TBA
Santa Monica Classic
Saturday morning was an unsuccessful attempt to get a breakfast sandwich at one of A.M. Smash's last pop-ups before they closed, with plan B being an early jaunt over to 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica for brunch and to pick up my bib for the Santa Monica Classic 10K. Jinky's claims to have been open since 1991 but that was my first visit, their flaky french toast with fruit toppings and a scoop of ice cream added is utterly ridiculous but tasty. The eggs and bacon are quality but not particularly memorable, and by the time I left around 11:15am they had gone from a modest crowd to quite busy.
Santa Monica Classic bib pick-up was quite a modest affair smack on the promenade, which would belie the massive crowd the next morning.
Ran a few miles to the race start first thing in the morning, found a massive crowd at the start due to all the last-minute changes due to the weather, and went from fairly excited to a bit irritated. Could not make it into the first wave, and they held the second wave for a full 20 minutes. Yikes. With the official 10K canceled, they at least still permitted 10K racers to do an unofficial one, even if it was a bit short of the full 10K. Given that the primary motivation for me was to force myself into a longer run than usual, this wasn't the worst outcome. 6 miles at 8:42/mile (GPS), 8:28/mile (chip), plus the warm-up run being 5 miles at 9:26/mile... not the worst way to beat the heat on a very hot weekend.
Layla Bagels for breakfast was delicious, the long line out the front actually moves at a good clip, and including ordering time (15 minutes plus 10 minutes) it was barely 25 minutes to get my food. They call their full on lox sandwich The Laika, and the regular bagels aren't bad either.
Wrapped up the weekend with an evening at UCLA Extension Technical Management Program's evening reception.