New Year's Race Los Angeles

The expo was at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel located at 5th and Grand. I got into the Downtown area around noon time and drove around a little bit to scope out my parking options. I ended up parking in a parking structure at the corner of Flower and 8th for $5. The race expo was well organized. We picked up our race packet downstairs in the Regency room before going upstairs for the expo. They clearly did their homework and did a great job controlling the flow of people.

After going through the expo, I decided to hike up to Daikokuya in Little Tokyo for a bowl of ramen. I bumped into a few of my friends on the way out. It's always good to see my friends at races. Man, it was a long walk. The only thing longer was the wait to be seated. Be in mind that I was dining solo. Usually you can get a spot at the bar right away. I had to wait over an hour and it was not during prime lunch hour. When I was finally seated, I ordered the Daikoku ramen with ikura (salmon roe) rice bowl combination. It was definitely worth the wait.

Long line at Daikokuya

Keeping hydrated

Daikoku ramen with ikura rice bowl combo

Even though with a late lunch, I still had several hours to kill before the 9pm race start. I stopped by the expo again and bumped into more of my friends. I was headed for LA Live and one of my friends insisted on giving me a ride at least part of the way since they were headed for the freeway anyways. Originally I thought about killing time watching a movie, but instead I tried to find a good spot to watch the Packers v. Vikings game. I ended up at the The Mixing Room inside the JW Marriott. I thought perhaps it was appropriate to drink a couple of Racer 5 IPA's.

Racer 5!

Another Racer 5 and some water

As it got closer to race time, I walked back to my car to get ready. I then met up with my friend who parked nearby before walking over to the starting area. Gear check was right up the street on Flower between 7th and 8th. After dropping off our gear bag, we made our way to Macy's. It was a little chilly outside so it was a nice place to hang out until they started kicking people out. At which point, I wished my friend a good race and we parted for our separate corrals. I started out of corral 3. The race was supposed to start at 9pm, but the first wave wasn't released until about a quarter after 9. You could feel that everyone around you was getting a little antsy.

Starting corral

When our wave was finally released, I ran a bit harder than I know I should since I found myself running with the 1:45 group. After about a mile with the group I slowly fell back to a more comfortable pace. Being a Dodger fan, I knew exactly that it was an uphill climb to the Stadium. There were good size hills the whole way. I tried to run hard but not blow it on the climbs. Roughly miles 4 through 8 were very difficult miles because all we did was run every inch of the Dodger Stadium parking lot. It felt forever before we entered the Stadium. It was unfortunate that the field was a bit torn up due to recent ongoing renovations. My legs were starting to feel shot on the downhills back towards Downtown. They cramped up starting around mile 11 to the finish. The last out and back to San Pedro on 11th was a little hard to run. It was super dark and you could hear the finish line in the other direction. I really had to force myself to jog the last two miles to get it in under 2 hours.
1: 7:58
2: 8:22
3: 8:57
4: 9:45
5: 8:45
6: 8:50
7: 9:40
8: 8:27
9-11: 27:34 (9:11)
12: 9:54
13: 10:40
13.1: 0:49
Finish: 1:59:41

Tour de Dodger Stadium parking lot

They were passing out water and a bunch of drinks in the finishing chute, more than I could carry. I bumped into my friends as I was exiting the chute. I met up with them in the beer garden after I picked up my gear bag and put on my jacket. After having a Sierra Nevada beer and shooting the breeze with them, I had to get on home. I said goodbye to my friends and headed back to my car because Cinderella had to get back by midnight. I thought that I needed to exit the garage by midnight, but I was a few minutes late, so actually I didn't need to rush. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

Beer garden!

Sweatshirt

Finisher's medal

This course was nice and challenging. There's something rather appealing about running through the streets of Downtown. Although it was rather dreadful covering those miles in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium, I thought the race as a whole was well designed and managed from start to finish. I'm pretty sure the city limited them as to where the course could go. The medals were really nice and a sweatshirt was a nice touch. It was definitely a race designed by runners. I would love to run this race again next year.