Saucony 26 Strong Photo Shoot
It’s hard to believe a week ago at this time I was on a plane to San Diego for a photo shoot with Competitor Magazine and Saucony. It was a whirlwind three days of fun and getting to know some of the other teams from the marvelous 2015 Saucony 26 Strong campaign. It’s amazing how you can put so many people from different walks of life together, but after just a few hours together, it seems like we are old friends.
Marina and I purposely picked the earliest flight arrival so we’d have extra time to sight see before the other teams got in. After arriving at our hotel, Estancia La Jolla, we ate a quick lunch and then headed to the beach. The concierge gave us a map to Blacks Beach which was near by. She said it had a steep climb in and out but was absolutely beautiful.
She didn’t lie.
The one thing she didn’t tell us? There would be naked people. Lots of completely naked people.
Marina and I were so into the beautiful scenery that we missed the nakedness until we were deep into it. Of course, we couldn’t help but burst out laughing especially when we were the ones getting the funny looks because we had too much clothing on!
Sorry I didn’t get any close up pics of naked people.
With a belly ache from laughing so much, we made it back to the hotel in time to hang out at the pool with Allison and Erin (reps from Competitor) and Danica before freshening up for dinner. Dinner was absolutely delicious, but getting to know the other girls and meeting our photographer, Nils, was the best. My cheeks hurt from laughing and smiling so much.
Marina and I were first up for hair and make up at 6 a.m. the next morning. It was such a trip to have my foundation airbrushed on. I think I need to get one of those for at home!
We picked out our outfits and then we were off to our first location – Balboa Park – where I yelled at Marina to stretch dammit! But not before your run, k?
Balboa Park – beautiful! Everywhere we went it was just gorgeous with lush gardens and amazing architecture.
Unfortunately, that meant I had to sit out. You don’t know how bad that sucked. But the girls looked so, so good. I did get to jump in for a running shot in a garden and then later on I tried running 10 steps.
Can you tell I’m grimacing? You would think running 10 steps wouldn’t hurt after 7 weeks of rest. Wrong. It hurt. I was totally disappointed and it kind of bummed me out for the rest of the day especially when we moved to a new location.
Isn’t it a gorgeous trail? Marina graciously volunteered to run for me.
The trails behind UC San Diego were unbelievable. I just wanted to take off and explore. I had visions of self timer pics galore.
By then we were all toast. We headed back to the hotel for a late night of dinner, drinks and dessert. I’m not sure how I managed to stay up past 10 p.m. (1 a.m. my time), but when you are surrounded with good people, you rally. And by the way, who knew modeling could be so exhausting?
The next morning, Marina and I had a 6:30 a.m. make up/hair time. We were split into groups of four so the East Coasters with early afternoon flights could get our last shots done sooner.
When I first saw where we were going, a bike path under the I-5, I was wondering why Nils chose such a spot. But then he showed us a test shot he had done and it looked perfect – cloudy, dark and powerful. We did a lot of shoe shots – I got to practice tying my shoe – and team shots.
The second group arrived just as we finished up so we could say our good byes and get one last group photo.
Before going back to the hotel, Allison made a special detour to show Michelle a route she could follow for her run. I was insanely jealous – so many trails, so many beautiful spots.
must. go.back. when. I .can. run.
Of course, no trip to California is complete without a last dip of the toes in the water.
I can’t thank Saucony and Competitor enough for this amazing opportunity. I am so not model material, but you made this girl very, very happy. It was definitely a trip that I’ll never forget!
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