On the way home from work, I stopped by BevMo to pick up some mini bottles for the pub crawl on Sunday. They would be much easier to carry since stores aren't open that early in the morning.
Saturday 3/14
I got to Downtown LA at about 10 am to attend the race expo. I parked at a tiny parking lot on Flower St and Pico Blvd for $8. These lots used to be $5, but now most of them are starting to charge $10. Either way, it's still cheaper than parking at the Convention Center. It was a short walk over to the Convention Center. Once inside, I had to walk to one of the big convention halls which was probably the closest to Staples Center.
I must say that the LA Marathon race expo is starting to have the feel of a marathon major. I've run Chicago, Tokyo, Berlin, and New York. Those expos are humongous and it just feels like you're a part of something special when you're at those expos. I'm hoping that the LA Marathon will continue to improve and become a major soon. They will be hosting the USA Olympic Marathon Trials next year, so that's a very good sign!
Expo time!
After picking up my race packet and shirt, I got in the first line I saw to pick up my beer garden bracelet. I always carry my ID with me when running a marathon, but this would help me get into the beer garden much quicker!
Getting a beer garden bracelet
While going through all of the booths, I did the usual thing of finding my name on the wall of fame. This has become the thing to do for race expos. It's a nice way for the participants to see how they're part of something big! I still liked it the best when they had our names on the pace cars a few years back.
After I was done with the expo, I met up with one of my good friends since I had some time to kill before I was to meet up with another friend for lunch. We talked a bit about the ambassador program for the LA Marathon. One of the perks was that they were able to get an early sneak preview of the finisher's medal. I've been thinking about getting involved one of these years.
I then got back to my car and headed out to pick up my friend to go eat lunch out in Santa Monica. We ate at Stout where I had a burger and a couple of beers. I ordered The Morning After burger. With the burger I had a couple of Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpins. This beer is starting to become my favorite non-stout/porter beer. The burger wasn't too fancy, but it was pretty good with the fried egg and chipotle ketchup, two of my favorite ingredients for a burger. It was such a nice day, so we took a walk down to the pier. The weather for the weekend was perfect for going to the beach, but way too warm for running a marathon!
Carboloading with Alison
The Morning After
Nice day for the beach!
Afterwards, I drove out to my coworker's baby shower. They had a lot of delicious food. Most of which wasn't stuff that I would normally eat before a race, but how I can I say no to brats and sauerkraut?! Plus my friend and I was going to run it as a pub crawl, so it didn't really matter what I ate. I had to leave the party pretty early since I needed to get my butt home to sleep.
Brats and sauerkraut at a baby shower
I went through the expo haul and got my race gear and costume ready for tomorrow. My friend and I decided to run it this year as Batman and Robin. A few years back we ran it as Superman and Wonder Woman. Some day I should probably get Lasik eye surgery done to fix my eye sight so I can actually wear masks without being blind as a bat. :)
Expo haul
Back of shirt
I'm Batman!
Sunday 3/15
I got up super early to get ready and head out to Santa Monica. This is the least favorite feature of this point to point course, the bus ride to the starting line at Dodger Stadium. I had pre-paid online a few days earlier for parking in Santa Monica for $10. I have been parking at this beach lot at the corner of Bicknell Ave and Ocean Ave for the past few years. I met my friend here before we made the trek to the buses at the corner of Olympic Dr and Main St. We were on the bus before 4 am. If you ride with me, you'll never be late! :)
Riding the bus at dark o'clock
We were dropped off at Dodger Stadium where it was still empty. I went through the bag check security and the girl confiscated my grocery bag that I've used in almost every race for my handheld bottle in case it leaks. I think she was following too closely the rule about no bags to be used besides the clear ones given to us at the expo. Oh well, I didn't make a fuss. She was just doing her job.
We hung out in the field level of Dodger Stadium where eventually we met up with a bunch of our friends. I went to use the restrooms before the lines got long. This year they weren't letting people get down past the infield seats. They had a bunch of security people there making sure people didn't go there. Before heading out for the pre-race Marathon Maniacs photo, we bumped into the Ambiguously Gay Duo, Ace and Gary! They thought it was funny for them to bump into the Dynamic Duo. :)
Batman and Robin
The Ambiguously Gay Duo meets The Dynamic Duo!
I checked my gear bag and went for one last use of the restrooms before joining everybody next to the stage for a pre-race photo. The music at the stage was too dang loud for me. Man, I'm getting old. While my friends where dancing to the music, I grabbed my friend and headed for the corrals. Apparently some of my friends didn't make it into their corrals because they were too busy dancing. This year they were pretty strict in shutting down the corrals right on time. If you didn't make it in your corral, you had to start from the general corral in the back!
