Per the usual, I arrived at the Sierra Madre Villa Metro station at about 9:30 am to catch the Gold Line Metro rail into Downtown LA. I then connected to the Red Line from Union Station over to 7th St/Metro Center. From there I got on the Blue Line over to Pico Metro Station. I arrived at the LA Convention Center a little after 10:30 am.
Expo
The race packet pick-up process was well organized just as it had been in the last several years. I was handed a race program as I entered. I then got in line to pick up my bib. I liked that I was given an LA Loyal black and gold colored bib. Then I proceeded over to the race shirt section to get my shirt and gear check bag. I liked this year's shirt design. It was a nice, simple, and clean design.
Race shirt
After quickly perusing the official merchandise without finding a must buy item, I made my way into the expo to check out the vendor booths. I found my name on the wall of participants. I also found my name on the Hyundai car. The graffiti wall was pretty well covered, so I didn't bother trying to find a spot to write something.
Find your name
Names on pace vehicle
I got in line to pick up my LA Loyal swag. When it was my turn, the girl confirmed that I was a 5+ year runner, so she gave me the LA Loyal t-shirt. The website as well as the many emails that I had received leading up to the expo stated that 5+ year runners would also get a travel mug, but I wasn't given one. Boo for false advertisement!
LA Loyal swag
I got a Dodgers knit cap for registering for this year's LA Dodgers Foundation 10k race. As far as the rest of the expo swag, I picked up an RXBar and a bottle of Abrigado coconut water. As I was getting to the last row of vendor booths, I finally ran into my friends. One of them was an ambassador for Goodr sunglasses.
Expo swag
Friends at the expo
I left the expo a little before noon. On the way out, I used one of the all gender restroom. It was my first time seeing and using one of these. The layout was pretty much the same as a men's restroom. There were urinals and stalls. All of the hubbub was much ado about nothing.
After I got back to my car, I headed down to Disneyland for a half day park session mostly to use up some of my Sip & Savor coupons at the Food & Wine Festival over at Disney California Adventure. I parked at the Mickey & Friends parking structure and walked over to the Downtown Disney District. After getting through security, I hopped on the Monorail which took me into Disneyland. After getting on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride, I headed over to Disney California Adventure to get some food. I ended up eating the shrimp boil tacos, black garlic soy-braised pork belly banh mi, and grilled & chilled artichoke hearts with romesco. All three items were very good!
Shrimp boil tacos
Black garlic soy-braised pork belly banh mi
Grilled & chilled artichoke hearts with romesco
After I was done with the food, I walked over to the Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout! ride to use my Fast Pass. Before heading out and heading home, I stopped in Hollywood Land to buy the cool Food & Wine Festival Tervis 20 oz aluminum tumbler exclusive for Annual Passholders. I then hopped on the Mickey & Friends Tram for a ride back to my car.
For dinner, I went to NoodleMii, the local noodle shop close to home. I got the usual House Bowl with small egg noodles. I went to sleep without laying out my flat runner. I just couldn't decide on what I wanted to wear. It would be a race day decision.
Sunday 3/18
Since the weather wasn't going to be too warm, I decided to go with the old Batman costume that I had worn a couple years ago. After getting ready, I drove out to the Sierra Madre Villa Metro Station to catch the Gold Line over to Union Station. I arrived at a little past 4 am. From there I rode the rail over to Union Station and arrived at about 5 am. Just like last year, I opted to get an extra hour or so of sleep and ride the complimentary bus from Union Station instead of driving out to Santa Monica to park near the finish line. The only confusing part about riding the bus from Union Station was that just as I was to board the bus, they would check the contents of my gear check bag. Similar to last year, they were again particular about certain things or procedures that's not well conveyed in the final instructions. The lady checking my bag wanted me to remove my iFitness belt and put it in my bag. I'm not sure she spoke a word of English, but I could tell that that was what she was telling me to do. They were also handing out bracelets for whatever reason I do not know. Our bus driver seemed a bit lost heading up to Dodger Stadium. He was apparently looking for directions on his phone, but thankfully we got there at about 5:30 am.
The first thing that I did after getting off of the bus was to try to see if I could use one of the restrooms inside Dodger Stadium. I found that the lines for the stalls were super long even for the men, so I quickly got out of there and headed towards the UPS Gear Check trucks to use one of the nearby portapotties. After I was done with my business, I walked over to the truck assigned for my bib range to check in my gear bag. I then started making my way over to the Right Field level entrance for the Marathon Maniacs pre-race photo scheduled for 6:05 am. Along the way, I found Jen sitting just outside of the Start Line Hospitality tent.
Found Jen!
