Registration to volunteer at the US Olympic Marathon Team Trials opened a couple of days before Christmas. I quickly signed up for VIP hospitality on Thursday and as a general volunteer for the Saturday race. In the week leading up to the Trials, I was notified via email that they didn't need any volunteers for Thursday, but I was still asked to show up as a general volunteer.
As directed, I showed up a little after 6 am at parking lot 14 just outside of Dodger Stadium. Our shift time was from 8 am to 2 pm, but they wanted us there early to check in. I got my volunteer credentials and a nice volunteer shirt. I was assigned as one of the course marshals near the starting line which turned out to be the first turn on the course. I boarded and waited in the bus that would take us into downtown. It would turn out that my friend who is a LA Marathon legacy runner was also in the same volunteer group. What a coincidence!
Volunteer credentials
Pretty nice volunteer shirt!
The bus dropped us off on Pico right next to the Convention Center. We walked over to Staples Center where they gave us some last minute verbal instructions. They grabbed a few of us to help walk some of the competitors over from the hotel where they were staying. They were staying at the swanky JW Marriott.
Olympic Trials
After we were done with that task, we were then put into position at the first turn. We were instructed on what to do once the race started. There was a lull about 20 minutes before the start of the race, so I asked the guy that was in charge if I could go pick up my bib and stuff for the LA Marathon. He said that that would be the best time, so I rushed in and out of the expo. The expo looked pretty nice compared to other years, but it was packed into one of the smaller convention halls. Perhaps they weren't able to get very many exhibitors this year.
Expo
Then I rushed back to my post. I tell you, that corner was a nightmare to control! People were coming from 3 different directions and various vehicles were driving in and out. For the most part we had it under control, but it was like herding cats at times. People kept blocking the entry/exit points. Thankfully we had an official cross guard to help out.
The men started the race at about 10 am, followed by the women about 20 minutes later. The first loop was 2.2 miles followed by 4 loops that were 6 miles each. When the men completed the first loop, their pace was a little over 5 minutes per mile, so it was going to be a tactical race. You kind of figured that that would be the case since it was going to be a pretty warm day. I wanted Meb to make the team, but without the presence of Ryan Hall, I was more interested in the women's race. My money was on Shalane to win the race. Amy Cragg and Shalane Flanagan spent most of the race running together up in front as if they were twins or mirror images of each other. Desi Linden and Kara Goucher would eventually start battling for the 3rd spot. Amy Cragg looked great on the final loop and went on to finish in 1st place. Desi looked really strong on the final loop and was able to pass Shalane on her way to 2nd place. Shalane wilted in the sun and collapsed into her teammate's arms as she crossed the finish line in 3rd place. You could tell that Kara Goucher was fighting and not giving up, but she lost to 3 women that were just in better shape and ended up finishing in 4th.
The results were:
Men: 1. Galen Rupp (2:11:12), 2. Meb Keflezighi (2:12:20), 3. Jared Ward (2:13:00)
Women: 1. Amy Cragg (2:28:20), 2. Desiree Linden (2:28:54), 3. Shalane Flanagan (2:29:19)
Ageless wonder, Meb Keflezighi!
Amy Cragg and Shalane Flanagan running in 1st and 2nd
Desi Linden and Kara Goucher
Desi running in 3rd
Kara running in 4th
We were given a Subway lunch box to eat whenever we had the chance. Inside the box was a 6 inch sandwich, a cookie, and a bag of chips. I only ate the sandwich and the cookie. It was pretty cool to see the action up close, but I was a bit sunburned as there was no shade at that corner. Once all of the runners were on the final loop, we no longer needed to control our corner so tightly. I went to cheer on the runners that were looking just to finish the race. These runners were no slouches! They were running about a 3 hr marathon, but they looked so slow compared to the podium finishers.
Food!
After the race was over, some of us were grabbed to roll up the banners that were used to cover the course fencing. I was tempted to ask if we could keep one of them. They were pretty nice! As we saw a couple of buses drive by, the guy in charge of the volunteers told us to go catch the bus. We had to walk about a block or so to catch up to the buses. The bus I was on didn't have the AC on because the driver said that the bus was low on gas, but he did have bottles of water on the bus. It was nice to finally make it back to parking lot 14 and my air conditioned car!
When I got home, I went through my expo haul. Even with the few minutes that I was there, I was able to grab some Harvest Snaps and a couple of Larabars. The other stuff was already in my goodie bag. As for the race shirt, I thought it was a pretty nice clean design. It was red. I guess that was to be expected with the race being on Valentine's day. For me, this shirt will be in my regular rotation instead of the donation bin.
