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2010 L.A. Marathon

Going into Sunday’s L.A. Marathon, I had three goals: (1) pacing two friends and helping them helping them reach their goals, (2) having fun, and (3) NOT getting injured. I’ve enjoyed myself and have had a good time at a lot of races in the past, but this was pretty much the first time that I went into a race without any personal time goals AT ALL. I wanted to run with my friends, run through my “new” home city and do it all with a smile on my face.

The plan I worked out with Cat and Emily was that I would run ahead from the start and then wait for Cat at mile 18.5 and run with her to mile 23. Once there, I’d double back along the course and meet up with Emily around mile 20 and run with her to the finish. I’d end up with between 31-32 miles. It was going to be a little tricky and I did wonder if my legs would hold up, but I was confident it would work.

I am very happy to say that I achieved my goals! (At least no injuries have appeared so far.)

This was also the first time that I did a race while carrying a camera. It was great fun taking pictures along the way. And not only because I now get to share them with you.

Pre-race:

Getting to Dodger Stadium was a massive cluster-f*^k. Saturday night the race organizers sent out an email warning people about the traffic getting into the stadium and advising that we try to get there by 5:30. “Forget that,” we thought, “6:00AM was plenty early.” So, we left Brentwood around 5:30. Evidently everyone else had the same thought. This was the scene on the 110 approaching the stadium:

The line-up for the freeway exit was endless and not moving, so with about a quarter-mile to go before the exit ramp, Cat, Mel and I jumped out of Jeff’s car and joined a lot of other people walking the rest of the way.

We stationed ourselves in the starting chute and sat down to relax. While we were waiting there, Bev, a fellow Coyote runner and POM Wonderful-sponsoree found us. The start was delayed a couple of times because of all the traffic getting to the Stadium. This gave me plenty of time to get a few pictures of the start:

The gun finally went off about 25 minutes late.

Miles 1-8:

The race started with a loop around Dodger Stadium. Here’s Cat and Mel during the first mile:

Bev and I settled into a nice easy pace. At times we were running with some other friends, including Cat and Mel, Nick (Cat’s brother) and fellow Coyote Kate. But we were mostly just running along and chatting. The nicest thing about running with Bev was that the marathon was a no-pressure training run for both of us (she’s training for a 50 miler next month). So we were just cruising easy pace, enjoying the scenery and the company. Because we were talking so much, I don’t remember too much of this part of the course – running through Echo Park and Silver Lake was cool, but this was definitely the least interesting part of the course. Around mile 8, Bev peeled off for a bathroom break and I went ahead. I wanted to stay ahead of Cat so I didn’t miss her at mile 18.5.

Miles 9-15.5:

I had fun running this part of the course, through Hollywood and West Hollywood and into the beginning of Beverly Hills. I ran with random people here and there, sent a few tweets and took a few pictures, including this one of a dude whose plan it was to dribble a basketball the entire course:

I maintained a steady, comfortable pace and was feeling really good through this section. Running down the middle of Hollywood Blvd was a highlight. The cross-dressers in West Hollywood were interesting.

I knew Elizabeth and our friend Ivan would be at about mile 15.5. When I got to them I also saw that Elizabeth had brought Charlie! What fun! I figured I had at least a few minutes lead on Cat, so I stopped to chat with them and take a couple pictures.

Mile 16 – 18.5:

During this relatively short section through Beverly Hills, I ran into a lot of people I knew, including LA Tri Club friends, David, Nicole and Lynne and Coach Jimmy, who was out there finding, supporting and running with all the Coyotes on the course. David got this picture of me:

Mile 18.5-23:

I got to Beverly Glen and Santa Monica and stopped to wait for Cat. By this point, I’d already passed my longest road run since the Boston Marathon a year ago. I’d done some long trail running and that one long-ish road run in Puerto Vallarta and while I was still feeling really good, my feet were getting a little upset. While I waited, I cheered on some runners, got funny looks from other spectators and took a nice picture of myself:

Cat and Nick (in Vibrams) came up the road a few minutes later:

I could tell Cat wasn’t really feeling it, but she was pushing through the pain and moving well and keeping up a good pace. For the next about five miles, I ran with her, trying to be motivational and making sure she was drinking enough fluids. Coach Jimmy came and ran with us for a few minutes and gave a little mini-seminar on how to motivate someone during a marathon. I think this section was the hardest part of the course. There was a hill into Westwood, a couple hills through the VA, and more hills in Brentwood. Nothing too steep or too long, but the cumulative effect and the fact that they were coming at this point in the race was tough. The crowd support at the eastern end of San Vicente and through Brentwood was awesome. Cat and I pushed our way through this section. It didn’t look like she would hit her “A” goal, but there was no question that she was going to crush her previous best marathon time. Between mile 22 and 23 there are two climbs, the second one crests right at the 23 mile marker and then it’s all downhill to the finish. I ran with Cat until the top of that climb, where I shouted some final encouragement and had to let her go to the finish on her own. I turned around and headed back down the hill to find Emily.

