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LA Marathon – Expo and Race Day Athlete Tracking

All checked in and ready to go. LA Marathon here we go!

I went to the Expo today and picked up my race packet (bib number 10537) and walked around a bit to see if there was anything I needed to buy (a few gels and a couple pairs of Balega socks was the extent of it today). The “B” in front of my race number on my bib confirmed that I’m in the “B” corral (for people with a recent sub-4 hour marathon), which is where the group I’m planning to run with will be meeting.

I made sure to get a taste of Ultima Replenisher, the official electrolyte drink of the race. I was excited to check out this all natural, zero sugar, electrolyte-loaded drink. But let me tell you, it is disgusting. Luckily, it’s not going to get too hot during the race, so I’ll be able to stick with water, gels and a few salt pills. As a side note, while it’s important to have an electrolyte drink on the course, having one with only 10 calories per serving doesn’t make sense, even if it tastes good. I’m not a fan of Gatorade, but at least it works in a pinch if I need some extra calories during the race. OK, OK, enough of that…

I also stopped by the KT Tape booth to get my ankle/lower tibia taped up. I stood in line for a looooooong time, but I think it was worth it to get taped by a “pro”. All the instruction videos online are great, but first you have to figure out which application to use! Talking to Joe (the PT hard at work doing the taping at the booth) was really helpful. And since he was taping with KT Tape Pro, I’m not worried about the application falling off before the race.

I also finally read the info about race-day tracking.  If you’re interested in following my progress during the race, here are the details:

You can sign up to receive emails and/or text messages with my splits during the race. They’ll be sending updates at 10K, 20K, 30K, 40K and the finish line. Click here to sign up. (Mom and Dad, I took the liberty of signing you up myself – but you still need to reply to the text message and email to authorize it.) I also just set it up so that updates will be posted to my facebook profile.

The race is scheduled to start at 7:24am, but I think it has a history of starting late, so don’t be surprised if my first split is a little later than expected.

And if you’ll be out on the course, I shouldn’t be too hard to find. Just keep an eye out for my pink hat!