Expo haul
Shirt front
Shirt back
For dinner, I ate kim chi beef soondubu and bulgogi at the nearby Korean restaurant, Cho Dang Tofu & BBQ. I normally only eat this stuff during winter time, but I thought I'd get myself used to the uncomfortable heat. :)
Kim chi beef soondubu and bulgogi
When I got home from dinner, I started getting ready for tomorrow's race. I decided to run as former WWE wrestler, CM Punk. Lately I've been treating the LA Marathon as a fun run or pub crawl, but still I would be sure that I could run comfortably in whatever I wore. Even though the WWE championship belt was youth size, I was a little bit wary of wearing it for the entire marathon. If it became a nuisance, I would just give it to a random kid among the spectators.
Flat runner
2/14 Sunday
I woke up early to get to Santa Monica for the bus ride to Dodger Stadium. There was heavy fog as I got close to the 4th St freeway off ramp. It was a left turn on 4th St, followed by a right turn on Pico Blvd, and a left turn on Ocean Ave. I had arrived at the beach parking lot at Bicknell Ave at about 3:45 am. The cost was $10 prepaid online. After handing my parking pass to one of the volunteers, I parked the car, got my stuff ready, and I met up with my friend. We walked over to Main St to catch one of the buses. We picked one of those luxury tour buses. If you ride with me, we ride early. And it's a good thing because we saw a long line of cars building up on the 10 freeway all waiting to exit. You don't need that kind of stress on race day!
Early shuttle ride
Once we arrived at Dodger Stadium, we went our separate ways. She was fortunate to be able to enter the Ketel One Baseline Club because she was running with Team NutriBullet. I walked around to the restrooms closer to the 3rd base side to use one of the stalls as I had one last bowel movement to make. :)
Dodger stadium at dark o' clock
I then walked around the field level looking for my friends. They were all kind of scattered this year, but I found a small group of Marathon Maniacs just outside of the Ketel One Baseline Club. I was able to meet up with a few of my good friends. It was actually a bit chilly just sitting around, so I kept my jacket on.
Casey!
Infamous Dave Mari!
The gear check trucks were scheduled to close at 6:30 am, so we headed over to check in our bags at about 6 am. There was a long line for our UPS truck. It was arranged by our last names. After dropping off our bags, we got in line to try and use the nearby portapotties before entering our corrals. The lines weren't moving and we both really didn't have to go, so we bailed and headed for the corrals. The corrals were shut promptly at 6:40 am and believe me, you don't want to start in the open corral.
Corral D
At about 7 am, the runners were released. I ran the tangents and tried to get past some very slow walkers. I guess they were able to somehow sneak into the faster corrals. Just as we were about to leave Dodger Stadium, I found my friend who started in corral B. We ran a little bit together until we ran into one of our mutual friends while running on Cesar E. Chavez Ave. They starting talking and ran together. I kind of slowly went ahead of them as the course went through Chinatown. Things were feeling okay until about mile 7. By mile 8, I pulled over to the side to take a walk break. One of my friends spotted me and checked up on me. She wasn't having a good race, so we ran the next two miles together talking about each other's ailments until we reached mile 10.
From Marathon Man Trent
I wished my friend well for the rest of her race and I stopped in the 7-Eleven that was located right at the mile 10 marker to get a drink. I bought a 24 oz Coors and took an extended walk break. As I was walking, I came up to a line of portapotties, so I got in line to use one. After I was done with the beer, I started running again. Those burps were pretty painful coming out! How do those beer milers do it?
Mile 10 beer stop
As I approached the Jimmy Kimmel Live studio, I was finally able to see Cousin Sal out on the course pranking the marathon runners. He was doing an old joke with the water bottles glued to the table. I ran over and pulled on a couple of bottles, but I didn't make the video. However my friend in the blue tutu did! Here's the video. Cousin Sal was passing out some pretty disgusting stuff for people to eat this year!
Cousin Sal!
At about mile 13, I bumped into my friend with whom I normally pub crawl the LA Marathon. She was pacing a couple of Team NutriBullet runners. We stopped in at Saddle Ranch Chop House for a quick beer break. I bought us a couple of Coors Light so that it would be easier to chug and go back running. It also served as my belated birthday beer from me to her. The bartender actually remembered us from last year when we ran as Batman and Robin.
Mile 14 beer break
When we were done with our beers, she wanted me to run with her to catch up to her runners, but I couldn't keep up with her. So I limped and jogged along as fast as I could. My left foot was just too sore, so I had to keep on taking walk breaks. I was able to find Jesus out on the course again.
We found Jesus!
I stopped in the McDonald's that was located at about mile 19 to buy some french fries. However I was informed that they were still serving only breakfast. So I got a hash brown instead. In hindsight, I should have bought a couple more. The hash brown really hit the spot! It sure beats eating another Shot Blok or sucking down another GU! My sore foot and I was really looking forward to my beer stop at about mile 20, so I was pretty bummed that Westside Jr Market, the liquor store that I normally stop at during my LA Marathon pub crawl, was not open. There was a sign that said, "will be back in 5 minutes." I ain't got time for that!
