I can't complain. It was 65 at the start, 79 by the time I was at mile 21. I was SEVERELY undertrained. I did a 19 miler two weeks ago and didn't touch my running shoes again until Friday before the race. The 3 mile run on Friday was rough. The 19 miler was supposed to be the 20 miles, but I had to stop at 19 because I felt like I had strained my groin. So I stopped and stretched and things seemed to be okay. But on Friday, I was feeling it again.
Sure enough, mile 8, that groin started acting up enough that I was certain I had strained it. It hurt, but thankfully, not bad enough that I couldn't keep going at a slower pace.
My bowels were also giving me issues around mile 12, so I finally hopped in a porta potty at mile 15 marker. There weren't enough water stations and I felt dehydrated for much of the race. I'm pretty sure I'm sunburnt despite a generous application of sunblock and a hat.
So given all those issues, being just 5 minutes slower than my very first marathon where I was better trained and ran in a cool cloudy 65 degrees throughout condition, this is a win in my book. I even managed to average a 9:27 my last mile again.
About the LA marathon itself: I'm glad that I did it since it was the very first one that I'd seen that inspired me to want to run a marathon, but I'm probably never running it again. To the organizers' credit, with a field of 25,000, the course didn't seem overly crowded. You were always running with people, yet you still always had room to run. It also didn't take us overly long to get to the start. I was expecting to wait nearly half an hour before I'd get to the start line, but I was there in less than 3 minutes. I also appreciated the number of spectators that came out and supported us along the course. BUT, it's still a field of 25,000, which made the logistics of this race a nightmare. It took nearly an hour for my friend's parents to get through the traffic for the race just to pick us up. The finish line was over 20 miles from the start, but there were no shuttles back to the start where I had parked my car. The medal at the end was just okay, and the food at the finish line left MUCH to be desired. With an early bird entry fee of $150 and given that LA is HOT, I much rather pass. There are so many better races out there. Flying Pig being one of them.
1 comment:
So I forgot you had a running blog. :/ (Blame pregnancy brain?) I was wondering when this race was and if you ran it and how you did...now I know all the answers! It sounds like you did well, but didn't enjoy it too much, and that's a bummer. There's a marathon (or half, or 10K) here in Dayton in September. You get a medal with an Air Force plane -- it will match the plane that does a wicked fly-over before the start of the race! Think about it. There would also be a super cute baby waiting for you at the finish line. ;)
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