some hills. They were a bit challenging, so I ended up walking most of it, which hurt my time a little bit. This was the first time my boyfriend had ever gone to one of my races and seeing him near the finish line was really special for me.

For lunch, we went to Lucha Libre Taco Shop, which I had seen on the Travel Channel before and it was on my bucket list. They are known for their massive burritos. You can find burritos all over San Diego, some with french fries, some that are surf and turf, but Lucha Libre’s burritos are some of the best. I got a burrito with black beans, French fries, avocado, and sour cream. I also got a cup of esquite, which is corn in a cup with mayo, chili, and Mexican cheese. My boyfriend got a burrito with carne asada and he loved it. Next time we go back to San Diego, I am definitely going back there again.

We went to Balboa Park and walked around. We didn’t visit the San Diego Zoo this time, we just didn’t have enough time. However, we got to enjoy a lot of other things. Then we drove home.

I enjoyed my weekend in San Diego and we are making plans to go back soon. I just hope next time we go back it isn’t raining and that we can enjoy the beach.

Posted in Events, Football/Soccer, Life, music, Running, School, Travel, Work, Year Review

Looking Back at 2017

Posted on by teresamunoz91

A lot of people say 2017 was a bad year, but for me personally 2017 was a great year! Here are a few things that happened in 2017.

Graduated from Cal State LA with a bachelors degree in history
After so many years of going to school, both back in community college and Cal State LA, i could finally say I got my degree. It was tough at times, going to work part time and going to school full time. To make things harder, I didn’t have a car for most of my college years, which meant i was usually going to school and work on the bus. It took me a little longer than I had expected to get my degree, but better later than never right?

Got a job at my local gym
In August I decided that I needed to get a second job because I wasn’t getting enough hours at the supermarket where I was cashier. So i decided to apply to a few local areas. Someone I knew from the gym where I have been going since 2016 told me they were hiring there. I decided to give it a shot even though I felt there was no way they would hire me. I was wrong. Within two weeks of Applying, I got hired! I was so happy. For three months, I worked both jobs. It was hard at times, but I decided to stick with it. At the end of 2017, I decided two jobs was two much and I needed to pick one job. My choice was easy. I picked the local gym.

Which brings me to this major thing i did in 2017. I finally left the job I had for 5 years.
This was pretty scary, not going to lie. I was not happy at this job, I spent all year being miserable, but I was too scared to quit. I had originally planned to quit in May after my graduation, then I decided summer I would get more hours so I Should stay a little longer. then decided I would quit in September, that didn’t happen either. I said I would quit around Thanksgiving, that didn’t happen either. I finally said that I would quit December 31, and i didn’t want to keep postponing it. I gave the manager my two weeks notice on December 15, 2017, the whole process was easier than I had expected. December 31, 2017 was my last day and it was a really long 8 hour shift. Before I quit, they gave me a certificate for being there five years. It was bittersweet. On one hand, I was happy to be getting away from retail life and rude, demanding, self entitle customers, but I will miss the friends that I made while working there.

I ran my first marathon
I never thought I would one day be able to run 26.2 miles, but on my 26th birthday, I decided I wanted to celebrate turning 26 years old in a big way, so that’s when I decided to run a marathon. My first ever marathon was in Long Beach, California and it took me about 5 hours and 17 minutes to finish. it took me four months to train for it. I thought this would be my only marathon ever, but I signed up for the LA Marathon, March 2018, and I am currently training for that.

Went to Orlando for the first time to attend Wrestlemania
I went with my friend Giovanna. We have gone to Portland, Oregon, Washington DC, and now Orlando together. We went to Universal City Walk, where I had the best tasting milkshake ever, red velvet with a red velvet cake. Yum! We also went to Universal Studios, where we went on so many rides and got to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I tried butterbeer for the first time. Besides Wrestlemania, we also went to Monday Night Raw, NXT Takeover, and the WWE Hallf of Fame. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I had so much fun. We got to meet a few wrestlers at one of the events, inclduing Baron Corbin and R Truth. Wrestlemania was amazing. Our seats were so close. We got to see Undertaker retire, Seth Rollins vs Triple H, Hardy Boyz make their return, John Cena propose to Nikki Bella, and many other things.

Went to Las Vegas
I had never been to Las Vegas, which is crazy because I am 26 years old and most people go there for their 21st birthday. I never had much interest. Until I decided to run the Rock’n’Roll Half Marathon and 5k. I went with my mom, grandpa, and three of my sisters. My mom drove us there and it took forever to get there. I had fun there, i didn’t gamble once, but i did have fun walking around and trying the all the different drinks. One of my favorite things that I did was getting on the roller coaster at the New York New York hotel.