After taking the Marathon Maniacs group photo, I headed back inside Dodger Stadium to empty out the bladder before heading to my corral. It was a crowded madhouse inside the stadium. The lines were still long, but fortunately there was no wait for the urinals. It was a pain in the butt getting out of the stadium. Lo and behold, out of the thousands of people going to and fro, I managed to bump into NYCJoe just as I was exiting the stadium and heading to my corral. After exchanging pleasantries and well wishes, I got into my assigned corral. I could see that they were being pretty strict with checking people's bibs for corral assignments. There were definitely some runners attempting to sneak into the seeded corrals, but they were firmly denied by the volunteers at the corral entrance. Per the final instructions, the seeded corrals were closed prompted at 6:40 am. If you didn't make it inside, you were sent to the open corral.
Corral D
The barricades used to separate the corrals were removed and we were instructed to walk up and fill in the empty spaces. The professional women were given a 10 minute head start starting at 6.45 am. The rest of the field was released at 6:55 am with Randy Newman's "I Love LA!" song playing over the speakers. It was go time!
Since I normally don't do well at this marathon and my left foot and ankle have been bothering me for quite some time, I sort of mailed this one home. I planned to run the first 10k at a good effort then cruise the remaining 20 miles, hopefully finishing in about 5 hrs.
Here were some of the highlights:
The course changed a little bit this year. It didn't take us into Little Tokyo. Instead it turned south at Los Angeles St and went down to Winston St before coming back up for that short steep hill with the taiko drummers at about mile 4.4 on 1st St.
Those infamous chili dogs were again being served at about mile 5.5 on Bellevue Ave. I wanted to stick to the plan of running the first 10k at an honest effort so I skipped eating a chili dog.
I pulled over at about mile 11.75 near Hollywood & Highland to take a picture of the jumbo heads of the current American Idol judges. I've never watched a single episode of the show, but those heads really stood out! I looked for Cousin Sal up to his usual no-good antics, but he was nowhere to be found this year.
American Idol
I stopped at the intersection of Doheny Dr and Santa Monica Blvd at about mile 15.5 to take a picture of the Beverly Hills sign.
I'm not a fit as I used to be as the leg cramps were settling in even though I wasn't going very fast. So at about mile 19, I made what has become my regular stop at the McDonald's for a couple of hash browns. This year the pit stop didn't take as long as I placed my order ahead of time on the mobile app during one of my walk breaks. Once I showed up and checked-in on the app, they started working on my order. I didn't have to wait in line to place and pay for my order.
Will break for McDonald's!
My friend was cheering near the very last aid station. She spotted me and got my attention, so I jogged over and gave her a hug. I haven't seen her in a while at races. I really tried not to walk the final stretch, but my legs were really protesting and threatening to lock up. I finally sucked it up when the finish line was about a block or so away.
Finish line
Finish: 5:03:36
Click here for my Garmin data.
Well, that's marathon #199 in the books. I managed to finish right where I had expected, but it felt way more difficult that I had wanted as it did feel quite warm in my black cotton Batman shirt. My next marathon will be the big 2-0-0 at the Rock n' Roll San Diego Marathon in June. I could reach 200 earlier, but I wanted it to take place at the race where I ran my very first marathon.
My legs were cramping up as I walked slowly through the finishing chute. I was also feeling a little dizzy and a bit queasy. I don't think eating those greasy hash browns helped one bit! I got my finisher medal and continued down the finishing chute. They passed out a lot of snacks and drinks. After grabbing a mylar blanket, I headed over to my UPS truck to get my gear bag. I bumped into a few of my marathon friends along the way.
Medal side 1
Medal side 2
Post race snacks
One of my superhero friends!
We're always finishing around the same time!
At first I was going to see if I could connect with some of my friends, but my phone wasn't getting any service, so I had no idea where they were. T-Mobile is cheap and sometimes the service reflects it especially at crowded locations. I was trying to exit the finish area, but the exit point was super crowded with lots of spectators eagerly waiting for their family member or friend to finish. Since I wasn't feeling so good and my phone wasn't working, I started heading for the Metro station as soon as I finished using a nearby portapotty. I didn't even bother making my way over to the beer garden which is normally super crowded. It wasn't until I was sitting on a train heading up to Downtown LA on the Expo Line when my phone finally regained service. I then found out that my friends from Oklahoma were celebrating at a nearby steakhouse. I felt bad since my friend had just completed her 100th marathon! Fortunately I will be running the Jackson Hole Marathon later in the year where she will be finishing her final marathon in her quest to run a marathon in each of the 50 States. I'll be sure to celebrate extra with her there!
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