Mile 23-20.5:

I back-tracked for 2.5 miles, all the while frantically scanning the crowd to find Emily. I’d gotten a few reports from Elizabeth and expected to run into Emily between 21 and 20. I backtracked partly on the runner’s left edge of course and some on the sidewalk. I got some funny looks from people, obviously curious why I was headed the “wrong” way. It was around this point that I really started feeling the miles. I think that the combination of back-tracking, being anxious about finding Emily, consciously slowing down my pace and knowing that I still had 8-10 miles to go, including repeating some of those climbs, was wearing on me. I pretty much stopped taking pictures. I was psyched to run into Billy and Danica somewhere around the mile 22 marker. I saw Dean Karnazes somewhere around here as well. It was great fun to see them and chat for a second or two. And then, at about mile 20.5 (my mile 25.5), I found Emily and Liam, who’d been pacing her for nearly 10 miles.

Mile 20.5-23 (second time around):

I was super relieved to find Emily. And then I was able to focus on running with her instead of trying to find her. The part of the course through the VA and Brentwood wasn’t any easier the second time around. I could see in her face that Emily was feeling the miles, but she was in good spirits. We took walk breaks here and there (which I appreciated as much as she did!), but were running well in between. There was one scary mile for me when Emily started running faster. I was concerned that if she continued at that pace, I wouldn’t be able to keep up! Did I already mention that she did the whole damn thing in Vibrams? Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Mile 23-25:

I was very relieved when we hit San Vicente and 26th Street. I had about 28 miles on my legs and knew it was downhill from there on out. We continued our mostly run/walk a little bit down San Vicente. You could smell and feel the ocean. The crowd support along this stretch was great – tons of families and kids shouting us down to the turn onto Ocean Ave. It was nice to know that the end was close because I wasn’t feeling so hot – my legs, lungs and heart were all doing well, but I was getting a headache and my stomach was a little off. Despite the fact that I was carrying a hydration pack, I didn’t drink enough water. And I didn’t take in nearly enough calories. My plan was to get about 250 per hour and I had enough gels and concentrated Infinit to do it, but I got caught up and didn’t follow my plan, particularly for the last couple of hours. I think I only took in about half of what I’d planned. I need to work on both of those things if I’m going to survive the 100 miles.

Right around the end of San Vicente, we ran into Rachel, the final piece of the Griffin-Ziff puzzle.

Mile 25-26.2:

Turning the corner onto Ocean Ave at exactly the 25 mile marker was a great feeling. We couldn’t see the finish line, but could tell from the building landmarks we could see up ahead exactly where it was. And even though it was still 1.2 miles (or about 13 minutes) away, it didn’t seem that far. Emily, Rachel and I took a couple short walk breaks during the beginning of this final stretch – we wanted to make sure to look good and strong for the crowds as we crossed the finish line! And look good we did!

Emily and Cat – and Rachel and Nick – all finished with marathon PRs, and despite the unavoidable suffering during parts of the race, everyone had a great time.

My official time was 5:17:19. For almost exactly 50K. That works out to an average pace of 10:09/mile. My longest “marathon” ever.

After getting through the finisher’s chute, Emily, Rachel and I walked down the pier to find Nick and Billy and Danica. Rachel found Nick on the beach and Emily and I found a group including Billy and Danica at Bubbba Gump’s:

After sitting with Billy and Danica for a few minutes, we started making our way to the car and back to a little party in Brentwood for some eats! Getting from Bubba Gump’s, through the post-marathon crowds in Santa Monica and then in the car Brentwood took way way too long. During the first couple hours after the race my stomach was in pretty bad shape and I couldn’t really bear to put anything into it, but once I got to the party, I found my appetite and I ate and ate and ate and ATE and didn’t stop until close to midnight. Here’s a somewhat complete list, somewhat in order:

Cold cuts, turkey and roast beef sandwich, potato chips, crackers, pretzels, tortilla chips and guacamole, a plate full of a few different salads (beans, lentils, orzo, veggies, fruit), piece of berry pie, a cone with Circus Animal Cookie frozen yogurt from 21 flavors in Pasadena (so yummy, and I could feel chunks of sugar in my teeth!). Bottle of water and bottle of POM pomegranate juice. Then I took a short break to drive to another party in Hermosa Beach where I had two sausages on buns with jalapeños and mustard, two or three fresh chocolate chip cookies and another plate of salad and chips. Then, to top it all off, I had the best friggin’ desert ever: I’ll call it “the ultimate s’more”: two graham crackers, two burned marshmellows, one regular size Reese’s peanut butter cup, two squares of Hersheys chocolate caramel bar, chunky peanut butter smeared on one graham cracker and nutella smeared on the other, make it into a sandwich and then stuff it in a cup full of chocolate and vanilla gelato. Crush it all up and enjoy. (Damn, I wish I had a picture of that thing. I’m still day-dreaming about it.)

Holy sh*t. Thank goodness I don’t run these things to lose weight!