At first I thought about driving to Dodger Stadium on Saturday to pick up my race packet and stay to watch the Dodgers vs. Cubs game on Dodger Vision, but I decided to just watch the game at home. They allowed race morning packet pick-up, so early Sunday morning I drove up to Dodger Stadium via the 110 and entered through the Downtown Gate right at about 6:30am. There was already a line of cars when I got there.
After parking the car near the right field side in lot K, I walked over to the packet pickup area just outside of center field. I picked up my bib and it was a pleasant surprise to pick up an AJ Ellis bobblehead along with a race shirt. I picked up a coconut drink from the Zico booth before returning to my car to rest before the race.
Race packet pick up
Race packet
The shirt was a pretty nice tech shirt. They also gave us a timing chip to keep as a souvenir. As the start of the race approached, I got ready and went over to the pavilion area to use the restroom. Once in the corral, I lined up near the front about 15 feet behind the starting line. The start was located at about the same spot as the LA Marathon so that was a little strange. Right before the start of the race, they paraded out some old Dodger legends as well as gold medalist sprinter, Carmelita Jeter. That was pretty cool.
Starting line
Gold medalist Carmelita Jeter!
My goal for the race was to run hard, but not too hard since my left Achilles tendon has been sore lately. It was a hilly first mile as we ran counter clockwise to the stadium up to the Top Deck area. It took about a quarter mile to get past all of the people that had no business lining up in the front. The first part of mile 2 was mostly downhill with a water station halfway through where I fumbled in grabbing a cup. Then we ran on some dirt roads before returning to the parking lot. The last mile was a rolling mile. I ran at an even effort so I kept trading spots with some of the same runners. I tried to speed up a bit to make my goal of 23 minutes, but just came up a little short. The course ended right where we started.
1: 7:18
2: 7:34
3.1: 8:13 (7:28)
Finish: 23:05 (7:26)
Finish line
Medal and Zico towel
After getting my medal, picking up a banana and a bottle of Avita water, I made my way to the stadium to take a cool down lap around the warning track. Before going in, I picked up a towel and another coconut drink from the Zico booth. I've never run a 5k race that gave out so much stuff!
Hello Kitty
Cooling down on the warning track
Rivalry Series coming up!
Home team dugout
On the way back to my car, I stopped by the results board to check out my official time. I came in 12th for my age group. Even though I'm not a big fan of running around the Dodger Stadium parking lot, I can't wait to come back next year and make this an annual tradition. It was pretty well organized for a first year event.
Results
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