Visited San Francisco twice
The first time was with my family, my mom, three sisters, and brother. We did all the touristy things, like visit the Golden Gate Bridge and the Full House/Fuller House house. We ate crepes and clam chowder, which was super good. The second time I went, it was only with my grandpa and my sister Destiny. I went to run the San Francisco Half Marathon. It was one of my best races. I can’t wait to go back to San Francisco this year. It is a much nicer place than i ever thought. It is one of my top favorite places to run.

Went to a Tim McGraw concert
Tim McGraw is by far one of my favorite country singers. I had the chance to see him and his wife Faith Hill in concert at the Staples during the summer. I loved it. It was so great seeing them. I was so happy when they announced they would be coming back in 2018, I have to see them again. I also discovered a new singer whose music I love. Her name is Rachel Platten and I feel like her song Fight Song is my theme song in life! Haha

Watched my two favorite soccer teams play each other
Went to the Coliseum in Downtown LA with my sister Angelina to watch Real Madrid vs Manchester City. Manchester City won, but it was fun just seeing them. While I was there, I ran into my friend from work and his friend, who is a manager at my old job.

These are the major things that happened in 2017. I was also blessed to meet people who I now consider my friends, I lost a couple friends, but made new ones. I spent time with my family, boyfriend, and friends. Hope 2018 is just as good or even better than 2017 was!

Posted in Events, Football/Soccer, Life, Travel, Wrestling

Summer 2017

Posted on by teresamunoz91

Labor Day, which was a little over a week ago, signifies the end of the summer for most people. Summer 2017 was good for me. It started off when I finally graduated and got my bachelor’s degree in history from Cal State LA. I also went to San Francisco twice- once on a road trip with my family for a vacation after 4th of July and the second time in a plane with my grandpa and sister for a half marathon I signed up for. I also started training for my first marathon at the beginning of June.

One of the first things I did in summer was take my sister Angelina to Monday Night Raw. It was at the Staples Center in Downtown LA, so of course we had to go to Bottega Louie for macarons. We also went to Little Damage for the first time. I had avocado ice cream, which happened to be vegan and it was actually really good. Earlier in the day we got to meet Bayley in Compton and take pictures with her. At Monday Night Raw, we saw Enzo Amore and Big Cass, who had broken up earlier in the month. Even though it is scripted, their breakup really sucked. I thought they should’ve had a chance to be tag team champions for a while before breaking up. We got to see our faves, Sasha Banks, Cesaro, Sheamus, etc.

Every summer, my family goes on vacation for a few days. This year we decided to go to San Francisco/Northern California for 3 days. The last time my sister (Destiny), my mom, and I went to Northern California was about 13/14 years ago, when I was 12 or 13 years old. This time it was going to be my mom, my brother, three of my sisters, and me. My sister Aleah stayed with my grandma because she said she didn’t want to walk around so much.

We went on our trip July 5, 2017. We left our house early, around 5 am. After all, my mom was going to drive from our hometown to San Francisco which was about an 8 hour drive or so. It was so hard to wake up early especially since the day before was 4th of July and I had worked a long shift and then we watched fireworks before going to bed.

We stayed in Oakland because it was much cheaper than staying in San Francisco. We got to there a little late. After checking into our hotel, we went to the Jelly Belly factory which was in Fairview. We got to tour the factory and got samples at the end of the tour. We took so many pictures, especially of Ayanna. Afterwards, we went to the hotel and just rested. We went to McDonald’s for dinner and they had garlic fries. They were surprisingly good, even if it was fast food.

The following day we went to San Francisco. One of the first places we went to visit was the Full House/Fuller House house. We also got to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, visit Fisherman’s wharf, and visit the seals at Pier 39. I treated my family to lunch at a crepe place. I got a turkey crepe with pesto. My mom got clam chowder, which was sooo good.

On our way back home, we decided to stop by and visit Sacramento, the capitol of California. It was so hot that day, over 100 degrees. As someone who enjoys history, I am a history major after all, it was interesting to see the history of California. We had a long trip home. I think we ended up getting home around 8 or 9pm.

I went back to San Francisco towards the end of July for the weekend. This time my sister Destiny and grandpa joined. The reason I went was to run a half marathon. I was doing a challenge. Run a half or full marathon in Surf City (Huntington Beach, California) and a half or full marathon in San Francisco and you would get an extra medal called the California DReamin’ Racing Cup.
On the first day of July, I somehow stubbed my toe and was in so much pain that I could barely walk. I ended up not running for about 3 weeks. I was worried that not training for so long would affect my run. This was my 3rd half marathon of the year. I was so stressed out, not only because I felt I didn’t train enough, but also because San Francisco is known for their hills and hills were my weakness. I guess I didn’t need to worry so much because I ended up running my best time, 2:21.

