Race Report: LA Marathon 2009

*warning - a very looong and pic heavy race report to follow!

Wow, what a weekend.

I had my reservations about running this race - I fully admit that. I was among the masses up in arms about the switch in dates from early March, to Memorial Day in May. In protest, I was going to skip out on this race and run San Diego instead, but since I double-booked and planned a lavish trip up to Yosemite with my friends, I opted to reluctantly register for Los Angeles and pace my cousin to his first ever marathon.

I sure am glad I was wrong - today, you couldn't have asked for better marathon weather. First thing's first though...

The Expo:

Thanks to Jessica, I found out that the author of "Born to Run" Christopher McDougall would be in attendance for only the first day of the expo (Saturday). Knowing my cousin could only attend the following day for bib pickup, I said the hell with it and decided to go both days. So Saturday afternoon after work, I headed downtown.

Immediately, it struck me that both the scale and attendance of the expo was down from previous years. It's pretty easy to point to the switch in dates and the slumping economy for that.

After perusing through the usual fare of expo stands, I spot the Moeben stand which is where the author was to be positioned. Thanks to his YouTube videos, I knew what he looked like but was thrown off by his size (the dude's TALL). I had a zillion questions for the guy (and I haven't even read the book yet - just received it on Friday!) and he happily answered each and every one of them before signing a copy of the book that I brought. Can't wait to read it. After conversing with him for several minutes, I moved aside so he could talk to other curious passerby's and I began perusing the Moeben section.

Now anyone that's been reading my blog is hip to my affinity for sleeves. Well, the Moeben stand was just a sheer orgy of various sleeves both in design and fabric. But as I'm shopping, someone points out Jorge Pacheco to me hanging out with the Moeben peeps (they're a sponsor). Ecstatic about meeting arguably the top ultra runner racing today, I drop what I'm doing and make a beeline towards him. He too graciously obliged to discuss and answer all my questions from his training to upcoming races. Jorge was a bit reserved but plenty friendly and an absolutely stand-up dude. I wished him luck in Badwater and the AC100, and went back to looking.

It was then that I met Shannon, the owner of Moeben sleeves and an amazingly accomplished ultrarunner in her own right. We had a great conversation about her product and her running career and at the end of it, graciously kicked down a nice discount off of a pair of sweet looking sleeves (and they are sweeet).


Our lovely Moeben sleeves owner Shannon showing off her Badwater buckle

I thanked her but realized that my meter was up about 10 minutes ago so I took off in my Vibrams to my car which was thankfully spared a ticket.

Day 2 of the expo was more about business as I accompanied my cousin to pick up our respective bibs and shop for a new pair of shorts, visor and some Gu for him. Then, I picked up some takeout spaghetti dinner for us, went to work, went home, laid out my gear and crashed around 11pm with a 4:30am wakeup call.

The Race:





This turned out to be one big block party. Big ups to the residents of LA for cheering us on. Also ran into a slew of people I knew throughout the course of the race, which was nice. And of course, the weather was near-perfect.

I decided to rock my new Moeben sleeves (which I received many compliments for) and rainbow colored Injinji's (an homage to my bud Ryan). My cousin Kyu (pronounced "Q") ran late as per usual. We went over to pickup Cody a little before 6am and was able to maneuver through downtown traffic, park and be at the starting area with plenty of time to spare. I also ran into my buddy Emil who joined Cody, Kyu and I at the porta-pottie lines. While the boys waited to pee, I opted for my usual race morning ritual of trash bag plus 32 oz Gatorade bottle (lemon lime - very important). You can use your imagination on how to take care of the rest.

I also spotted "Barefoot Ken Bob" and snapped a picture with him. After wishing Emil luck, my cousin and I inched our way to about the middle of the crowd while Cody decided to join the 4:00 pace group. After one final pee, I shed the trash bag and a little after 7:25am, the LA runners (heh) were off to the usual tune of Randy Newman's "I Love LA"!

The goal (other than bringing him across the line alive) was to bring him in under 5 hours. Sub-4:45 if things were really going great and he could hang on. But let's bear in mind, his longest run until this point has been a run of about 12 miles. That's right - 12 miles.

I cautioned my cousin that it would be slow going during the initial mile as runners begin zig-zagging every which way to jockey for position. Then there were of course, the walkers (right out of the gate) that we had to get around. The skies were blissfully gray and my cousin and I hummed along for the initial mile before he announced, "I have to pee". The boy must have a bladder the size of a lab rat because we ended up stopping a couple of times in the first 3-4 miles alone. I also ran into a pair of CA Runner's World peeps in Joe and Ingrid in the first few miles. I snapped this picture of their backside before I snuck up on them:



Knowing the first 14 or so miles would be rather drab scenery as we ran through South and Mid-City Los Angeles, I just frequently checked in with my cousin as we ran making sure I pulled in the reigns when he moved too fast, cautioning that he'd need to summon every bit of energy for the final stretch.

