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!