Getting to San Francisco was a hassle for all of us. I went to San Francisco first. This was my time ever going on a plane by myself. In the past, I usually travel with my friend Giovanna, sister Destiny, grandpa, or mom and grandma. Although I have been in planes before, I was terrified being alone. I listened to my iPod and read my books to keep myself occupied. The first thing I did when I got to San Francisco was go to the expo to pick up my bib and t-shirt for the race. Then I went to check in at my hotel. It took me almost an hour to walk there. I ended up walking through North Beach, which is like their “Little Italy” and somewhere I would like to stop by when I go with my bf. It felt so weird exploring a major city like San Francisco all alone. I don’t have much experience travelling alone. I am at the age (26) where travelling alone is encouraged and I would love to be able to do this more often, if only money wasn’t an obstacle!

After checking in, I went to my other hotel and waited for my grandpa and sister. It might be weird that I had two hotel rooms, but the reason for this is that when I had made plans to go to San Francisco, it was originally going to be me by myself. The original hotel I reserved was close to the starting line. The other hotel was in Sausalito and I would have no way of getting to the starting line because the Golden Gate Bridge was going to be closed in the morning. My sister and grandpa had a tough morning. My sister couldn’t find her id anywhere and we were all so stressed that she wouldn’t be able to fly to San Francisco. Somehow they allowed her to go to San Francisco. I stayed with them for a while and at night I went to my hotel. It was soo small! It was smaller than my bedroom back home and it didn’t even have a bathroom. There was a bathroom that each floor shared.

I was so scared that night I couldn’t sleep much. In fact, I only slept an hour. I just stayed awake listening to my iPod, reading, and talking to my friends on Snapchat. I left my hotel around 430/5 am on race day. The weather was perfect. We started our race in the Golden Gate Park. I felt good when I started running. I just tuned everything and everyone out and focused on my running. We passed by so many historic San Francisco neighborhoods. We even passed by the San Francisco baseball stadium. I’m not a big fan of baseball so I’m not sure what team plays there, but it looked like a nice stadium. After the race was over, I met up with my grandpa and sister at Pier 39. After running 13.1 miles, I had to walk another 1.5 miles to get there.

We went on a boat ride and passed by the seals on Pier 39 and even got to see Alcatraz from far. This was my first boat ride and while I didn’t get seasick, I was pretty scared being out there especially when the boat driver said we were in 100 feet deep water. I finally got my clam chowder and it was so good. Can’t wait to go back to San Francisco to get that again. We also went to the bakery where they make sourdough bread. Another thing San Francisco is known for. Afterwards we went to the Golden Gate Park. We went to the Japanese Tea Garden. It was fun. We left a little early because it was super windy. When we got back to our hotel, we just watched soccer on TV.

My next runcation will be in Las Vegas. I plan to go with my family on a road trip for the weekend. I will be doing a 5k on Saturday night and a half marathon on Sunday night. Both races are part of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas weekend, can’t wait!

After coming back from San Francisco, I was able to resume my training. In fact, in August I ran the most miles. I ran a total of 89 miles! I even started running my long runs. Prior to training, the longest I had ever run was 13 miles. In August I ran 20 miles! It took me about 4 hours, which is not very fast, but this was something I never thought I could do. I have only been running for about a year and at first running a mile was a struggle, so running 20 miles was a huge accomplishment for me. It shows that with training and belief in yourself, you can achieve things you thought were impossible.

I did a few other smaller races. I ran three 5k races. One at the Stubhub, where LA Galaxy plays. Another one was at the OC Fair. I did that one with my sister, it was her first 5k and she did a good job. The last 5k I did was at Griffith Park. I got my best time for a 5k, 25:30.

One other thing that happened during my summer is I went to a Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert at the Staples Center. It was such a great concert!!! It made me love Tim McGraw even more. He’s so awesome live! I also have a new favorite singer, Rachel Platten. I heard “Fight Song” and that is my new theme song in life. I honestly cannot wait for Tim McGraw to come back

I also went to a soccer game with my sister at the Coliseum. We watched my two favorite teams, Real Madrid and Manchester City. City won 4-1. While at the game, we ran into two of my coworkers, my friend and my manager. They even got me a beer even though I normally don’t drink.

So that was my summer in a nutshell! I had a really good summer, spent it with family, my boyfriend, and friends.