Blog

2012 LA Marathon – Race Report

It’s been nearly three weeks since the LA Marathon. Is there a time limit on writing race reports? If so, 18 days is probably past it. Anyway, since it’s my blog, I can make the rules.

The marathon was hard, and humbling. My 3:11:08 was a two-minute PR and good enough for 274th overall (out of 18,899 finishers). That’s great. I’m happy for it. But it wasn’t what I hoped for and I still don’t believe it was what I am capable of.

I wanted to run a sub-3:00 marathon. To run a sub-3:00 marathon, you have to average 6:52/mile. I knew that was an aggressive goal. I also thought – and still think – that it’s an attainable one. As I’ve mentioned, my training wasn’t perfect and I probably didn’t give myself enough dedicated road marathon training time, but I felt good and decided that I’d go for it. I’d say my plan was to run around 1:31 for the first half and 1:29 for the second, but if that was my plan, it was out the window from the pretty much first step I took.

Here’s the story:

I arranged to get a ride to the start with Jimmy and the SoCal Coyotes on their 5:05 5:55 shuttle from Santa Monica to Dodger Stadium. Despite some stress over the late shuttle, we arrived with time to drop off our gear bags and re-group in the “A” corral. There was a big group of Coyotes, LA Track Club members and friends with the sub-3 goal. Crispin had taken it upon himself to lead and pace the sub-3 group, wearing a huge afro and carrying a pacer flag on a tall pole.

All week, the weatherman had been calling for cold temperatures, rain and wind. That morning, pre-race, it was dry and didn’t look like rain. It was chilly, but warming up enough. But the forecasted wind wasn’t backing off at all. And the wind was coming from the west, which meant it would be directly in our faces for nearly the entire race.

After watching the wheelchair and handcycle athletes and then the elite women take off, the countdown for the rest of us began. And then we were off.

The race started as planned. We headed out of Dodger Stadium and I kept Crispin in sight. It was a fun start – we were talking and joking and running fast. The first mile was just about on pace, but miles 2-4 were too fast.

Mile 1 – 6:55
Mile 2 – 6:31
Mile 3 – 6:42
Mile 4 – 6:41

And by mile 5, I was already feeling “it” – heavy legs, weakness in my hips, a heart rate too high to sustain for 26.2. I was dropping back behind the bulk of the sub-3 group but for some reason convinced myself that I had to keep them in sight. Also, I was running pretty much alone, which meant I didn’t have anyone to help shield the wind. My friend Ankur came in to help pace the sub-3 group around mile 5. He prodded me to get in with the rest of the group, but even by that point, I knew it wasn’t going to be my day. I was working too hard to keep my sub-3 target pace. I was five miles into the marathon and I knew it was just a matter of time until I blew up. At that point, a smarter racer would have noticed that his mile splits were consistently at least 10 seconds too fast and would have slowed down to his planned pace. Me? I just kept pushing ahead, focusing on keeping the sub-3:00 group in sight.

Mile 5 – 7:09
Mile 6 – 6:59
Mile 7 – 6:43
Mile 8 – 6:44
Mile 9 – 6:45

Around mile 8, I ran past Pablove HQ and got some nice love from the Pablove cheering section.

Colin, Kristin and Colleen were hanging out somewhere around mile 9. It was great to see them and Colin ran with me for a little bit. He took a bunch of pictures, including this one with an accidentally hilarious background.

Mile 10 was probably the beginning of the end. A few of the guys I was running with decided that it was time to bridge the gap to the rest of the sub-3 group and despite the fact that I really wanted to go with them, I knew my legs couldn’t do it. At that point, a smarter racer might have decided to adjust his goal and slow down a bit. Me? I just kept pushing ahead, focusing on keeping my mile splits at or below 6:52 for as long as possible.

I was still smiling through Hollywood.

Mile 10 – 6:39
Mile 11 – 6:41
Mile 12 – 6:50

Any hope of maintaining the sub-3 pace ended just before the half-way point. I finally ceded to the fact that I couldn’t sustain it. But maybe I could slow down a bit, re-group and still finish in the low-3s?

