LA Marathon

< A funny fellow runner!
Here I am running my first marathon ever. It was an awesome experience. That smile on my face was there almost the whole time I ran. I have been running regularly since January of last year. In 2011, I completed 3 half marathons and 1 5K. I haven't improved my race times, but I haven't gotten any worse either, so I thought I'd push for the next goal--a marathon.

I felt like I had done enough training before hand. I got up to running about 35 miles per week and tried to run at least one interval workout and one hill workout in the weeks leading up to the marathon. I don't run with a Garmin and don't run too often with anyone else, so it's just me out on the road. I do read blogs and get inspired by what other women are doing and running, but I don't have too much else to guide me, so I was hoping that running a marathon would be a good test of what I can do.

I went into the race hoping to run a sub 4:30. However, if I was feeling good, I'd try to aim for 4:15. The week before, I started to hear reports of heavy rain for the marathon. That made me nervous. I've run in rain before and it's not bad, but a cold rain for 26.2 miles didn't sound fun. I was praying for a break. The expo on Saturday was totally rained out. It was outside and it was miserable for the runners and vendors. They were giving out all kinds of goodies and were really good sports about it, but it was pretty horrible. We went out to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Forage in Silver Lake. I realized after we ate that it was right along the race course. When we got home, I started panicking about the weather and went out trying to find more rain gear. I ended up getting a hat.

Saturday morning: Got up at 5 AM, ate my shake and a Gu and got ready to leave. I was driving my sister-in-law and a few friends to the race. It was fun not to be doing this alone. We set off on the eerily empty freeways of LA to arrive at Dodger Stadium. It started backing up about 2 miles before the exit. I got as far as we could to the front of the line before we edged into the line. We finally made it to the stadium at about 7 AM and found a parking space. We all needed to use the facilities and I thought we had plenty of time before the 7:24 start time. We ran and ran to find the port-o-potties and they were all the way up the hill. We jumped in the first line we saw and it turned out to be the slowest line ever. We were still in line when they were singing the National Anthem 20 minutes later. We finally finished and I hopped into the open corral. I thought I was somewhere near the 10 minute pacers where I wanted to be, but it turns out I was about 10-15 minutes behind them.

The weather was gorgeous. The sun started breaking through the clouds as we began running and the air felt crisp and cool. I let myself go at an easy pace and told myself to settle in for the long haul. It was amazing to be running through Downtown LA and past restaurants and places I love. We went from Dodger Stadium, through Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Silver Lake, and past so many landmarks. It was fun to run by the sights and hear everyone cheering. The crowd support was great.

I ran with a hand held water bottle which wasn't too bad. It was good not having to stop for water. My husband and son met me at the halfway point to exchange bottles. They also had a few video screens along the route and family and friends could send you messages for free. My sister-in-law surprised me by helping my son record a message for me. His little face and voice popped up for me at Mile 6 right before I ran through Silver Lake. I almost cried. It was such a sweet surprise.

I ran by myself the whole race. There were a few people I kept running around, but I wasn't really running with anyone. I could tell from my times that I was running the race I wanted to run, just a bit under 10 minute miles.

10K 1:00
20K 2:00
30K 3:00
40K 4:02
Finish: 4:14

I felt really good the whole time. I remember reading Dorothy's words of Mile-Posts about how the real race starts at 20 miles. I kept pacing myself, drinking sips of Nuun from my water bottle and eating Gu chomps. I never felt tired, my legs didn't feel sore and I felt great the whole time. By the 20 mile mark, I was feeling a bit tired, but I took hear that I was almost finished. I was done with my water bottle, so I dumped it at about 21 miles. After that, I just took cups of water from every water station I passed and just kept my mouth wet. It helped keep my mind off of being tired until the end. I was also looking for the last hill that everyone was talking about. I never really found it. I think they were talking about a little underpass we run through at the Salvation Army compound. Anyway, the end is either flat or inclined down for about the last 4 miles. I used that to my advantage and tried to really push it at the end. By my last 1/2 mile, I realized that I could get a sub 4:15, so I gave it all I had and pushed to the end. I finished with the wind off the beach nearly blowing off my hat. It got really windy by the end of the race. A race volunteer came up to me and walked me over to the medal and food area even though I felt fine. I must have looked worse than I felt.

I was on cloud 9 and couldn't believe I had finished my first marathon. It was such an amazing experience.

