Saturday 3/19
After my usual morning walk around the neighborhood, I hopped in the car and made my way to Dodger Stadium to pick up my race packet. Following instructions, I entered Dodger Stadium via the Sunset Gate. Not sure why, but parking for the expo at Dodger Stadium was a bit of a shit show. Perhaps it was due to the 5k having taken place just a few hours earlier. Having a good idea of the Dodger Stadium layout, I ended up not following the other cars ahead of me and just turned into lot 11 where a bunch of cars were already parked. I drove about as far west as I could go and parked there in lot 12. From there, I walked over to the expo at lot G. I noticed that there was a long ass line for those waiting to be assigned a bib in the open corral. I headed over to the tents for seeded corrals. They needed the QR code that was emailed along with the registration confirmation. After I found that QR code, I was assigned a bib for corral C. However, somehow I was given an LA Loyal bib. I should've been given a regular bib since I didn't run it in 2021. I stopped at the LA Loyal tent to inquire about that. The lady told me that I'm showing up as a 4th year LA Loyal runner. I told her that that wasn't possible since I didn't run in 2021. She asked if I had gotten a COVID exemption. If that was the case, this year would've been my 10th year. After telling her that, I told her to forget about it, I'll just email solutions when I get home.
Packet pick-up at Dodger Stadium
I then went over to the t-shirt tents to pick up my race shirt. The shape of the shirt looked really weird. It looked like one of those irregular shirts that you can buy at outlets for a discounted price. In addition to the shirt, I was given a goodie bag. The bag contained the race program and a discount card for Big 5 Sporting Goods. It also had 2 sample tubes of CBD oil and 9 samples of Ashwagandha gummies. I'm not sure if I was supposed to get so many gummies! I don't think the volunteers cared how many they were stuffing into each bag.
T-shirts
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Goodie bag
I then moved on to the rest of the expo. Per the usual, I found my name on the participants name wall. I skipped the official merchandise section as I have no need to purchase anymore race items. I also found my name on The McCourt Foundation Wall of Giving. This charity raises money to support research for neurological diseases. You can get your name on that wall by donating at least $25. As to be expected that wall wasn't very big as people in the LA area do not like or trust the McCourt name.
Participants name wall
Found my name on the wall
Wall of Giving
I also walked by the graffiti wall and the pace car on my way to the vendor booths. I must say that it has been a while since I've received so many freebies from vendors at a race expo! Before heading out, I got a free photo with FinisherPix. On 1/23/2022, I decided to pre-purchase my digital race photos for $39.99 ($43.19 with processing fee). In actuality, I usually only want 1 photo from each race. However, they charge so much for just 1 photo, I might as well spend just a few bucks more and get all of the photos.
Latino Heat on graffiti wall
Volvo XC40 Electric pace car
Freebies from vendors
After getting back to my car, it was time to head home. On the way home, I stopped at the Yoshinoya in Rowland Heights to pick up lunch. I ordered a large beef bowl with vegetables for myself. The beef & teriyaki chicken combo with vegetables and the sweet chili shrimp & teriyaki salmon with vegetables were for my parents and my younger brother. The mobile app was a bit glitchy. For some reason it would always reject my saved credit card. I would have to delete it and re-enter it in order for it to work.
I love Beef Bowl
Sunday 3/20
I left the house just a little before 3 am. Unfortunately, the car didn't start charging until midnight, so it didn't get anywhere close to a full charge. It was definitely enough to get to Century City, but it would be cutting it close for the return trip home. I arrived at about 3:45 am. In the printed race program, it said that the parking structure at 2049 Century Plaza E was $5 for all day parking. However, when I got there, I couldn't enter via Constellation Blvd, so I tried the monthly parking gate on Olympic Blvd. Unfortunately, the security guy there was full of himself. He sassed me a bit, he told me that he would open the gate, but if I chose to park there, he could not guarantee that it would be $5. He told me that it would be more like $50. Once he opened the gate, I decided to bail out and go find another parking option. I drove down Avenue of the Stars to Pico and circled around on Beverly Glen Blvd. Instead of wasting more time, I decided to just park inside Westfield Mall for $30 which was not much more than the pre-paid price for the other lots.
After using the mall restroom, I got my stuff together and started my walk to the bus pick-up location at the corner of Avenue of the Stars and Olympic Blvd. At first, I had exited the parking garage at Santa Monica Blvd and tried to turn right and head south at Avenue of the Stars. Unfortunately, they had that intersection completely shut down with the finish line, so I was directed to head over to Century Park W. From there, I crossed over at Constellation Blvd in order to reach the Avenue of the Stars.
The shuttle ride over to Dodger Stadium took just under 30 minutes. Once we were dropped over, I used one of the portapotties that was near the drop off spot. I decided to get that over with before I go searching for a good spot to wait.
Dropped off at Dodger Stadium
I ended up getting one of the last available fold-up chairs that was at a table under one of the tents. There was a guy already there. His name was Dale and he turned out to be one of the few remaining legacy runners. I chatted with him for a bit. Then one of my runner friends, Eli, just happened to walk by. As the 6:05 am pre-race Marathon Maniacs photo approached, we headed over to agreed upon location across from the hospitality tent. We didn't see anyone, so we headed towards a cache of portapotties that was just outside of Dodger Stadium. It turned out that we could've gone inside to the field level of Dodger Stadium and used the facilities there.
Marathon Maniacs pre-race photo
After taking that obligatory group photo, Eli and I headed into our corral C. We weren't in the corral very long before we started seeing some familiar faces, just the usual suspects. We tried to have a conversation, but we were standing too close to one of those loud speakers.