Mile 13 – 7:07
Mile 14 – 7:09
Mile 15 – 6:47

In West Hollywood, I saw Lukas and Tyler waiting to “pace” me to the finish.  By that time, though, I knew that their pacing duties would be much less important than keeping me company and stopping me from walking or quitting.  Elizabeth was waiting for me at the corner of Doheny and Burton, right around mile 16.  I knew she’d be there and had had this image of running past her smiling and waving and having a great time.  Instead, I was suffering and hating myself.  I did get a nice short burst from seeing her and Tyler and Lukas finally realized that this wife of mine wasn’t just imaginary!  Mile 15, in large part thanks to Elizabeth, Lukas and Tyler, was still a goal pace mile, but it was the last one.

The rest of the race got progressively harder and harder.  My goal went from sub-3:00, to 3:05, to sub-3:10 in a hurry.  Lukas and Tyler were great sports and pretty much dragged me through Beverly Hills, Century City and Brentwood.

At certain points throughout the course, we ran over timing mats that triggered messages on big screens.  Pablove was kind enough to submit this one (lucky me this is the one photo where I look as bad as I felt, check out Kate running past me on her way to a killer 3:04!):

Mile 16 – 7:16
Mile 17 – 7:37
Mile 18 – 7:46
Mile 19 – 7:31
Mile 20 – 7:43
Mile 21 – 8:00

It was nice to see more familiar faces in Brentwood – Coyotes, including Jack and Pedro, Brian and Dave and Nicole, on pacing duty and working an aid station, Dom and Cat and Jeff and Colin running around taking pictures.

Mile 22 – 8:02
Mile 23 – 8:12
Mile 24 – 8:17
Mile 25 – 8:00

I don’t remember much of the last few miles of the race. And what I do remember wasn’t very pretty!  All along, I’d hoped to get to the final downhill on San Vicente and the flat finish on Ocean Ave with somewhat fresh legs for a sprint to the finish. Maybe I could still get sub 3:10?  Yeah, right…

Mile 26.2 – 7:45
Final 0.2 – 2:43 (0.35 miles on Garmin)

But in the end I finished. And I got a PR.

Over the last nearly-three weeks, I’ve done a fair amount of thinking about the race and what happened.  I could write about it for hours.  But that would just bore all of us.  In brief, I think it came down to three tangibles and one very very intangible:

• I didn’t give myself enough road marathon training time.  I started really training specifically for LA less than nine weeks before the race.  Sure, I had the base and the experience to ensure that I could finish the race.  But finishing the race fast would have required at least three or four more weeks of speedwork and long road runs.  And probably less time spent on hilly trails.  I knew that all along, and I’m not entirely sure there’s any way I would have done things differently.  But if I’m gonna do another one of these road marathons and want to shoot for sub-3, I’ll have to commit to the training.  

• I went out too fast.  My goal was aggressive and I knew I’d have to push myself from the start to have any chance.  But I could have gone out a little slower and hoped to push the second half.  Maybe then I wouldn’t have blown up.  Or not as bad.  After going out too fast, I made another pacing mistake.   I should have been smarter and mentally stronger and, regardless of how fast I ran miles 1-4, I should have eased up just a bit once I realized I was suffering.  I was too fixated on sub-3 and 6:52 pace.  

• My planned three week taper turned into a two week taper.  In my first “taper” week, I stupidly ran about 15 miles more than originally planned.  I don’t think I’ve ever done a three week taper, but I probably could have used it this time around.  

• Running sub-3:00 is friggin’ hard.  And I knew going in that I’d need a perfect (or very near-perfect) race to do it.  And March 18 just wasn’t my day – I wasn’t injured or suffering from stomach issues or bad dehydration or anything else I can put my finger on, and I feel like my nutrition was right on, but  from the very start, my legs didn’t feel fresh and I was working harder than I should have had to.  Those days happen to the best of us.  It just sucks when it happens on a race day!

Thank goodness that’s over.  The race and the race report!  🙂