I finally made it to the LA Marathon. Way back in 2015 this was supposed to be my 2nd marathon, but I chickened out a few days before the race. It was going to be a hot day and I think I was still traumatized from the very hot conditions in my first marathon the previous September. Backing out was a good decision because I clearly wasn’t ready. A month later, I joined a running group to train for the 2015 Ventura Marathon and had a great experience.
That seems like so long and so many marathons ago! This was my 11th marathon. So how did it go? Not as good as I’d hoped and better than I’d hoped.
Training went well. I successfully pushed my volume to that I had a couple 50+ miles weeks and was averaging mid-40s for the bulk of the training. I had to be careful here because I have been dealing with an unhappy achilles and didn’t want to make it worse. So, working with both a chiropractor and a PT, I was able to carefully increase the mileage while healing. I had a couple of weeks that I had to back off and that’s ok. The therapy along with daily mobility work has given me some pretty healthy calves…and a happy achilles. Note: I don’t recommend running with an injury unless you are working with a professional who gives you the ok and is continuing to monitor. If I’d worked with my team sooner my achilles would have healed long ago.
Knowing that the LAM course is hilly, when my achilles felt ok, I also trained on hills as much as I could. A group of us even drove down to LA to get in a 20 mile course run.
I’ve done a good job of incorporating strength training and have been doing workouts from Jay Dicherry’s Running Rewired. All in all I felt prepared.
A last comment on training – it’s been colder than normal this winter. We had lots of training runs with temperatures in the 40s. It was great for training and totally not normal for SoCal.
Sleep and Diet
I attribute this to menopause, but I don’t sleep as well as I used to. I especially don’t sleep well when I’m away from home. The night before The San Francisco Marathon I slept horribly, in fact I don’t think I slept. I was hoping for something better, but just in case I got in some good quality rest in the week before the race. Unfortunately I didn’t sleep well the night before this race either…but it wasn’t as bad as San Francisco. Thankfully I felt fine in the morning.
As to diet, I quit eating meat about 5 weeks before the race. I note this, but also don’t think it had a big impact, which is fine. I do think that on none race nights I’ve been sleeping a bit better. Maybe from my diet? I’m not sure.
Race Morning
We (my, son, and daughter) arrived at Dodger Stadium at about 5:30am. We went inside to look and take a photo. Lots of people were sitting (trying to sleep) in the stands. But the seats were wet, so we left. We walked around a little and found a place to hang out, eat a snack, and take of the clothes that would go in our drop bags.
We then did our warm ups, waited in line for the bathrooms, and then found our way to our corrals.
My Goal
One mistake I made was that my A (9:09 pace), B (9:15 pace), and C (9:20 pace) goals were too close together. All of them would have gotten me a Boston qualifying time and would have been a PR. My PR is 4:04:49, a 9:21 pace, run on a downhill course. I was optimistic because I believe I am in better shape than when I ran that PR.
The Race
Well…this didn’t turn out as I expected. I thought I started slow enough and was well within my goal paces, but I still had great struggles on those later hills.
One frustration was that my Garmin (Fenix) was off from the very beginning. I understand that this is always a possibility, but so far it has been off so much in races that my goals/training paces are way off target. This day I was very diligent about running the tangents and by the end of the race I was still off by .40 (why can’t it ever be in my favor? 😜)
When I reached the halfway point, I was on pace according to my watch but I knew that was meaningless and according to the race clock I was already 2 minutes behind. There’s no real making up that much of a gap. I really have to stop looking at time! Because then I had to convince myself to keep trying.
The hills in the second half were way harder than they were when we did our course run. I remembered that the climbing was hard in that run, but not as hard as I was currently experiencing. I also knew that when I got to Sepulveda, it would be even harder. And it was!
Thankfully there were a lot of people here cheering and encouraging us runners. I want to give a shout-out to the Pasadena Pacers Run Club. They had a huge group out there to support their runners. When the saw someone from their club coming they’d shout out that a Pacer was coming. Then a club member would go out and run with them for a few minutes. That was great! If I lived nearby I’d seriously think about joining their run club.
As I climbed Sepulveda and then Wilshire, I was looking forward to the downhill finish. I kept thinking that I would at least redeem a little bit of my time. Once I got there I did go faster, but my quads were on fire and what seemed fast to me was barely my easy run pace. So much for that!
I ended up completing the race in 4:26:16. This was 16 minutes slower than what I need to go back to Boston and thus 16 minutes (or more) slower than all of my goal paces for the day. Oh well. I think I will still get it at Jack and Jill.
Two More Observations
First – Street Preachers
There were two different street preachers out in the first third of the race. One man was standing on a bridge yelling down at us as we passed my. The other had a portable amp for his “preaching.” They were both sharing “hellfire and brimstone” messages. I wanted to yell at them both to “shut-up.” Seriously, what do they think they are doing except trying to bring attention to themselves? They were certainly not sharing anything remotely close to the love that God has for us…and for our world.
A better role model was found in the athletes who were running for World Vision and its mission of helping communities access clean water. That says a lot more about God and our sharing of God’s love.
Second – Road Conditions & Yeah for Trail Running
Overall I’d say that the course was nice. But there were a few spots where the road was buckled, or where there were unpatched holes. Considering all of our rain, I wasn’t surprised. I was also thankful that I occasionally run trails. I think that the experience of running on uneven surfaces helps to prepare your body to respond and thus prevent injury. I would definitely recommend occassionally hitting the trails for all runners.
I Almost Forgot the Better Than Expected Part
Although I did not run as fast as I’d hoped, it seems that many others did not either. So, I did way better than I imagined in the standings.
Division (F55-59): 35 out of 360 (top 10%)
Female: 1,153 of 8,224 (top 14%)
Overall: 4,801 of 20,029 (top 24%)
