I Love LA!

The Expo
I drove to the LA Marathon expo on Saturday morning. I always look forward to attending this expo every year. I parked at my favorite $5 parking lot on Pico and walked over to the Convention Center. It was a madhouse inside. As usual I ended up spending more money than I should have. I bought a Phiten necklace, signed up for the Las Vegas Marathon, and 2 pairs of rainbow Injinji toe socks. I quickly made my way through every aisle in fear that I would make my wallet even lighter.

Pre-race
Race morning, I woke up early to take care of business... eat and poop! They say never to try anything new on race day. But I say who cares when you run so dang slow! I wore my new rainbow socks and my Phiten necklace. The necklace was suppose to help with back pain and I wanted to test it out. I headed on out around 5am and parked at Sierra Madre Metro station to hop on the Gold line. With a quick change over to the Red line at the Union Station, we arrived at Pershing Square in no time.

My friend Billy spots me as I was walking towards the starting area. My bright orange Worldvision shirt comes in handy. He was with his cousin and his friend, Cody. We hit the portopotties where we spotted 2 barefoot runners, Barefoot Bob and Julian Romero. Julian was featured on TV where they took notice that he ran a 2:56:22 sans shoes! I was soon spotted by Roccco when I went looking for water after I bid farewell to Billy, Billy's cousin, and Cody. He said that I stood out like a pumpkin in a sea of bright green, the color of this year's SRLA (students run LA).

I later learned that I had gotten on TV for about 3-4 seconds. If you watch the on-demand video on www.universalsports.com you can see me on the lower right hand side of the TV screen at 38:21 and 38:43. I'm pretty easy to spot.

In the past 5 years, I have done my worst at the LA Marathon because I kept on showing up injured and turning the event into pretty much a walkathon. I wanted to run this race hard but finish feeling strong. I kept in mind that I have San Diego the following week. I knew going into this race that my left Achilles and right hip flexor were going to be issues, but I wanted to see how long I could maintain a 4:00 pace... so I went with the following goals:
A: 4:00
B: 4:30
C: finish

The Race
We were packed like sardines at the starting line. I tried to line up as close to the 4:00 pace group but there was no way I could make my way to them, but I was in the general vicinity. The start was crazy, but people for the most part were moving fast enough for me to have a comfortable stride. Why do walkers insist on being in the front? Soon after mile 1 I was passed by a Luke Walton looking guy wearing a Kobe 24 jersey dribbling a basketball while talking on a cellphone. I was "rear-ended" by some dude on a turn just before the 5mile mark. That was weird. It felt like he just fell on my legs. I must have kicked him up at least twice. He was saying stuff in Spanish to his friends, but everybody seemed ok... so no blood, no harm, no foul.

1: 9:10
2: 8:16
3: 8:30
4-5: 18:00
6: 9:21
10k: 54:55

7: 9:11
8: 9:01
9: 9:13
10: 9:09
11: 9:56
12: 9:16
13: 9:05
13.1mi: 1:59:09

I started falling off the 4:00 pace around the 15th mile. Soon thereafter the pace group quickly devoured/passed me like a fast moving amoeba. The bad patch lasted over 2 miles, but I was able to fire up the engines again and keep the pace group somewhat in sight. But they slowly pulled away from me. Right before mile 19 I spotted Kathy and went over to say hi. She was passing out goodies with her sister and friends. After the potty break, I pretty much knew that goal A was out the window. I had to start taking extended walking breaks. I saw the ultramarathoning phenom Dean Karnazes around mile 22. I said hi to him as he passed me. The freak ran about 100 miles from Santa Barbara to the expo on Sunday to be the featured speaker, and then runs the marathon on Monday! He's going to run down to San Diego and then run San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon. What a beast! I saw Huskydon at around mile 23. I wasn't moving fast and he looked very familiar so I made my way over to him to get a better look. I was struggling quite a bit with my energy level and the desire to run while I was on Olympic. But once I turned on Flower to head for the finish line, I just turned on the jets and ran a decent hard pace to the finish. It felt great to be able to finish strong instead of crawling across. After getting my medal and eating a couple of bananas, I went over to the finish line where I saw NYCParkrunner (Joe) cross the finish line at a little over 5hrs.