Marathon Maniacs
Drink#1
We waited in corral D for the start of the race. Man, it already felt warm. As the corrals filled up, we noticed that the Legacy Runners were assembling pretty close to us. That's pretty cool that they've run all of the LA Marathons! This year would be their 30th consecutive! It was great that they gave the legacy runners a special bib so that they stood out. We congratulated every legacy runner that we came across out on the course. The longest streak that I have for any race would be the Disneyland Half Marathon. It'll be the race's 10th year later this year!
Corral D
Legacy Runners Assemble!
My friend is such a bad ass runner. She has completed the Badwater Ultramarathon, so the warm weather actually felt cool to her. Plus the Catalina Marathon that she ran on Saturday didn't slow her down much. I had a lot of trouble keeping up with her as my legs were done before we got to mile 18. I was hoping to get through mile 20 before things fell apart. Her idea of a pub crawl was about a 4:30 marathon including the beer stops. Too bad that all I had for the day was about a 5:18.
Here's how it went down... we started the race off at a modest pace, nothing faster than a 9:18 which was the big downhill leaving Dodger Stadium. There was no way that I was going to push the pace with my black costume and the weather. As always it was pretty cool to hear the taiko drums as we jogged up 1st St to the Walt Disney Concert Hall before we reached the top at Grand Ave. We cracked open our mini bottles as we hit mile 5. I choked on my Scotch Whisky. Apparently it's hard to drink that stuff while running. It tasted like mouth wash. :)
We then headed up Sunset Blvd towards Hollywood Blvd. As we hit mile 10, there was a 7 Eleven right at Taft Ave. Perfect! It was one of the few places open that sold alcohol. We shared a Dos Equis tallboy. I was burping a lot for the next mile or two.
Drink#2
After passing the El Capitan Theatre, we made a left turn at Orange Dr and head back down to Sunset where we turned right. Before we got to mile 14, we stopped in at the Saddle Ranch Chop House for our 3rd drink stop. We used their restrooms and each had a pint of Blue Moon.
Drink#3
I was able to hold it together through mile 17 as we ran through Rodeo Dr. After that, I was having to take walk breaks after crossing each mile marker to cool down. As someone that cramps in 50 degree weather, this was when things started to become a struggle for me. As we approached mile 20 at Sepulveda Blvd, we stopped in at the Westside Jr Market at Camden Ave to buy another beer.
Santa Monica Blvd around mile 15
Drink#4
The next 10k was a death march for me. Per the usual, the leg cramps surfaced during the section through the VA. I walked a whole bunch up San Vicente where there was a lot of people out cheering and offering ice and other various salty snacks. My friend of course was urging me to run more, but the best that I could do was a shuffle. As we neared the final turn onto Ocean Ave, I was finally able to muster up some sort of a run for the remainder of the last mile.
1-2: 19:21 (9:40)
3: 9:18
4: 9:50
5: 10:39
6: 10:49
7: 10:59
8: 9:52
9: 10:09
10: 10:15
11: 15:13
12: 10:22
13: 11:24
14: 17:52
15: 10:15
16: 11:16
17: 11:39
18: 13:31
19: 13:46
20: 16:36
21: 14:58
22: 14:34
23: 15:10
24: 13:51
25: 13:10
26.2: 13:58 (11:38)
Finish: 5:18:48
Just let me tell ya... wearing black was not a good idea for a warm marathon day, but for the most part it was a very fun marathon. My friend really knows how to make it fun! At the very least we beat our last pub crawl by over 15 minutes and my solo pub crawl by over 3 minutes. I wonder what we'll wear next time.
We bumped into our friend in the finishing chute. She was being interviewed. She had recently finished beating breast cancer and just paced her sister to a sub 5 marathon. She was the real superhero! They passed us at about mile 23-24. My friend wanted us to run with them, but I just couldn't get my legs to move.
After picking up my gear bag, we made our way to the beer garden to get our final beer. We then headed back to our cars. Along the way, we stopped in at Bruno's Italian Restaurant because my friend wanted to buy some of their cannoli. They're supposed to be the best here. We chatted with a fellow runner who had also finished the race and was eating at the bar.
Drink#5
After getting back to my car and changing out of my wet clothes, I drove home. The traffic was horrible. I initially went up Ocean Park Blvd, but it wasn't any better. So I then cut back over to Pico Blvd and hopped on the 10 freeway. At least on the freeway, I wouldn't have to deal with lights and stop signs. Along the way home, I stopped at In-n-Out to pick up a Double Double. My stomach wasn't feeling too well, so I just went with one burger this time.
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