This year's expo was held at the Hollywood Palladium. I think it was a better spot than the Universal CityWalk. But anywhere in Hollywood is bound to be a headache when it comes to driving. The traffic wasn't too bad as I left work a little bit early to avoid some of the congestion. Parking was $10 to park in the lot at the Palladium, so I drove to a nearby parking structure at the Northeast corner of Ivar Ave and Sunset Blvd to park for $5.
Inside the Palladium was pretty dark when I got there. I think enough people complained that they eventually turned up the light. The expo had a fair amount of booths just as it had been in the past two years. After picking up the bib and shirts for myself and 3 of my friends, I made my way over to the "special" legacy lounge. They gave out a nicer looking red tech shirt for legacy runners.
Race shirt
Legacy shirt
I went through the rest of the expo to see if there was anything I needed to buy or another race to run. Good thing I found nothing. All I got were 4 bags of sample Egg White Chips. They seemed interesting enough to give them a try. Before leaving the expo, I took a picture in front of the green screen for what looked to be an Oscars TV shot.
Sample Egg White Chips
I walked back to my car and dropped off the bibs and shirts. To maximize my 5 dollar parking, I decided to walk up to the W to have a drink at the Living Room. Service was a bit slow. I guess it was because it was still pretty early. I had my usual dirty martini with extra olives. Since when does extra olives equal two olives?
Living Room at the W Hollywood
Dirty martini
Friday 4/4 Sizzler!
I met up with my friend for lunch at Sizzler to give him the race bibs and shirts. He works for Sizzler so he treated me for picking up their race packet. The food wasn't bad. I had the Classic Trio which included a sirloin steak, butterfly shrimp, Malibu chicken, and a baked potato. It's pretty much on par with food at an Outback Steakhouse or Yard House.
Classic Trio
Saturday 4/5 Race Day
The original plan was to park at the same parking structure on Ivar, but it wasn't open. So I drove down the block a little and pulled into the Northwest lot at the corner on Selma Ave and Ivar Ave. It would turn out that the lot would be free that morning. I gathered my stuff and walked up to the starting area at Hollywood and Highland.
Starting line
Course map
This half marathon had a total of 11 u-turns. Yikes! I only saw about 2 or 3 mile makers for the entire race, so I ran the entire race by feel. My right hip was giving me serious problems at around mile 4. I had no choice but to slow down the pace a bit for a while. The discomfort subsided so I progressively ran faster until I believe I was at the original pace again. The discomfort stayed away and never came back, so I went with the pace for a long as I could. At around mile 9, a girl dressed as Wonder Woman slowly overtook me. It just happened that my friend Sam was also overtaking me at the same time took a picture of us. I ran with her for a little bit but urged her to keep going. I did not want to slow her down.
On the next several out and backs, I saw that my friend and her dad were gaining on me. They are really good negative split runners and I knew that they would catch me because I was barely holding on to an even pace. They caught me at mile 12 and I could not keep up with them. I tried my best not to quit and to keep hammering my pace. Eventually they slowed down and I caught up to them right at the final turn. They had a kick, I didn't. It was still a good feeling to catch up to them. I later found that by my chip time, I had beaten them by fractions of a second. It was fun to race against friends where they can push you to run faster and to dig just a bit deeper. It was good enough to get me a new half marathon PR.
Trying to keep up with Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman 1:42:10 vs. Superman 1:43:24
Sam!
Complimentary photo
Finish: 1:43:24
This goes to show that you can have plenty of fun while racing hard in a heavy cotton t-shirt and a cape. If you're not having fun while doing what you love, then odds are that you're doing it wrong. I hope to race another half marathon in the near future on fresh legs. I would like to start running them under 1:40.
Finish line
After chatting with a few of my friends in the finisher area while taking in some fluids, I started heading out looking for the place to pick up my extra medal. By running the New Year's Race Half Marathon and this race in the same calendar year, they gave me a huge bonus square medal. Not a bad day's work.
Medal plus bonus medal
Finisher certificate
I had to catch a flight after the race, so I headed over to LAX. My flight was a bit later in the afternoon, so I first drove over to Ralph's and bought some beef jerky to eat while I wait for the nearby In-n-Out to open. Once it was open, I drove over and had my usual pair of Double Doubles to celebrate my new Half Marathon PR.
Beef jerky
Double Double
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