Marathon #42: LA Marathon, February 2016

Rodeo Drive! I LOVE LA!

Finally, after years of on again off again plans to run the LA marathon I finally did it! This would be the best opportunity to run it, since it would be held one month earlier in order to accommodate the running of the Olympic marathon trials the day prior. This meant we would get to run in cooler weather and get a chance to watch our Dallas women run in the trials. Well, at least one of those two things came to pass! Onward to my race recap...

After landing at LAX and dealing with ridiculous LA traffic, the first order of the day was to get to the expo at the convention center downtown. The expo was a little disappointing for a marathon of this size. Skechers had a lot of LA marathon apparel, but there weren't a lot of vendors there. Later that night we met up with Dean and the Pastre's for dinner within walking distance of our hotel. They tried to entice us to continue onward to a wine bar, but we knew better! (Although it was only Friday, and not the night before our race).

The next day we all headed down to the USC campus to position ourselves on the Olympic Marathon trials course. Since they ran on a looped course we saw them 3 times. Toby got some great photos. It was great watching our local runners run strong races, but it was also painful to watch the suffering in the "blistering heat", as the commentator kept repeating. Indeed, LA was having near record temperatures this week-end, and the trials didn't even start until 10:00 AM. I started getting a dreaded feeling in my gut that my own race was going to be really really painful the following day.

After 41 marathons I don't get that nervous, but this one was rattling my cage the night before. I really had to work to get my head wrapped around it. Even so, come race day morning I was ready to face whatever the day was going to bring. Mark, Jamie, and I boarded the bus to the Dodger Stadium, leaving Toby and Zelda with the immense challenge of trying to navigate LA traffic to spot us on the course and make their way to the finish in Santa Monica.

Ready for battle

It was crazy at the stadium with the long lines and the searches for everything like where to check our bags or find our corral. Jamie and I handed our bags off at a UPS truck and asked, "Is this right"? We couldn't tell. There were several trucks, but the kid said yes, so that was that. Good-bye stuff. By the time we got to our corral (we were in a timed corral ahead of the masses) I had to go pee again, but they were going to close off the corral entrance in 5 minutes, so I decided it would be better to suffer than end up starting further back. (We're talking over 20,000 runners). We had another 30 minutes to wait, so it was not comfortable, but at least I was pretty confident that I was well hydrated. I made Jamie and Mark move up further ahead, as I stayed near the 4:00 hour pacer. We started just before 7:00 AM with Randy Newman's "I Love LA" blaring from the speakers. Seriously.

The first 6 miles were probably the hilliest, with really steep declines that my quads hate with a passion. Luckily I had been training for them, so I got my feet under me and leaned into them, saving my quads. We were all packed together as we wound around the stadium and then through Chinatown. By the time we started heading west my tank top was already soaked. "It's going to be one of those days" I thought, as I hit every water stop and started breaking into the electrolyte pills earlier than planned. This is about when Toby and Zelda showed up for the first time, and it was really great to see and hear (Zelda) them! Shortly after that I flew into an open porta potty, finally!

Mile 6, when smiling is easy

I couldn't believe we were actually running on Sunset Boulevard! Off in the distance you would see the Hollywood sign on the hillside. It gave me chills. We ran by so many interesting sights, Echo Park Lake, the Hollywood Walk of fame, Grauman's chinese theater, and Chateau Marmont. Not only that, but the course was alive with diverse groups of people out cheering, playing music, or handing us water. I didn't turn on my music, in fact, when I saw Toby and Zelda again around mile 16 I tossed my mp-3 player to them. After that sighting they were off to Santa Monica.

Mile 16, Mark looking strong

She looks strong, but said she was dying

I got a lot going on at this point, hands full

Even though I could feel it warming up I think I was distracted by more sights, like the Troubadour and Whiskey A Go Go. This was the real deal! Hollywood! We even ran along Rodeo drive in Beverley Hills! All of a sudden there was Jamie at a water stop, somewhere around mile 19. What the heck? She was having a really bad day, said she felt like she was going to throw up and had been walking. It was obvious to me that she was dehydrated, so I gave her one of my electrolytes and tried to get her to drink more. She had her bottle with her and was able to get fluids down, which was good. We ran together for a couple of miles, but she said she had to walk again and told me to go on. I hated that! I knew once we got closer to Santa Monica we would start feeling the ocean breezes and she'd start feeling better and finish ok. We only had a few miles to go, but in the marathon those miles seem to go on forever.

The image I had in my mind of the last 5K is what carried me forward. I was imagining the wide open, palm-tree lined Santa Monica boulevard with the ocean in the distance and the cool ocean breeze blowing in my face...well it wasn't like that at all in reality. The sun was baking us, as there was no shade, with no sign of an ocean nearby. It was pretty much all downhill though, which helped. Suddenly, with about a mile to go we went from full sun into a thick fog, and the temperature felt like it dropped over 10 degrees. As we turned onto Ocean boulevard I could hear the ocean, but the fog was too thick to see it. A bit disappointing, but it did feel good! I couldn't even see the finish clearly in the distance. I could hear it, but couldn't quite see it, very eerie! And suddenly, there it was! The glorious finish! Shortly after Jamie finished too! She was NOT happy, but a finish is a finish, and from what I can tell our medals look exactly the same.

We tried to find our UPS truck, but quickly realized we had no idea which truck our bags were in. There were 10 trucks with letters on them, which were supposed to be for your last name. What? We couldn't remember a letter on our truck and we don't have the same last name, so OOPS. After what seemed like an eternity of trying to find our bags I figured we better find Toby first. I found a phone and called him and he came over in the cluster and managed to find our bags! Toby always takes care of us! He is one amazing man!

In the meantime it turned out that their illustrious beer garden was a total bust, which was fine with us, since Dean and the Pastres were at a really cool patio bar nearby. We joined them there, then later to the pier and beach. Priceless afternoon!

Stats: Mark ran a 3:38 PR! I ran my usual 4:08, and Jamie ran a 4:19. I really loved the course, but I am not sure I love the big marathons and the cluster effect they seem to have on everything from trying to get fluids at stations to getting your belongings back at the finish or even a damn beer. Still, it was a wonderful week-end of fun in LA, even if they were having a heat wave!