half marathon – 90s California Runner Mom

Long Beach Half Marathon

Posted on October 23, 2019October 23, 2019 by teresamunoz91

A week ago, I ran the Long Beach Half Marathon. It was my first half marathon of the year and my first half marathon as a mom. I am 9 months postpartum. Last year, this was my last half marathon as a pregnant runner, I was 6 months pregnant.

Last year it took me exactly 3 hours to complete and this year I improved my time by more than 30 minutes, finishing in 2 hours and 22 minutes.

I normally try to follow a training plan, but many things stopped me from following it completely this year. I was much busier juggling my baby with running and working. I didn’t run as often or as long as I wanted to. I used to be able to wake up early and go for runs, but now I just want to sleep in as much as I can and since I don’t have anyone to watch Selena so I can go running, I would just skip my runs. In fact, the longest run this year prior to the half marathon was a 10k a month ago!

I felt so undertrained and so unprepared. My original goal was to finish in under 2 hours. However, because my training did not go as planned, I said I would be happy to beat last year’s time, 3 hours and to finish. I ended up running a good race and to make things even better, I ran the whole half marathon nonstop! This was something I had never been able to do prior to becoming a mom. At the end of it, I was exhausted but so proud of myself. My next two races are much shorter, a 5k and 10k this weekend. I have no goals, just to go out and have fun! One of my sisters will also be running, but she will be running the 1k.

Mom Life, Running

My First Half Marathon as a Mom

Posted on August 11, 2019August 10, 2019 by teresamunoz91

I am two months away from running my first half marathon as a mom. I have been training the last few weeks, though not consistently. To make it more challenging, not only will I be running 13.1 miles, I will be running 13.1 miles while pushing my baby in her stroller.

I have done one 5k while pushing her in the stroller. It wasn’t challenging. The one thing I didn’t like was being stuck in the back with all the walkers. So far I have gone for a 5 mile run with Selena. The last mile was the hardest. Since I will be running with Selena, I don’t have a time goal in mind. I just want to finish.

It has been much harder for me to get a run in now that I have a baby. My choices are to either run with the baby or run very early in the morning. Since I am not running as often, my runs are usually very slow. I am happy that I am back to running though. This is one thing I missed. I think I went about four months without running, which is the longest break I’ve had since I took up running back in 2016.

Last year I ran the Long Beach Half Marathon at 6 months pregnant. This year I will be running it while pushing a 9 month old baby in her stroller. I am looking forward to that challenge.

Running, Travel

Princess Challenge Weekend

Posted on May 20, 2018May 20, 2018 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!

Running, Travel

Disney Princess Races

Posted on April 12, 2018April 12, 2018 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.

Running, Travel

San Diego Weekend

Posted on April 1, 2018April 1, 2018 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.