Holiday Half Marathon 2013

On December 15th, Gritty City had its last USATF race of the 2013 year.  As part of the USATF Grand Prix competition, Gritty City competes with other track clubs around southern California.  The Holiday Half Marathon was the last race where Gritty could score points.  The course was relatively flat with some rolling hills which allowed a few grits to PR on this course.  The club's official score will be posted later.

L-R on top Hugo, Annie, Pureza, Adrian, Jason, Vivian, Portia
L-R on bottom, Lisa, Janet & Art
Shout out to Tony & George who did not make it in the picture.

Gritty Holiday Party 2013

This Holiday, we gathered at Salidang Song in Pasadena to celebrate a great year on the track. We had good Thai food and talked about life and running.

Julio, Amy with Husband, Sarah & Tony

Right before starting their meal.

After eating, we welcomed new board members and congratulated old board members.  The new board members included club president Alex Bruno.  Alex was the original club president and has come back to lead the group again. 

We talked inside the restaurant until it was time to close.  We got this great shot of the group outside. 

Pancake Flip-Off

On Satuday October 2nd, the Gritty City Track Club competed in the pancake flip off.  The Pancake Flip Off is a fundraiser that is put on by the Pasadena Pacers, where different running clubs compete in a pancake making competition.  First people run and when they come back they try the pancakes and put money in the donation jar.  The club that makes the most money wins.

Our club had amazing chefs: Paul and Vanessa.  Paul featured strawberry and Ricotta pancakes while Vanessa showed off her culinary skills with her cheesecake and pumpkin pancakes.  The pancakes were a hit!! They were the best tasting pancakes.

chef Vanessa(left) club pres. Tamera(right)-making pancakes

chef Paul(left) and club president Tamera(right)

As I went to different tables and tried the pancakes, cookies, sausages and even sausage/pancakes on a stick....I knew we had some competition.  However, when I stopped to casually talk to people, they all said the same thing. "you should go try the pancakes over there" as they pointed at the gritty table.  I knew we would win by taste, if not by money.

The best part was that there was a huge Gritty turn out.  Some people just came to put in their money.  Others became interested in doing track workouts.   It was so nice to see the love and support from the running community.

Pureza and MCH wore a banana and pumpkin costume to lure more customers in.  Everytime someone put money in the jar, they would do a money dance which kept the money coming.  In the end, we made over $500 and earned second place in the competition!  Second out of four is not bad at all for our one and only fundraiser of the year.

MCH doing a shimmy shake as Charles drops a check

Pureza and MCH luring customers in with their dancing skills

MCH, Alex, Vivian and Pureza counting up the money

The Grits celebrating their 2nd place victory

The grits came out in numbers to help raise money

Santa Monica 5000

On October 6th, 2013 Grits lined up to race at the Santa Monica 5000.  The male competitors included Tony, Hugo, Brian and Jason while the women included Pureza, Suzanne and Vivian.  We were lucky to have Richard, Tamera and Adrian as wonderful spectators and cheerleaders.  The U.S. Track and Field Association requires at least 5 competitors per road race so we were glad to have registered members running this race.

Santa Monica weather was a little sunny but overall a nice running day.  Hugo and Jason took off in the lead. Brian, Tony and Vivian ran nearly side by side until the last 100 meters.  The friendly competition allowed them to push a little harder. Pureza had a great run even though she claimed to have partied the night before and Suzanne rounded up the Gritty team by finishing in the first half of her division.

At the end of the race, we enjoyed the free giveaways at the peer which included running lights, nutri-bullets samples and nutrition.  We even saw Dino from the ARC who graciously took our picture.  When the results came out we found that Jason Wang placed second in his division!  After he got his medal, we headed to Suzanne's beach rental a few minutes away.

We ate a delicious vegan chili made by Adrienne and played on the beach.   The guys even got in the water while Suzanne and Vivian sun bathed.  The run, the food and play all made for a long day.  A great day at the beach!!

Bell-Jeff Cross Country Invitational 2013

This year the Gritty City Track Club represented at the Bell-Jeff invitational with an all womens team.  The team consisted of this group of ladies:Tamera, Vanessa, Janna, Erin and me(Vivian).  Erin came in first for the women with a time of eighteen minutes.  The womens division was competitive.  The teams included the Janes, the Nike womens team and the ARC women.  The hilly course consisted of 2.9 miles of dirt path with a small portion of pavement.  Erin originally from Boston and Janna from Chicago were surprised by the number of hills at Griffith park but they raced like champions.  Vanessa put in amazing effort by finishing third for the Gritty women and Tamera rounded off the team by racing neck and neck with two other competitors at the finish line.  A great day for the Gritty women!

L-R, Vivian, Tamera Brown, Vanessa Luna, Janna Louie, Erin Ballard.

Semana Nautica 15k 2013

by: Vivian Valdivia

Semana Nautica 15k took place in Santa Barbara on July 4^th, 2013.  Gritty City runners arrived at Santa Barbara to find it was overcast, drizzling and slightly humid. 