Eli and Paul
Fast Eddie
In the years past, more often than not, I've run the Los Angeles Marathon as a fun run. I've done a few pub crawls with my friends before I had quit drinking for good. For some reason, this race always takes place when I'm not physically 100%. My left calf was still bothering me, so I decided to run/jog it as Russell from UP. I supposed that my outfit was too realistic or that I wasn't chunky enough, but I kept getting mistaken for an actual boy scout. It could also be because not everyone was a big Pixar/Disney fanatic!
After the start for the wheelchair participants and the elite women field at 6:30 am and 6:45 am respectively, it was time for us to run. They released the elite men and the rest of us at about 6:55 am to Randy Newman's I Love LA! If that song doesn't pump you up, then you must be a San Francisco Giants fan as we play that song every time the Dodgers win a home game. :)
Here we go!
The start of the race was a little slow with that initial climb out of Dodger Stadium. However, once we started heading for the exits, it was a steep downhill run down to Sunset Blvd. That was followed by even more downhill down to Chinatown.
After making the left turn onto 1st St, I went into walk mode to take in the taiko drums. That uphill climb was steep enough that I didn't want to even jog it with my gimpy left calf. Per the usual, I noticed that my friend passed me as she powered through that climb. It seemed to be a regular occurrence every year right on this hill! Once I got up to Grand Ave, I chased her down to say hi and to take a quick selfie. I guess I'm getting better at taking running selfies.
Up 1st St to Grand Ave
ABC!
Even though I wouldn't eat a chili cheese dog so early in the race, I was hoping to see those folks handing them out at about mile 5.5 on Bellevue Ave. Unfortunately, they were not there. I hope such fun stops will eventually return once COVID is completely behind us.
Silver Lake at 10k mark
I made a couple of photo stops as I reached the Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave intersection. I took a pic with one of the Oscar statues as well as the TCL Chinese Theatre. I even bumped into Leticia Juarez from ABC7. It took me a second to remember her name.
A quick stop at almost mile 12 with Oscar
TCL (formerly Grauman's) Chinese Theatre
Chateau Marmont at about mile 13.5
Out of the hundreds of races that I've run throughout the years, my bib has never torn at the bib hole. I had to take a walk break and adjust the bib on my race belt and use another set of holes. I'm going to have to guess that the race organizer went with cheaper quality bibs.
Cruising down Rodeo Dr at around mile 17
At around mile 18.5, I ran past the finish line that was across the street. This was a deal-breaker for a lot of people for not wanting to run this race. The majority prefer the finish line over in Santa Monica. I personally didn't care for that as it was such a pain in the ass leaving the race from there! I still prefer the old Downtown LA loop course where the start and finish line were both in Downtown. The race logistics were so much easier back then! However, the churches complained about that course. This current course pretty much steered clear of any churches.
I started to struggle mightily during that final out and back stretch that I decided to forego my usual stop at the McDonald's at about mile 19. The sun was out and I was pretty much ready for the race to be over ASAP!
The turnaround was shortly after reaching mile 22 just short of reaching the eastern end of the Brentwood Country Club golf course. There was the occasional wind gust here and there on the way back, so I had to turn the cap around so it wouldn't get blown away. Near mile 23, I came across a dog with balloons. I had to stop for a quick pic as it was pretty appropriate with what I was wearing.
It got a bit windy
You're not my Dug!
I can see why people hated this new finish line on the Avenue of Stars. That final mile was a gentle uphill climb to that final corner. The finish line over in Santa Monica was a straight downhill run as it was right next to the ocean.
It was nice to finally reach that final right turn for the finish line. I heard Rudy and Fitz announcing the names of the finishers, but for the life of me, I could not spot them anywhere. After the race, I looked through numerous finish line photos to see that they were positioned near the trees at the northeast corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Avenue of the Stars.
Turning at last corner
Final Stretch
Finish line just up ahead
Done!
Finish: 5:06:38
Click here for my Garmin data.
Finish line
This was my 17th LA Marathon finish since I had run it for the first time way back in 2004 as my second marathon overall. I've only missed this race in 2011 and 2021. I skipped it in 2011 to run the NYC Half Marathon. I skipped it in 2021 to run the OC Half Marathon due to COVID race schedule congestion. In the past 5 finishes, I have been pretty mediocre, but consistent at this race!
- 2017: 5:08:56
- 2018: 5:03:36
- 2019: 5:09:53
- 2020: 5:08:21
- 2022: 5:06:39
Finisher medal and post race goodies
Official finish line medal pic
Before heading home, I decided to stick around and wait for some of my friends to finish their race. I found a spot along the stretch on Santa Monica Blvd, right before the final turn for the finish line. Eventually, I was joined by Robert. He ran fast enough that he had already showered and changed clothes!
Latino Heat!
Mitch!
Deo!
T-Rex!
Louisa!
Run Forrest Run!
Marathon Maniac!
Bearsun!
Marathon Maniac from Seattle always running with an airplane on his head
More friends!
Eviltwin was not having a good day :(
After our friends had come through, we went our separate ways. I made my way up to the Eataly Market to say hi to my friends. They were non-runners and made the mistake of having a lunch reservation at the Eataly Restaurant here in Westfield Century City. They told me what a pain it was to get here! They were obviously late for their reservation.
Mando for governor!
Eataly Market
It was a bit of a bear exiting the Westfield Mall parking structure. Thank goodness they had people there directing traffic! I made my way over to Overland Ave to catch the 10 freeway home. The Tesla warned me that I needed to keep my speed under 70 mph in order to make it home without getting a recharge. Yeah, that's not going to happen. I pulled off the freeway in Rowland Heights to get a quick charge at the Tesla Supercharger station. Even though it was one of the slower 72 kW max chargers, I was only there for about 10 minutes.
Tesla Supercharger Rowland Heights
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