Originally I was going to get in early for work so I could leave early to get into Hollywood to maybe catch a showing of Beauty & the Beast at El Capitan before it got too late, but I ended up having jury duty where I didn't have the option of leaving early. As soon as I got home from that, I grabbed my stuff and headed out. Once again I took public transportation. It was cheaper and I didn't have to deal with the traffic, but it definitely took longer. I didn't get into Hollywood until almost 9 pm. As soon as I got off of the Metro rail train at Hollywood and Vine, I was welcomed with the smell of reefer smoke. From there it was a short walk over to the hotel, Hollywood Le Bon Hotel. I checked into my room and dropped off my bag before going back out to pick up something to eat.
I walked a couple of blocks over to Smoke's Poutinerie to pick up dinner. Apparently my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I got the wow size of their country style chicken poutine. Since it was already pretty late, I should've just gotten their snack or meal size. I took it back to my hotel room. Eating all of the fries was the hard part. I barely finished it all and I was stuffed! Before going to sleep, I laid out my usual Superman flat runner that I've worn for this race.
Country style chicken poutine
Flat runner
| Foothill Transit 286: | $1.25 |
| Silver Streak: | $2.45 |
| Union Station to Hollywood/Vine: | $1.75 |
| Total for Friday: | $5.45 |
Saturday 4/8
The bed was super lumpy and creaky, but fortunately I was able to catch some Z's. I woke up, got ready, and left my hotel room at about 4:30 am. It's always a bit interesting walking through Hollywood that early in the morning. Along the way, I swung by the finish line area where I saw them setting up. That was reassurance that the race would actually take place. I certainly had my doubts when they informed us that there would be no expo on Friday.
Once I arrived at Hollywood and Highland, I saw the familiar Hollywood starting line arch. Nearby, just in front of El Capitan was Don Rickle's star with all of the flowers that was left in remembrance of him. I checked that out before heading over to La Brea Ave to pick up my race packet. This year they had race day packet pick-up. They originally announced that there wouldn't be a Friday race expo, however they eventually had their expo/packet pick-up over at A Runner's Circle on Los Feliz Blvd near Griffith Park on Friday. Since it wasn't convenient with public transportation, I opted for race day packet pick-up.
Don Rickle's star
After getting my race packet, I walked over to the Dolby Theatre where I bumped into a couple of familiar faces. While we were waiting there, I attached the timing chip to my shoe and the race bib to my belt. As it got closer to the designated time for the legacy group photo, we went to go use the portapotties. We then met up with a bunch of the other legacy runners in front of the Hollywood arch for the photo at about 5:30 am.
Legacy photo
Before jumping into the corral, my friend and I jogged all the way past the bib pick up location to use a cache of portapotties that had no lines. The corrals were in quite disarray this year. There were no volunteers or anybody there organizing the corrals. We made our way near the front as there were no corral assignments printed on our bibs. That could be why the corrals were a mess this year. We found there to be walkers up at the very front. Perhaps it was due to the announcement that the race director was trying to go for a record number of hugs. My friend wanted to get in on that, so we lined up near the side in preparation to go around the slower participants.
Once the race started at a little past 6 am, I skipped the hugging record gimmick and took a right turn for the first out-and-back out. It would be one out of a total of eleven out-and-backs. The first mile was pretty much my only good mile. I felt last night's late dinner fighting within my innards, so I slowed it down. After reaching mile 2, I took a quick walk break hoping that would allow everything to settle for a bit. It would be one of many walk breaks. I tried to sustain some good consecutive miles, but was only able to squeeze out two semi-decent miles after I let out a few small burps. At about 7.5 miles while jogging up Sunset Blvd, I bumped into two of my friends at about the same exact time. Since my race was going horribly, I was more than glad to stop for a couple of photos with them.
Dexter!
Phil!
Along with fighting with last night's dinner, I was starting to feel the legs cramp up. That only happens when I'm out of shape which made sense since I haven't been running consistently lately. I pulled over at the mile 10 marker to take a walk break and turned around to take a photo of my friend pacing the 1:50 group. I wish I could keep up with her, but the last 5k or so turned out to be a real grind. My left foot cramped up and the left ankle started to hurt as I approached the final turn. I tried my best to muster up a little jog to the finish line.
Kyla!
Finished: 2:07:17
Click here for my Garmin data.
No red carpet at the finish this year
After crossing the finish line, I got my medal and headed through the finisher chute where I picked up a bunch of drinks and snacks. I then stopped by the tent to pick up my race shirt. I had trouble finding where to pick up my legacy gift. Eventually I bumped into a familiar face who directed me to the race timing company tent which was where they were distributing the legacy duffel bag. It had the smallest sign possible! Once they confirmed my identity, I got my nice bag. It was very useful as I used it to carry all of my drinks and snacks.
Medal
Post race goodies
Legacy gift
Since I didn't see anyone else that I knew, I walked back to my hotel room to get cleaned up. After that I packed up my bag and got ready to head out. It was a fairly smooth and uneventful trip back home. I was dozing off near the end of the trip. That's always bad since I could easily miss my stop.
| Hollywood/Vine to Union Station: | $1.75 |
| Silver Streak: | $2.45 |
| Foothill Transit 286: | $1.25 |
| Total for Saturday: | $5.45 |
| Total for the weekend: | $10.90 |
This year was the 6th year of the race. I have been fortunate to be healthy each year and have successfully completed all of them. Unfortunately it was my slowest time. I should've eaten better. I could've stuck to my usual pre-race preparations. I probably would've been able to run at least 10 minutes faster. Should've. Could've. Would've. Hindsight is always 20/20. However I've run enough races to know that sometimes things will still go awry on race day regardless of executing the best laid out plans. I've certainly done much worse in the past.
2017: 2:07:17
2016: 2:01:29
2015: 1:41:56
2014: 1:43:24
2013: 1:59:50
2012: 2:04:06
After checking my results and grabbing some stats for all 6 years off of Athlinks, it doesn't bode well for there to be a race next year. Participation in the half marathon has declined throughout the years. With a significant drop this year, the numbers at its lowest, and having trouble with putting on an expo, I just don't see there being another race in 2018. I hope they prove me wrong!
Number of finishers according to Athlinks:
2017: 1776
2016: 4364
2015: 3263
2014: 5753
2013: 3970
2012: 6099
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