For this race expo at the LA Convention Center, I parked my car at the Sierra Madre Villa Station and took the Metro into Downtown LA. Sure I could find cheap parking for about the same price as a Metro fare, but I would have had to deal with the headaches of downtown driving. After picking up race packet, I went to look at the 5 year legacy banner. It was pretty disappointing to find that my name was not on it. I stopped by the solutions booth to let them know. Besides the banner, they didn't do anything special for their legacy runners. No extra shirt, no special bibs. Hmmm... I wonder if I should maintain my legacy status, assuming they actually have added me to the list. I'm wondering if my extra slow performance in 2011 led them to suspect that I had sold or given my bib to someone else. I had to limp through the race that year with a stress fracture.
Race shirt
Boo! My name wasn't on here! :(
I stopped by the Rock n' Roll area to register for next year's race for $65. I got a nice blue cotton shirt for signing up. I also stopped by the GU booth to pick up a box of their Root Beer GU. I love Root Beer! Then before leaving the expo, I stopped by the OC Marathon booth and registered for $95.
Register for next year
Bonus shirt
Box of Root Beer GU!
Before heading home, I took the Metro over to Little Tokyo to eat a bowl of delicious ramen at Men Oh Tokushima Ramen. It was actually pretty packed. Normally as a party of one, there's no wait or the wait is very minimal. Eventually I was seated at the bar. I ordered the Tokushima ramen and Tokushima don combo. After my meal, I took the Metro back to my car.
Before I went to sleep for the evening, I got out my usual Superman outfit for tomorrow's race. I might need to upgrade the shirt as it is made out of heavy cotton.
Race gear
10/26 Sunday
I did the same routine for race morning. I parked my car at the Sierra Madre Villa Station and took the Metro down to the Pico Station. Then I walked over to Chick Hearn's table in front of Staples Center to get ready. Although one thing has changed this year, they had moved the gear check area over to the lot just across Staples Center on Figueroa Street. The old location was used for the Charity Village and a Bark Park.
Starting line at dark o'clock
I hit the portapotty a few times before going visiting gear check. After I got my "gear" ready aka throwing on the cape, I checked my bag and headed for my starting corral. Slowly my friends started showing up and we ended up starting together right behind the 1:45 pace group. My goal was to try and run a 1:42.
Inside the corral
When our corral was released, I felt like I was constantly trapped behind slower runners. I tried not to weave too much and eventually I settled into a groove. After looping around the Coliseum, it was a gradual incline up through downtown on Figueroa. After a slow mile 5, I kind of already knew that that 1:42 was out the window. The 1:45 pace group would catch up to me just as we approached the 10k mark. I then switched to plan B which was to get to the finish as fast as I could preferably under 1:50. I then made my onto Flower where I ran up to the 3rd Street tunnel. It was a good feeling to not slow down going up the hill at miles 9 and 10. However the last steady incline for mile 12 slowed me down a bit. My friend would catch and overtake me as we ran through the 3rd Street tunnel heading down to the finish line. I kept a steady pace and was happy to come in just under 1:48.
1: 7:42
2: 7:25
3: 7:49
4: 7:58
5: 8:27
6: 8:24
7: 8:39
8: 8:14
9: 8:26
10: 8:33
11: 8:13
12: 8:56
13: 8:20
13.1: 0:42
Finish: 1:47:49
2013: 1:57:16
2012: 2:05:16
2011: 3:21:08
2010: 1:54:33
Well, after a disastrous 2011, I'm finally getting around to running better races. This year was my fastest for this race. While I was nowhere close to my goal of 1:42, it felt good to see that a bad race day was now a sub 1:50. I can still remember when it used to be very hard for me to come in under 2 hrs!
After picking up my medal and a bunch of post race goodies, I made my way over to the gear bag area to pick up my bag. I put away the goodies, my handheld bottle, and the cape to free up my hands. I also threw on my cargo shorts so that I had some pockets. I then made my way over to the beer garden to get my free Michelob Ultra. After I was done with the beer, I noticed that there was another tent giving out free wine. So I sampled their rosé wine. A couple of my friends eventually joined me in the beer garden. It was pretty cool going over our races and talking about our future races over a few drinks.
Beer tent
Medal and beer
Wine and post race entertainment
Maniacs in the beer garden!
After getting back to my car, I drove on home. I decided to finally check out the local Bob's Big Boy for lunch. I got the Super Big Boy Burger combo with a salad and ice tea. The salad was a bit plain and there was nothing super about the Super Big Boy Burger except that it was a bit bigger. It also tasted worse than a McDonald's Big Mac. But I did love that they played oldies from the 50's and 60's for the old diner experience. The service was excellent and I might want to stop by every now and then just for a little bit of nostalgia.
Big Boy!
Salad
Super Big Boy Combo
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