Lopers Club Holiday Classic Half Marathon 2025

Saturday 12/6
Even though I knew that they had race morning packet pick-up, I decided to drive out today before lunch to pick up mine. Per the usual for this race, it was located at the Running Center in Redlands. I arrived at about 10:15 am and the whole process took less than 5 minutes. I was assigned a bib number inside the store, then given a long sleeve race shirt and some swag at the table outside.

Race packet pick-up

Don't call me Muffin! :D

Swag

Long sleeve race shirt

Back of race shirt

Sunday 12/7
I got ready and left the house at about 4:30 am. I arrived at the Starbucks that was closest to the race at about 5:15 am. I parked and placed my order for a bacon, gouda & egg sandwich and my usual grande blonde vanilla latte on the mobile app before going inside. I don't normally eat a breakfast sandwich from here before a race, but it was so that I could earn 30 bonus stars. They had just opened at 5 am, so I had the place pretty much to myself. I ate my sandwich there before driving over to the race.

Starbucks

Breakfast

Bonus stars

Just as before, I opted to park in the Citibank parking lot at about 5:30 am. I chilled in my car while I finished off what was left of my coffee. At about 6 am, I walked over to the Civic Center to use one of the portapotties.

Citi Bank parking

Civic Center

A little after 6:30 am, I got my stuff together and finally left the warmth of my car. I started heading over to the starting corral area. Per the usual, I bumped into some familiar faces. I got selfies with them before I started getting ready to run.

Dexter!

Nadia!

The race started promptly at 7 am. Lately, I had been pretty good with not running out too fast in the first mile. However the legs felt nice and strong. I think the right ankle also felt closer to 100% again after rolling it at REVEL Big Bear last month. I decided to just go with it as the pace was feeling rather comfortable. The course was full of rollers and it turned out to be a progression run from miles 3-6. A little after mile 7 was the turnaround point. In my mind, I knew that I was on pace to be under 1:50 if I just run 8:30s on the way back to the finish line. However, I started feeling like my left foot was on the verge of cramping up. I tried to hold it together, but it cramped up as I reached mile 9. I pulled over to walk a bit and hoped that it would subside. It took the next 2 miles or so for me to recover and regroup. At that point, I just wanted to finish. There wasn't any need for me to push the pace. With about a mile left to go, I came across Nadia heading in the other direction to cheer on her runners.
1: 7:49
2: 8:24
3: 8:27
4: 8:13
5: 7:58
6: 7:48
7: 7:52
8: 8:32
9: 8:46
10: 10:02
11: 9:22
12: 8:40
13: 8:40
13.1: 3:03

About 1 mile to go

Finish: 1:53:35
Click here for my Garmin data.

While initially I wasn't too thrilled with my finishing time, I was happy that I had beaten my time from 2 years ago by almost 5 and a half minutes. After receiving my finisher medal and a bottle of water, I got in line to get a photo in front of The Lopers Club Holiday Classic backdrop.

Finisher medal

Post race photo

After that I went inside the fire station to get some post race breakfast. I got some coffee and a muffin. While I was just about done with my muffin, I saw one of my friends in line to get a post race massage. I got a quick selfie with him before heading out. I used one of the portapotties before heading home.

Fire station

Muffin and coffee

Robert

LA Turkey Trail Half Marathon 2025

Thursday 11/27
Race registration check-in was scheduled for 6 am. I got ready and timed it so that I would arrive at a nearby Starbucks at about 5:15 am to get my usual pre-race coffee. Along the way, I encountered some rather poor driving around the Hollywood area. Those drivers had to have been either sleepy, drunk, or high. As I was nearing the White Oak Ave exit off of the 101 freeway, I saw a CHP vehicle pass at a pretty high speed. I believe he/she was keeping an eye on the pack of cars that was around me. Once I arrived at the Starbucks, I placed my order for the usual grande blonde vanilla latte before going through the drive-thru. I was grateful that those employees were working so early on Thanksgiving!

Grande blonde vanilla latte

With coffee in hand, I drove up to the Top of Reseda at the Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park. Per the instructions, I found a free parking spot right up to the yellow line. It was dark when I arrived, but that line indicated where the pay spots started. I was one of the early bird cars that was there at about 5:30 am. I relaxed in my car and ate my usual pre-race CLIF bar with my coffee. At about 10 minutes before 6 am, I walked up to the bib pick-up tents. I was able to pick up my bib, but they weren't ready yet with the race shirts. I went to use one of the portapotties and waited for the sun to come up before going back to get my shirt.

View of the valley

Bib pick-up

Race shirt

Dawn's early light

It was much easier to see that yellow parking fee line with some daylight. On the way up to the start area, I saw the payment box for parking fees. In addition to checking out the beautiful views of the surrounding area, I also checked out the information boards that they had put up showing some of the history, trail safety, plants, animals, and ecology of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Yellow parking fee line

Pay box

Pre-race candid

Start line

Skratch Labs hydration

Started somewhere near the middle

The half marathon was scheduled to start at 7 am. We started about 5 minutes or so late. The trails were a bit congested at the beginning, but I tried my best to not impede runners that wanted to power on ahead when the climbing started. The wound on my left knee from 10 days ago was scabbed up and healing nicely. I was planning to take this race as comfortably as possible and finish without any falls. The section going down the Mandeville Ridge Trail was nice especially with a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. There was one downhill section that was quite steep. I had to take many baby steps to make sure I didn't lose my footing! I seemed to do much better in the climbs in the second part of the race. Those daily hilly hikes around my neighborhood had definitely paid off! I used to get passed by everyone on those uphill sections.

