After I was done watching the English Premier League matches, I hopped in the car and drove out to Dodger Stadium to pick up my race packet. I suppose with the 10k starting after the 5k this year, I could've just picked everything up on race day. Since I wasn't doing anything, I thought it would be best to just get it over with in case I oversleep or something else happens on race day.
When I arrived at the stadium, I entered through the Sunset Gate. For some reason the cars in front of me really wanted to park in the crowded top deck parking lot. I drove a little farther to the next adjacent lot where it was nice and empty.
I didn't spend too much time checking out the few vendor booths. After picking up my bib, I went to pick up my race shirt and the Kenley Jansen Bobblehead. I really liked this year's race shirt. It sure made up for last year's fugly "Biofreeze" shirt.
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Bobblehead
On my way out, I bumped into a fellow Half Fanatic. We chatted a bit about our upcoming races as well as our niggles and injuries before going our separate ways.
Sunday 9/29
I arrived at Dodger Stadium at about 6:30 am. The Downtown Gate entrance was completely backed up to the 110 freeway exit. From what I saw, most of cars trying to get in and park were running the 5k race which was scheduled to start at 7 am. Once I parked my car, I hung out in my car for a bit to avoid adding to the chaos as many people were scrambling to get to their race.
Parking map
Where I parked
At about 7:30 am, I started heading over to the race area just outside of the pavilion section. I checked out the vendor booths before using one of the pavilion restrooms. The jumbo-sized Operation game was pretty cool! I picked up a sample KIND Nut Butter bar.
Jumbo-sized Operation!
KIND Nut Butter
As I headed over to the starting corral, I noticed that there were a lot more portapotties available than what I had seen in prior years. It was almost 8 am and I saw that there were still some 5k participants just starting their race.
Corral A
It not too late to learn from past mistakes. This was the 6th year of the event and they finally realized that they needed to separate the start and finish lines as the two races will always overlap with stragglers crossing the finish line as they're trying to start the 2nd race.
New race course
The 10k race was scheduled to start at 8:30 am, but we didn't get released until about 8:40 am after a short delay. The new course was still hilly and we ran through pretty much the same roads. On one of the first big climbs, I happened to run into a friend from the old Runner's World Southern CA forum. I took a bunch of walk breaks as my fitness just wasn't there yet to handle the numerous climbs.
Finish line
Finish: 56:29
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, I got my finisher medal followed by some fruit and a bottle of water. I liked that this race continues to give out fruit at the finish line. For me, it's much easier to eat after running a race than some awful-tasting energy bar.Relive 'Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation 10k'
Finisher medal
Post race fruit and water
I skipped the cool-down walk on the warning track mostly because they don't allow you to carry anything with you besides water. It would be a hassle to drop things off at my car and return. The walk back to my car was enough of a cool down for me. Before going back to my car, I hung out by the course and waited for some of my friends to run by.
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