One thing I would change is that I would have given out my bib number and tracking info to more people. It's a lot of fun to track runners as they run.

Long Beach Half Marathon Race Report

This is the 3rd half marathon I've run this year. My first was the Pasadena half marathon in May, and it was actually an amazing experience for a first time half marathon run. I thought that it would be horrible to run in the rain, but it was wonderful. I didn't feel any pain that race, and although the course was hilly, it was downhill for the last 2 miles, which now I know can be the hardest part of the race.

Going into Long Beach, I had been averaging about 20 miles a week for training runs. That's about all I can manage with my schedule. I have been running with some ladies from church once a week, which has been great. One of them joined me in the race, but we didn't run together. I was feeling a little tired the day before the race, so I took some extra Vitamin C. It may have helped me kick whatever was attacking my immune system, but it also seemed to dehydrate me while I was running. More on that later.

On the day of the race: My running buddy and I decided to carpool. We left my house at 5:50 AM and were flying down the freeways to get to the race site. However, the closer we got to the destination, the more traffic built up until I realized that they may have blocked the end of the 710. We got off at PCH and took surface streets to find street parking. I was so glad Nate and I had done a trial run of the surrounding area Saturday before the race. We managed to get into a parking garage fairly close to the race and park by 6:30. Then, my next priority was finding a public restroom. My friend who had never run a half marathon before asked about the port-a-potties and I told her it would take too long. We ran into a 7-11 and were directed to a public restroom nearby. We waited about 10 minutes to get our business done and were on our way. We followed the crowds of people through the downtown area and wound our way through Aquatic Park to the start line. There we checked in my friend's bag and wormed out way into the 3rd wave start. We were just in time to hear the announcer try to separate the elite athletes from the first wave runners by telling people who had to buy their own shoes to step behind the rope.

After about 10 minutes, we began the race. I ran with Avery for the first mile and then tried to find my own pace. It was difficult because my first mile appeared to be a 12 minute mile. My goal pace was 8:30, so I sped it up. There were so many people around that it was just hard to tell how fast I was running and how fast they were going. At about mile 3, my shoelace got untied and I stopped to tie it. I was feeling really out of it by then. I finally focused on a guy in a red shirt and tried to settle down. Mainly, my impressions from the race were that there were too many people around for the first 10 miles and the last 3 miles, I was telling myself that I would never run another half marathon again. I started to feel leg cramps about 8 miles into the race and my legs bothered me the rest of the race. I was drinking water the first half of the race, but I started drinking Powerade the second half.

I did push to finish in under 2 hours when I realized I could still make this goal, but after running 2 other half marathons faster than this one it was a disappointing finish. Looking back I was probably running too fast in the beginning and kind of stalled out in the end. I may have also been suffering from dehydration issues.

Final stats:

1:56:12

8:52/mile average

1693 with 9022 runners behind

510th woman

88th in division (30-34)

Half Marathon Reports

I feel like I've been quiet for a long time. Here is something I've been doing with my time--lots of running. I've also had a hard time with pictures, so sorry no pictures to show. I am running 3 half marathons this year. The first one I ended up running pretty much solo, but it was a great experience. It was the Pasadena Half in May. The first 10 miles were in the rain and it was a pretty hilly course. However, the long uphill ended in an almost 2 mile downhill for the end of the race. The rain and the nice long downhill at the end left me feeling pretty great at the end of the race. I finished that one in 1:53 and in the top 100 finishers for the women.

Pasadena Stats:
Finish time: 1:53:47 Pace: 8:41/mile 5K: 26:19 ( 8:29)
Overall: 383 out of 2473 10K: 52:44 (8:30)
Women: 99 out of 1418
F 30-34: 14/248



My second race was the SF half marathon that I ran with Ben, Heidi and Les. They all started at the 5:30 start time. I did the second half, so I didn't have to start until 8:15. That was so much better. It was also a pretty good race. I got a little tired and cramped up at the end. It wasn't as much fun as Pasadena, but it was very scenic and there was a lot of support. Here are my stats for that race.

SF 2nd half Stats:
Finish: 1:55:48 Pace: 8:50/mile 1.6m: 14:01 (8:46)
Overall: 1105 out of 4243 6.9m: 59:58 (8:42)
Women: 339 out of 2365
F 30-39: 119 out of 795

Next up: LB half Marathon October 9th!