LA Marathon 2014

Without going into details... the week prior to the race, I spent a night in the ER because I had broken my nose and was unconscious. Yeah, not the best way to go into a race. I would hate to take a DNS due to a non-running injury for any race especially the LA Marathon. So to run it or not, it would be a race day decision. I basically lost the ability to breathe through my nose.

Saturday 3/8 - Expo
It's expo time. Per the usual with the race expo located at the Convention Center in Downtown LA, I drove out to the Sierra Madre Villa Metro station to take the Metro rail so I wouldn't have to deal with parking. An all-day pass is only $5, so it is well worth it not having to deal with parking and traffic headaches. Having the expo at the Convention Center is much better than having the expo at Dodger Stadium.

I took the Gold line to Union Station. Then switched over to the Red/Purple line and got off at 7th St/Metro Center. Next I got onto the Light Blue/Blue line and got off at Pico. Then it was just about a two block walk over to the Convention Center. Easy peasy. I noticed that there has been more and more people checking for valid Metro fare. Just from the few times that I've taken the Metro, this has made the riding experience much better.

Picture from Casey

After picking up my race packet and shirt, I went over to the Solutions desk to pick up my friend's race packet as well. According to my friend, they really discouraged people from having a friend or family member pick up someone else's race packet this year. He had to email them a copy of my driver license and only I could pick his stuff up. Ever since the Boston Marathon bombing, races have tightened some rules to reduce possible risks of another tragic disaster happening at another marathon.

I bumped into my friend, Nadia, right before she was about to go on stage. She was one of the featured speakers. She was there to encourage other people to set big goals as well as putting in the hard work to achieve it.

Nadia

I got in line at the Skechers booth to get a picture with Meb Keflezghi and have him sign my bib. He's a pretty funny guy. I asked him if he was running tomorrow and he said, "not if you're running!" His focus was on the Boston Marathon.

Meb!

As I left the expo, I saw Ryan Hall running outside on the Asics treadmill. It was just a training run for him, but there was no runner during the weekend that was able to challenge him on his marathon pace. His stride was beautiful, smooth, and nice to watch. I hope he becomes 100% healthy again so that he can possibly win a marathon before his running career is over.

Ryan Hall

When I visit DTLA I usually head over to eat at Little Tokyo, but today I felt like eating some burgers. So I took the Metro Rail back to my car and drove over to the In-n-Out near my house. I had for myself 2 Double Doubles.

Double Double

I laid out my race gear and prepared to sleep early since daylight savings begins tomorrow which meant that we will lose an hour of sleep. This would be my first time wearing this Spider-man shirt that I had bought off of Ebay. I like it better than the ones made by Under Armour.

Race gear

Sunday 3/9 Race Day
I was assigned the 4am shuttle ride, so off to Santa Monica I go. With new security measures supposedly in place, I made sure that I get to Dodger Stadium early. I exited the 10 freeway at Lincoln Blvd, turned right on Pico Blvd and left at Ocean Ave to reach the parking lot. I had pre-paid $10 to park in this lot. I grabbed my stuff and met up with my friend at the corner of Main St and Pico Blvd to give him his race packet. We couldn't ride the shuttles unless we had our bibs. We walked over to the City Hall to catch one of the shuttles.

We went into the stadium to rest in the seats. I split off with my friend and walked further in to use one of the restrooms before it got too busy. After using the restroom, I went back to the field level seats near one of the dugouts to sit in the nicer seats. I was later spotted by my friends, so I went up to sit with them.

Dodger Stadium

We headed over to the gear check containers and checked our bags. We found some short lines for a final portapotty visit. We took a group picture before heading over to our different corrals. It was a bit chilly so I had my arm sleeves and a mylar blanket. I gave the blanket to my friend who was wearing a tank top and feeling colder than me.

My friends

I went to the front of the corral D as I knew that this race will be super packed at the beginning. My friend in corral C hung out with me at the back of her corral until it got closer to the start of the race. Then out of pure coincidence I bumped into a fellow Marathon Maniac who went by the name Pony Espresso who happened to also be a LA Marathon legacy runner. He was happy to finally have met Pony Express in person. :)

Dawn's early light

Pony Expresso

With Randy Newman's "I love LA" blaring in the speakers, it was time to run the LA Marathon! It would be my 10th LA Marathon. It would've been my 11th in a row, but I skipped the race in 2011, the year of the crazy monsoon. I had a stress fracture in my tibia that year and got into the NYC Half Marathon. So I missed the super storm and flew over to NYC to jog the NYC Half Marathon. I guess it all worked out in the end as it would've been miserable going so slow in that much rain for a marathon.

Ready to go

I ran the first three miles a bit too fast. I might have had too much pent up energy. I only wanted to finish in about 4:30. Mile 5 has a nice steep climb, but it's also one of my favorite miles because there are taiko drummers drumming away near the top of the hill. I finally got into more of a steady pace for about the next 6 miles. Then things got tough starting at mile 12. It was already getting warm and my legs were feeling heavy. Things started to get even tougher around mile 18 as there was some steady inclines with zero shade. It got pretty toasty by the time I got to the VA at mile 21. Leg cramps made it pretty tough to even jog. I just needed to get to mile 24 for it to be downhill to the finish. I jogged as much as I could during the last mile, but the cramps were getting the better of me. During the final stretch, I saw course officials pulling out bandits. Bandits were not allowed to cross the finish line. Good for them. Next time pay for the damn race, you moochers!
1-2: 15:17 (7:39)
3: 7:44
4: 8:06
5: 9:10
6: 8:41
7: 8:20
8: 9:09
9: 8:59
10: 8:55
11: 9:01
12: 9:55
13: 10:05
14: 11:11
15: 9:22
16: 10:17
17: 11:57
18: 12:25
19: 12:19
20: 13:06
21: 14:13
22: 14:12
23: 16:49
24: 14:58
25: 12:53
26.2: 15:20
Finished: 4:42:24

While I was somewhat disappointed with finishing about 15 minutes slower than what I wanted, I had to keep things in perspective. My nose was broken and I was super congested. Turned out that breathing through the nose is important when you're running. It was a warm day and it was also my second fastest time at LA Marathon.

Finish

I do like this year's finisher medal. Sleek design. I picked up some food, water, and Gatorade then made my way over to the gear check. The secure zone was well organized and maintained. But once we got to the family reunion area, it was a zoo. It was way too crowded, but the police were walking through to make sure that a path remained open for runners to get through. I love that this race is starting to improve year after year. I can't wait to run it again next year!