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Apr 9, 2012

NHI Sports Massage Team at the 2012 L.A. Marathon

The forecast called for a very wet and cold day across L.A. Although strong winds were not in the forecast, we definitely had some of that. The dark morning started with threatening clouds but that was all we saw of them. Thankfully, Santa Monica was blessed with a sunny day, but the winds picked up around 11:00am and were in full force by early afternoon. Check out our Team in action!

We had an incredible turn out of about 50 students packed inside the tent setup on Ocean Avenue with generous views of the Santa Monica Pier and the Pacific Ocean. The students showed up by 5:00 am, ready and excited to start their day of massage. It was great to see students from all 5 of Studio City’s mentor groups. Paul Vincze gave a brief training and overview for the day and the students practiced on each other before the runners showed up. The first wave of runners started showing up at 9:00am. Another wave hit around 10:00 and did not stop until 4:00. Joey Pontanilla helped direct the flow of runners to the students and Joe Bob Smith dropped by to assist during the earlier part of the day. The students were a bit nervous about handling cramps but, with the assistance of Joey and Paul, they were more confident by the end of the day given the great influx of cramping runners to give them hands-on experience.

A select few of our students had the privilege of working on the top 10 men and women finishers at the nearby Fairmont Miramar Hotel. These elite runners were very grateful for their therapeutic and invigorating bodywork sessions.

The event was a great success. The students had a great time getting a lot of hands-on sports massage experience all while bonding with their classmates and helping many a sore runner make the walk to their cars a little easier.

~By Paul Vincze and Joey Pontanilla