This year marked the 25th anniversary of the LA marathon and the start of a new course. The course traditionally starts downtown and runs in a loop, ending back downtown. (In 2007, they tried something new and started the course at Universal Studios and ended it downtown, but it wasn’t very popular, so they reverted to the old course last year.) The operating rights to the marathon were purchased by the owner of the Dodger’s recently and the course was drastically revised this year. It started at Dodger Stadium, ran through downtown, Hollywood, Century City, Beverly Hills and West LA before ending in Santa Monica. I enjoyed the new course, but I wish I’d felt better during the run!
Sunday morning found me, T and Alfie in the car by 5:40am heading to Dodger Stadium for the 7:20am start time. We got caught in bumper to bumper traffic once we reached downtown and only made it on time thanks to T’s navigational brilliance and knowledge of secret streets in LA. Unfortunately, many other people weren’t as lucky, so the marathon organizers ended up delaying the start time by 30 minutes to allow other people to get there …even then, I’m not sure they all did. Traffic was a nightmare.
With 25,000 runners, the start line was chaos, but my friends and I managed to find each other and start the race together. Unfortunately, I’d hydrated too well before the race, didn’t get there early enough to wait in the long bathroom lines, and had to take a bathroom break at mile 10 (and again at mile 18). I never did catch up to them again.
Encouraged by friends who are just faster than me, I did the first 10 miles too fast and was tired too early. I started slowing down by mile 15, at which time it occurred to me that I wasn’t going to make my 4:30 goal time, which I’d been on pace to do. Miles 15 through 20 were painful. I’d never wanted to give up on a marathon before, but I came close during this one. I had newish shoes that were giving me blisters, my knee hurt, my toes were sore from the impact of a largely downhill course, etc. I barely noticed the scenic course as I focused on just fininshing. On the upside, the weather was pretty nice for running. It could have been cooler, but it was more than I could have asked for in LA. Although Saturday was warm, Sunday remained lightly overcast all day.
The mental fog lifted after mile 20, when I cleared the Veterans’ Administration and finally got onto San Vicente. I regularly run the stretch from San Vicente to Ocean, so the last six miles were nice and familiar. That gave me the boost I need to get across the finish line in 4:45:50. I didn’t meet my goal, but I did set a personal record so I was pretty happy…and thrilled to be done running!
In case anyone’s still reading at this point, for a great – and much less self-absorbed – recap of the race, the crowd support, and the course itself, check out this entry. Also, this entry has a neat photo recap of the course and crowd. Lastly, this super cool site lets you see how I did compared to everyone else. Because why bother doing anything unless you can do it better than someone else. Right? =)
