Crush!

Kristen and I ran the Seal Beach 10k yesterday and I CRUSHED my old PR by 1:52 seconds coming in at 52:11. Now I know that's not all that great for most runners out there, but I'm stoked. It was a good race, better than last year from what I'm told. They started us in waves (something they didn't do last year) and it made the beginning of the race pretty painless. Kristen ran a 42:19 which isn't a PR, but it's pretty close. She got 5th place overall for women and 3rd place in her age group. Something we found out later was that the overall winner was a woman which is pretty rare at these events. She ran something like a 33 minute 10k! Insane! And she was in Kristen's age group so she was really curious to find out who this woman was. Turns out she's an Olympic athlete living in Hawthorne originally from Nigeria. That made Kristen feel better about her 3rd place finish. I, on the other hand, came in 57th in my age group. I don't see a medal in my future any time soon I guess. Oh well.

Arrrgghhhh!

Shit sucks. I've been training for weeks for the Seal Beach 10k and as luck would have it a really good paying gig has popped up that I can't turn down. With the Rome trip coming up, well, I just had to say yes. As a result...grrrr....I won't be running the race on Saturday. I had a good feeling about this one, too. And I was going to meet up with a fellow blogging buddy and now I'll have to postpone that as well. So now Kristen and I are both bagging the race and that totally blows. Well, I'll have to roll the training over into the next race. I'm not sure what, but I was hoping to run at least one race a month. Any suggestions for the Los Angeles area for April? Also, if anyone wants to run this race for free, you can be either Mike Dunn or Kristen James and the bibs will be waiting for you. Good luck. Tell us how we do. Seriously. Who's going to know. At least the money will go to a good cause.

Okay, so what doesn't suck is that we have recently found two great wine shops in nearby areas. The Twisted Vine in Fullerton has some KILLER wine flights in a really chill, but nice setting. And if you go on nights other than Friday or Saturday you might get little extras here and there from the staff. Very cool vibe. We also discovered the Wine Styles shop in Seal Beach. They have flights and tastings throughout the week and have live music on the weekends that really help set it apart. They can be a little pricey, but that's always subjective. I had a kill kill killer Pinot Noir from New Zealand (yeah, I was surprised too) that I wanted, but they were asking $35 for it. Kristen reminded me of the plethora of vino we had at home so I put my wallet away. Something to keep an eye out for: Castle Rock 2004 Barrel Fermented Central Coast Chardonnay. Crisp, citrus, green apple, slight toast. Delish. Go for it. Also...Napa Cellars 2006 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc. Crisp, zesty with pineapple and pink grapefruit. I don't taste the grapefruit so much, but the pineapple is there. It initially tastes like it was fermented in stainless steel, but as it opens up you kind of get some toast so it's got that going for it which is nice. Gungada da gungada. That's from Caddyshack and if you don't know what I'm talking about then I can't help you out. Anyway, Kristen and I eat a lot of spicy food so these two whites are great for any spicy dish. They're also great, of course, for salads and seafood. Go forth and be merry wine snobs. And good luck.