A quick picture at the starting line

 As the race started, Jason quickly took the lead followed by Hugo.  Jason finished first for Gritty City with a time of 1 hour flat.   Hugo was came in right after with a time of 1:01 and placed third in his age division.  John waited at the finish line to cheer and capture all the great finishing moments.

Jason coming in first for Gritty City

Danny improved his time from last year by several minutes and was the third Gritty City finisher.  Antonio and I were reunited at the last kilometer and finished less than a minute apart.  Annie had a great race after being given the race number "666"(this is true), but she flipped over the bib and wore "999" instead.  Sunny came in next and had her husband and daughter cheering her on.  The next person to come down the finish line was Adrian, who received third place in his age division. Leeland, who was wearing his tuxedo shirt for his upcoming wedding, came in fast because Erika was only a few feet behind him.    

 The next person to come through the finish line was Joe.  As I was running near Joe during the first mile of the race, he was talking to someone about the importance of tying shoe laces.  Joe was able to look out for others and still finish second in his division.  Great job!   Jason(not to be confused with Jason Wang) came in proudly representing his team and had a strong finish. Pureza ran through the finish line as Gritty cheered her on and  Janet Gutierrez rounded off the Gritty City runners in style with her white running suit and veil with Leeland by her side.  Janet is getting married to Leeland who she met while running. Yes, love happens on the run sometimes(checkout the running wedding pictures at the bottom).

Joe and Adrian with their age group awards

The Gritty City Track Club happy after the 9.2 mile challenge

Before heading to eat, we took wedding pictures with our "Gritty Getting Married" shirts. 

Congrats to Leeland and Janet, the second Gritty couple to get married

The food took a while but it gave us a chance to mingle

Griffith Park Marathon Trail Marathon Relay

The Griffith Park Marathon Relay was a tough course.  With almost two miles of steep uphills, a few rolling hills and sharp downhills, the race was a challenge to say the least.  There were about 60 teams with 5 people in each team.  Each leg had to run 5.2 miles around the same loop.  The Gritty City Track Club represented with two teams: a male team and a co-ed team.  The male team started off strong with Bert running a 32 minute time.  Paul, Danny, Jason ran great races and Richard brought the team home.  Their efforts paid off and they finished in 1st place in the mens-club division.

L-R: Danny, Bert, Paul, Jason and Richard

The Co-Ed team also did a great job finishing in a very close 2nd place in the club co-ed division.   Jorge put the team in the lead by running an amazing 39 minute time.  Brian continued the effort by running the course in just over 42 minutes. Tamera, John and I ran up and down those hills as hard as we could and finished only a minute and 18 seconds behind the first place co-ed club team. The official results and pictures can be found here: http://griffithparktrailmarathonrelay.com/

L-R: Jorge, Brian, Tamera, John and me.

There was one Gritty City runner who was behind the scenes but showed up at 5a.m. to make sure the run went smoothly: Alex Bruno.  Congrats to Alex Bruno for his great organizing efforts and a great job to Dino for putting on a fun race.

Alex relaxing after a hard day's work.

Guys relaxing after the relay.

Summer Watermelon Run

This Tuesday, Gritty City runners started the summer with 7 grueling hills. The entire run was 7.5 miles.  Runners completed 7 of the 10 hills that surround the Rosebowl.  Jason took the lead up the hills with the rest of us following behind.  We ended with the curved hill next to the golf course.  Jason, Vanessa and George raced each other up the last hill and I noticed everyone else pushed really hard up this last hill. 

http://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/299617889

After the run, we enjoyed some refreshing watermelon. The giant watermelon (courtesy of Janna)was delicious and cold.  The group actually finished the entire watermelon that Max is holding.  The mini watermelon I brought was not as appealing but it came out well in the picture.

Alex and Suzanne also joined us for this run.  Great job everyone for completing this run!

Volunteering at the LA River Run

On 5 de mayo, Gritty City Track Club members volunteered at the LA River Fun Run.  About a dozen members passed out water to runners at mile one. The run was benefitting "Friends of the LA River", a non-profit organization founded in 1986 to protect the river.  Several members came as early at 5am to set up the water station.

Gritty City members served as enthusiastic cheerleaders. As runners, every volunteer knew how important it was to keep fellow runners motivated.

 Stacking water cups on top of one another was sort of like playing Jenga.  Fun!

A final pictures before leaving the event in front of the LA River gate.

Boston Unity Run

Today runners from various clubs in Los Angeles united to show support for Boston Marathoners.  The events that occurred last Monday inspired John Beatty, who has been a regular at the track, to organize a Boston Marathon inspired 5k.  There were  balloons with the blue and yellow Boston colors and many of our own Gritty City runners wore their blue and yellow shirts from previous Boston Marathons. 

Gritty City Runners: L-R. Tina, me, Alex, Richard, Max, Antonio and Tamera

There were easily over 200 runner that came together for this event.  There was an emotional song and flag salute and a commemorative wrist band given to finishers. 

Post Race Photo. 2013 Boston Unity Run. Los Angeles