LA Marathon

My Time 4:36:08

I realize this is a slight depart from my normal Popular Excuses post, and my Next Time On post will be up soon, but I am all a buzz about the LA Marathon which I ran March 21, 2010, and I just gotta talk about it.

History:  I ran LA in 2008, and swore I would never run a street marathon again. It was hard on the body, ugly, and circling downtown for 10 miles was, to be blunt, a total dry hump. I decided to only run ultras from that point on, and spend the next two years enjoying California trails 50K at a time.

Being on the LA Marathon mailing list, I was alerted in late 2009 about a shiny new course for the 2010 LA Marathon, from Dodger Stadium through Hollywood to the Sea. As a home grown Californian, a Santa Monica native, and an employee at offices located in Century City and Brentwood, I couldn’t believe how wonderfully familiar to me the course was. I was giddy with excitement at the idea of finishing a race in the middle of Ocean Blvd, basically my backyard. I signed up the day I received the email (if my bib number is any clue to how quickly I signed up, I was #4750 out of 25,000 entrants).

I started training January of 2010, and out of fear of injuring myself trying to run my Boston Pace, my training consisted only of running very slow for long periods of time. I started with an hour and worked up to 2 hours 40 minutes, with plenty of cross training every week including yoga and cycling. In fact I ran a relatively small amount considering I was marathon training, only once or twice a week max. I avoided injury on the course, though my knee did start to hurt towards the end of the day, despite my slow speed and attempt to baby it.

Marathon day came March 21st at 5:00 in the morning, and after some internal debate about where to line up in the chute (I finally decided to try for a 10 min mile pace) and a delay due to cars parked on the freeway, (ostensibly to sneak a peak of the super runner purple & grey, yours truly), the gun sounded and we were off.

Instantly, I was smiling, and my smile only got bigger as the course went on (especially passing a 101 onramp and then a Cheshire cat grin came across my face entering Hollywood). The weather was perfect; the stadium and “THINK BLUE” signs were a nostalgic send off, and the spectators were so encouraging they were an endorphin drug pulling me along the course. I wasn’t bothered at all by the uphill start, mostly because I slowed my pace way down (though I was listening to some pretty heavy breathing around me and knew that for some people it was going to be a long day). The green Nike Store helpers and Cheer Alley just plain fun. I chatted with people along the way, and found a guy wearing a Mt. Disappointment 50K shirt from 2008, and race I had run that day also. Later I asked a guy with a Camelbak why he had brought water (“Because I don’t want to stop” – makes sense), I ran around an downed runner or two and after seeing pictures of Transformers actor Shia LeBeouf (that guy beat me by less than a minute), I remember seeing him through the Veteran’s center and thinking about the strikingly relevant Veterans shirt he was running in.

(See the guy in the green shirt - that is a Mt. Disappointment shirt and I have the ladies version)

I think my experience with a few races under my belt made me a better at pacing than most people, because in the last 4.5 miles of the race I passed 676 people and was only passed by 76, which is an ego boost to be sure. When I rounded San Vicente onto Ocean, I almost cried I was so happy to be so close to the end. The crowds were dense, the energy was palpable and I almost believed every one of them was in some way cheering for me, I cranked up The Temper Trap’s "Sweet Disposition" (yeah, I admit, I needed music after mile 13). When I passed the 26 mile marker I tapped the guy next to me on the shoulder and told him we were going to sprint to the finish. I bested him by less than a second, but I think he had fun leaving it all out on the course with me.

Even now three days later, writing about my experience, my joy knows no bounds, and for the first time in over a year, I feel like a real runner (I ran the whole time, albeit slowly). I am already furiously checking the LA Marathon website waiting for news on the 2011 race. I am even considering purchasing this stupid picture of myself throwing up some horns:

I received an email telling me I was a legacy member of the new course, so I hope to keep the tradition of completing the LA Marathon from the Stadium to the Sea as long as my legs (or heaven forbid, my arms) will let me. The energy I have for this race is contagious, and I think I’ve already convinced three people to join me next year. Very well done, and hats off to the R.D & the City of LA and Santa Monica. I’m not sure what it took to get that course, but I believe it's beauty and history contributed to what may have been a life changing run for a lot of us athletes.

I LOVE LA!