Somewhere around 4 1/2 miles after passing USC, I spot a curious gentleman running on the sidewalk off to my right. I quickly realize it's none other than Ultra Marathon Man, Dean Karnazes himself. Although I've met him a few times by now, I re-introduce myself and he seems to remember me. We chat briefly about what he's doing (racing in the marathon after running down from Santa Barbara) and what he's going to do (running down to San Diego from LA to race in the SD RnR Marathon). He moves on, I just shake my head at his crazy endurance.


Hi, I'm Dean. The marathon is just a little warm up run for me.

Now before I get too down on having to run through some of the "lower rent" district of Los Angeles, plenty of people did come out to support and represent. Clapping, cheering, high-fives, the whole gamut. My cousin and I were both enjoying ourselves and I could tell this whole experience was a real eye-opener for him in particular. From the cast of characters that show up to run the race to having a bunch of strangers essentially cheering you on...there's really nothing that can match the experience of running a big-city marathon.

A little after mile 11, we had the one big climb of the day over a freeway overpass that seemed to stretch on forever. For some odd reason, I developed a 'hot spot' on my left forefoot around mile 8-ish and was achy in places that ordinarily would not bother me until the latter stages of a marathon. So this hill did take some effort, and then some. I cautioned Kyu to shorten his stride and increase his cadence and we eventually found ourselves on the other side coming down.

After mile 14, I find myself in much more familiar ground as we march up towards the West Hollywood/Miracle Mile side of town. A little before mile 15, we surprisingly spot Cody walking up ahead looking down in the dumps. He apparently had a rough go of it today and was not having a good day. After running with us briefly, he lets us go and my cousin and I continue on through some of the more affluent neighborhoods.


The marathon gave the residential parts of town plenty of reasons to come out and party as people are giving out water and orange slices, with some folks playing music and just hanging out on their lawns cheering. One guy in particular though after seeing me, does a bit of a double-take and while gesturing in my direction says aloud, "wait...is that Harold?!". I'm a bit confused by this until I realize he's referring to John Cho of "Harold and Kumar" fame (I get this a lot).



While my cousin and I have been doing great up until this point (and much better than the sub-5 I was shooting for), things start to unravel around miles 17 on. Not too coincidentally, this was also the portion where the relatively flat course would start climbing a bit. I do my best to wave him along, all the while making sure he hydrates and Gu's up every now and again. Our paces start to suffer though and I can tell it's going to take tremendous digging for him to make it to the finish line.

Around mile 19, I spot Kathy (also from CA RWOL) who just happens to be handing out little cups of beer with her friends. Who am I to turn down some much-needed carbs at this point? Thanking her and shooting down the delicious brew, my cousin and I continue down Park La Brea towards Hancock Park.

He is cramping pretty badly at this point, and he had to stop several times to stretch as were a whole host of others off to the side. Boy could I relate. It started to look like a battlefield out there. I guardedly urged him on knowing we were on pace to a very good finishing time for a newb and wanting to make sure he left it all out there, so he couldn't look back with regret.


Some dude running in jeans...what the hell?

In spite of being just single-digits away, the finish line seemed so far away. My cousin is trying everything at this point to get his legs to keep him moving forward, as am I. We walked, I gave him some salt tablets, tried running backwards, got them sprayed down with Salonpas, stretched some more...the whole 9 yards. Amazingly though, he got through that rough patch and could at least start running again.


In pain and stretching his beat up legs

With Koreatown now in view, I knew that we were just a few measly miles away. We were about 20 minutes ahead of schedule according to my 5-hour pace band and Garmin and wanted to bring him in under 4:45. The dude seriously toughed it out and did his best to keep up with me for the final stretch.


Running into and with 'Ultra Shannon' again


THE best Korean tofu soup in the world. Seriously. Fam and I have been going for years.

The sweetest sounds you can hear in the LA Marathon (or most marathons for that matter) are the sounds of taiko drums beating. Nothing gets your adrenaline, spirits and energy up quite like it. In LA in particular, hearing those drums means you are ever so close to the finish line. So as we made our way towards the finish back to where it all started from in downtown LA, I called on Kyu to finish strong and earn that finish. So with one last final push and the gaggle of crowds to cheer us in during the homestretch, it was all over.



Final time (officially) = 4:42:17

Very proud of that dude. He dug deep and pretty much ran his heart out for that finish. There were some minor post-race activity involving EMT's, getting lost trying to find our car in hilly downtown and a broken camera (mine), but in the interest of shutting up about today already, I'll end things here.

I'll just say that the skies were overcast for the duration, and it wasn't until after we had crossed the finish line, that the sun finally broke through. It was a good day.

Thanks for reading.