14: 9:04
15: 10:24
16: 10:14
17: 9:46
18: 9:52
19: 9:26
30k: 2:54:05

20: 14:37 (potty break)
21: 11:40
22: 10:53
23: 12:20
24: 12:52
25: 12:08
26: 11:05
26.2: 1:43
Finish: 4:24:24

2004: 7:35:37 all time personal worst
2005: 7:01:34 previous personal course record - not very hard to beat!
2006: 7:05:06
2007: 6:07:08 Universal Studios start
2008: 5:24:25 Universal Studios start

When I got home and watched the on-demand video... at the end of the race coverage, Frank McCourt mentioned that he wants to work on changing the course for next year to show off the defining points of LA. He wants the race to start at Dodger stadium and end at the beach. He feels that that will create an attractive world class race that will bring people from all over the world to run the LA Marathon. I sure hope so, his group pulled it off this year despite all of the hurdles that they had to clear. They were seriously handicapped from the get-go. I will be back next year and I was glad to have gotten the chance to redeem myself on the course that completely owned me 3 years in a row.

What I learned
The Phiten necklace seem to have worked. I didn't have the usual lower back tightness at the beginning of the race. I will have to test it further to rule out coincidence. My legs seem to resist cramping better if I eat the shotbloks first then go to the clifshots afterwards. I did the reverse at PV and I cramped up so bad that I couldn't even walk for a while.

I left my heart in Honolulu

Well it looks like it's going to be a scorcher this week. I seriously hope that it cools down by Memorial day or else it's going to get pretty ugly at the LA marathon. I scratched my run yesterday because my body felt run down. Instead I spent the day catching up on movies. I watched Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Quantum of Solace. It wasn't a total waste of a day because I did workout the core and upper body later in the evening. It has helped with my running tremendously even though I've put on about 8 - 10 pounds since hitting the weights again.

This morning I went out on an approximately 3.4 mi run at a 7:55 pace. Legs felt okay, but the breathing felt labored at the start. The left leg was not liking the concrete sidewalk. I finally wore my singlet that I bought at the Honolulu marathon expo. I usually wear a medium size but this was a large and it fit rather tight. While I was running, I really missed running in Hawaii even though it was raining for pretty much the whole time that I was there. It was great eating ramen with the Japanese folks and curry with my friend in Hawaii. Most likely I'll go back there to run the marathon every December unless I get into the NYC marathon. Sorry, I won't be a marathon maniac after 2009 is over. I'll be going back to running about 4 marathons a year. Maybe even less and attempt to qualify for Boston. But I will definitely have to work hard to capture that elusive unicorn!

Palos Verdes Marathon

Suckfest 2009: Palos Verdes edition - same story different race.

Twisted Thinking
Before I ran the La Jolla half marathon last week, I came up with a brilliant plan to motivate myself to run a honest good race. I said to myself that if I can muster up a sub 2 performance on a tough course that I would run the full marathon instead of the half at Palos Verdes. That's how I ended up at the starting line for the Palos Verdes full marathon.

Pre-race
The week leading up to the race, my co-workers have been showing up to work sick. Work has been stressful and I worked late on Friday. I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty lethargic and feeling the malaise you feel right before the onset of a cold or a flu. Normally I would drink Campbell's soup when I feel sick, but I was tired so I stuck to the good 'ol whole wheat toast with Nutella and orange juice. I got to the Point Fermin Park just before 5:30am. I was the 2nd car to park in the parking lot. I took a nap waiting for them to setup the race.

First Half
The race started promptly at 7am. The wind gusts were strong at the very beginning. But once we got a little inland, it was ok. I was a little eager beaver and went out as hard as I could. I figured it was race day and what have I got to lose? I might as well give the legs a little test. Some of the mile markers were off, so I had a hard time gauging exactly how fast I was going. I pretty much just ran the race based on feel. I kind of knew that I was going too fast when my left Achilles was feeling tender and my right IT-band was feeling tight. I covered the first half in about 2 hrs which was too fast for me.
1: 8:10
2: 7:53
3-4: 20:35
5: 7:15
6: 9:41
7: 10:12
8-9: 18:34
10: 9:17
11: 8:44
12: 9:21
13: 9:12

Second Half
What can I say? I went out as BIG as I could which resulted in an Epic blowup Long Beach style. Everything siezed up on me. I sat down on the curb twice and once on these big pipes. I could not even walk! I must have looked like crap because the other runners that saw me asked me if I needed them to go get help. Of course I told them that I'll be alright, that I'll just walk it in. Then God sent one of His angels to come help me... actually it was a fellow runner #305. He stopped and massaged both of my legs for me. He told me that I'll be able to run later on. And that I did when I eventually was able to HTFU and run/walk it in. I switched to walking every time I felt the cramps coming on. I was able to squeek in under 5 hrs and keep my sub-5 streak alive for this year.
14: 10:27
15: 9:39
16: 10:42
17: 14:04 - pottie break
18: 10:50
19: 9:28
20: 21:38 - meltdown Long Beach style
21: 21:24
22: 11:22 - time to HTFU and salvage a sub 5
23: 14:42
24: 11:33
25: 12:50
26: 12:32
26.2: 1:43
Total: 4:52