Route map

Early climb

View of the Pacific Ocean from the Mandeville Ridge Trail

Beautiful, but steep climb

Aid station bottle refill

Finished: 2:41:26
Click here for my Garmin data.

After reaching the finish line, I collected my wooden medal and headed into the post race area which had food and beer. The food was mostly vegan stuff. I'm sure it tasted great, but honestly it did not look very appealing. Thank goodness they had some Athletic Brewing non-alcoholic beer. They gave me a can of the Run Wild IPA. I shared a table with a couple. We ended up chatting about out Thanksgiving plans.

Finisher medal and post race non-alcoholic beer

Finisher medal

I thought that this was a nice challenging race. I believe this was only the second year and it was very well organized. I thought that this was a better alternative than driving out to the Hoover Dam area for the Thanksgiving trail half marathon that I normally do out there. It was a rather late decision to run this race and I was glad that I went with it.

On the way out, I took another can of beer. This time it was a Mexican-style copper beer. I've never had this one before. I also grabbed a mandarin orange. Finally, I stopped for a photo with the race backdrop. I noticed that there was a sign underneath the stop sign warning about it being photo enforced. I don't think that I had ever seen that before. After I hopped in the car, I decided to swing by the South Seas apartment complex. That location was used as Daniel LaRusso's place of residence in the Karate Kid when him and his mom moved out to Reseda. It wasn't too far out of the way. There wasn't too much available street parking, but I managed to find a spot where I pulled over just long enough to get a quick photo.

2nd can of beer for the road

Post race

Photo enforced stop sign

Did not find Mr Miyagi or Daniel LaRusso :)

Autism Speaks Los Angeles Empower 5k

Sunday 11/23
As registration was scheduled to start at 7 am, I timed it so that I would arrive at the UCLA parking structure 4 at about 6:30 am. Even with a slight detour, I arrived and parked at just after 6:30 am. At first, I attempted to pay for parking using the ParkMobile app. However, it was a hassle with there being very cell service inside the parking structure. I ended up getting in line to use the kiosk where I entered my license plate and opted to pay $13 for 3 hours.

UCLA Parking Structure 4

$13 for 3 hours

Lot 4 East Parking

Everyone was still setting up their booths in the Wilson Plaza, so I headed south along Westwood Plaza to go get coffee at the nearby Starbucks. It was a nice walk, but I came across more homeless people than I would have liked. I placed my order for my usual blonde vanilla latte before going inside to wait for my drink.

Grande blonde vanilla latte

Back at Wilson Plaza, I started looking for the registration table. They had a separate table for runners versus walkers. I believe the only difference was that runners received a bib with a timing chip. As for my race shirt, I had to show the girl my fundraising site that showed that I had raised at least $75 in donations. Once I did that, she gave me a ticket coupon to exchange for the shirt at another table.

Wilson Plaza

Race shirt

Back of race shirt

I went to each of the vendor booths to check them out. Most of them were giving out freebies associated with their company. They all had some sort of connection to autism. Besides getting a couple of useful tote bags and stress balls, I also got a picture with Chuck E. Cheese.

Chuck E Cheese

Kaufman Hall

Student Activities Center

After listening to most of the opening ceremony that began at 8 am, I went back to my car to drop off the swag and to shed some layers in preparation for the race. I used the restroom inside the Student Activities Center building to empty the bladder one last time before heading over to the start line.

Start/finish line

The race was scheduled to start at 8:30 am. There ended up being almost a 10 minute delay. I started the race at about a 7 minute/mile pace. I was a bit surprised to see everyone sprint out as if it was a 100m dash! I would catch and overtake most of them before reaching the first mile. There were some that I didn't overtake until during the second mile. I had forgotten how hilly it was around the UCLA campus! I ran out of steam during the third mile as it had a decent steep climb.

Finish: 24:00
Click here for my Garmin data.

The last time I had run a 5k on the UCLA campus was back on 11/11/2012 for the We Run The City 5k UCLA vs. USC. I wasn't wearing a GPS watch back then, but it looked like the mile splits were about the same. It wasn't my fastest 5k as I don't have as much speed these days, but it was good enough for first place in my age group!

After crossing the finish line, I received a finisher medal and a bottle of water. I had to let my watch continue to run for a little bit. I needed to make sure that I had at least 3.1 miles to post a 5k result on Strava for the Virtual NYRR Run for Thanks 5k. That completed my 9+1 which guaranteed me a spot in the TCS New York City Marathon for 2026.

Finish line selfie

Finisher medal

Water bottle

9+1

I didn't stick around for too long. I kind of wanted to get ahead of any traffic from other people leaving. Along the way home, I stopped in at the Starbucks near home to get some breakfast. My order was for a bacon sausage & egg wrap, Italian sausage egg bites, and a grande salted caramel cream cold brew. This order was larger than what I would normally get solely to earn some bonus stars. I received 20 stars from spending at least $15 pre-tax and 100 stars for buying a latte, a hot breakfast item, and a salted caramel cream old brew within a 3 day period. I gave the Italian sausage egg bites a try to see if they were any better. Yuck! Boy, were they pretty disgusting! They still tasted like watered down eggs.

Schnauzer!

Bacon, sausage & egg wrap, Italian egg bites, salted caramel cream cold brew

Italian egg bites

Bacon, sausage & egg wrap

Starbucks challenge completed