Mile 19 hash brown break
However I was able to get a small shot of beer from the Hash House Harriers near the mile 20 marker. We kept heading north on Sepulveda Blvd as we were bypassing the section through the VA this year. We turned left at Wilshire Blvd and headed for San Vicente Blvd. Out of pure coincidence, I bumped into one of my friends during a walk break. I tried my best to pick up the pace and have him drag me when I got to San Vicente Blvd, but the sun was out and it was starting to get quite warm. Unfortunately I had to keep taking those walk breaks. Thank goodness for my friends and strangers that were lined all along the street passing out ice cubes. I even got to see a friend that I last saw in an airport in Berlin!
Good friend out on the course!
Are we somewhere in Europe?
It was so nice to finally make that turn on Ocean Blvd and head towards the finish line. There was still about a mile to go, but you can see the ocean to the right and practically see the finish line up ahead as well. My left foot was sore and my legs were cramping, but I tried my best to run most of that final mile. I've said it before and I'll say it again... I like that this race has spotters in that final stretch pulling bandits off of the course. They have no business crossing the finish line!
LA Marathon finish#12
Finish: 5:42:11
Click here for my Garmin data.
This was my 12th LA Marathon finish. It would've been my 13th consecutive LA Marathon, but I skipped the year of the monsoon back in 2011. I wasn't too pleased with my time, but I knew that I did the best that I could and that I tried to have as much fun as I could. After getting my finisher's medal, I started heading towards the UPS trucks to get my gear bag. There was a huge mob of people at my truck. Apparently the volunteers at Dodger Stadium did not organize the gear bags by bib numbers. The volunteers had to look at every single bag in the truck for each runner. Eventually they emptied the truck of all of the bags out on the grass next to the truck and sorted them. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to wait too long for them to find my bag. While I was gathering my stuff, I bumped into a few veteran Marathon Maniacs. Except for Marathon Mitch, we finished within minutes of each other.
Lots of completed marathons in this picture!
I made my way to the beer garden. There was a long line of finishers waiting to get inside. However lo and behold, I bumped into a friend in line that I haven't seen since the race used to start in Universal City. We got our complimentary beer from Angel City Brewery and joined up with a few Marathon Maniacs.
Angel City Brewery IPA
Reunited once again in the beer garden!
Eventually I found my other friends hanging out in the shade under the tented area. They were sharing a table with a couple from the UK. It was pretty cool talking to them as we commiserated on not being able to run the London Marathon. They ran the LA Marathon because they couldn't get into the London Marathon as well. I guess it's hard to get in even for the locals.
The usual suspects in the beer garden
Always good to see a good friend!
Most of my friends had been in the beer garden for a while already because they had finished the marathon over an hour ahead of me. So it was time to leave. My friend and I then started heading over to the Fairmont Miramar Hotel for our friend's celebration of running her 100th marathon. It was a bit difficult getting into the hotel as most of the side streets had been closed off to create a secure zone for the marathon finishers. When we finally made it to the restaurant, most of the people had finished eating and were leaving. I was feeling a little wrecked, so after saying my congratulations and goodbyes, I made the long walk back to my car. The Waze app had me zigzagging through a bunch of side streets before having me get onto Pico Blvd. Eventually it had me get onto the 10 freeway off of Centinela Ave.
The Metro rail line into Santa Monica will soon be open. I'm hoping that next year, the traffic won't be as bad as there will be more options in leaving the area after the race. Which means we don't have to make that early drive out to Santa Monica for that bus ride to Dodger Stadium.
I liked this year's finisher medal. It was a 2-sided design. I always prefer a circular medal with a nice clean design... just like the shirt. Besides the gear check snafu which might have been an anomaly with my particular UPS truck, I thought that the marathon went pretty smoothly this year. The weather was warm, but it never quite got that hot. While it did warm up the longer you were out there, it was definitely not as hot as last year. Too bad I've been getting slower and slower.
Medal side 1
Medal side 2
I felt pretty trashed for the rest of the day, mentally and physically. I went out with the folks to eat dinner at a place that we've never been before called, Bull Demon King Cafe. I had a bowl of spicy beef noodle soup with thin noodles at medium spiciness level. That was plenty spicy for me! It was good, but next time I would probably get it dry unless the weather is really cold outside. I couldn't finish the soup as it was making me sweat too much. They have BDK spicy level for those that love super spicy food.
Spicy beef noodle soup
1 comment:
I loved seeing your take on the Olympic Trials and your pub run LA marathon! Miss ya!
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