I'll spare you too much of the details but the short of it was that I woke up Thursday morning with a bad bug in my stomach. I'm guessing it was either bad meat on the burger the night before or some kind of stomach flu but either way the following day I was slammed with nausea, stomach aches and fever. Fast forward to Saturday where I was definitely feeling better but still not 100%. I spent most of that day going to the bathroom while trying to desperately replace electrolytes by chugging Pedialyte to prep for Sunday morning. And even though a 2-mile test run on the treadmill went horribly, I set my alarm for 5am anyway and decided to make it a game time decision.
After some second guessing the morning of I said to hell with it, popped an Immodium and hoped for the best. The new course for the race starts at the Venice Boardwalk and so I parked several blocks over and did a little jog to the start arriving with several minutes to spare. I initially jumped into the 1:40 area but when I spotted my friend Danica, I came back out and decided to start with her in the 2:00 corral. My goals were to get in a solid, honest longish road run without necessarily "racing" to kick off my LA Marathon training. After about 15 minutes after the scheduled start time of 7am, we were off.
It was nice to start off nice and slow as we headed south on the boardwalk. We took in the sights which were a blur of Venice bums, Vibram Five Fingers and yes, even the occasional Camelbaks. After about a mile and a half, I decided to run ahead and told Danica I'd see her at the finish. After leaving the boardwalk the runners wound around Venice down towards Marina Del Rey.
Mile 1 - 9:03
Mile 2 - 7:21
Mile 3 - 7:36
It was somewhere around mile 3+ when I saw a group huddled on a sidewalk to the left cheering the runners on. After closer inspection, it turned out to be a group of Coyotes including my buddy Dave. It was great to see them and definitely provided a boost. I continued on running at what felt like marathon effort more than half. We circled the Marina and then entered into the Ballona Creek bike path which leads out into the windy concrete path that runs along Dockweiler Beach.
Mile 4 - 7:28
Mile 5 - 7:36
Mile 6 - 7:43
Mile 7 - 7:52
The legs started feeling fatigued after the 10Kish mark so I slowed up a bit. The concrete wasn't doing my legs any favors either. We hit a bit of an incline to lead out to the out and back path along Vista Del Mar street that runs along the coast. This part was fun in that I got to see and cheer on several friends along the course. We also got a touch of drizzle that never amounted to anything more than that.
Mile 8 - 7:50
Mile 9 - 8:03
Mile 10 - 7:54
When I finally hit the turnaround before Manhattan Beach, I was still chugging along at a comfortable pace. While I could have picked up the pace a bit, my legs did feel genuinely fatigued and didn't want to thrash them for the sake up putting a slightly better time and also compromise future workouts.
Mile 11 - 8:00
Mile 12 - 7:49
Mile 13 - 7:21
Finish Time = 1:42:58
The finish had a nice little downhill and a throng of people gathered at the top of Vista Del Mar. No finish kick for me, I just simply finished with a smile on my face, grabbed my medal, said hi to some friends, cheered on a few other runners before heading back via a shuttle.
In the end, I'm glad I ended up doing this race. I got some nice miles in on a great, revised course. I didn't end up having any stomach issues during the race other than some pre-race nausea. And of course, got to see some friends I haven't seen in awhile.
Big thanks to the 13.1 Marathon series for hooking this blogga up!
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| Please don't let me be this guy... |
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| ...or this gal. |
It was nice to start off nice and slow as we headed south on the boardwalk. We took in the sights which were a blur of Venice bums, Vibram Five Fingers and yes, even the occasional Camelbaks. After about a mile and a half, I decided to run ahead and told Danica I'd see her at the finish. After leaving the boardwalk the runners wound around Venice down towards Marina Del Rey.
Mile 1 - 9:03
Mile 2 - 7:21
Mile 3 - 7:36
It was somewhere around mile 3+ when I saw a group huddled on a sidewalk to the left cheering the runners on. After closer inspection, it turned out to be a group of Coyotes including my buddy Dave. It was great to see them and definitely provided a boost. I continued on running at what felt like marathon effort more than half. We circled the Marina and then entered into the Ballona Creek bike path which leads out into the windy concrete path that runs along Dockweiler Beach.
Mile 4 - 7:28
Mile 5 - 7:36
Mile 6 - 7:43
Mile 7 - 7:52
Mile 8 - 7:50
Mile 9 - 8:03
Mile 10 - 7:54
When I finally hit the turnaround before Manhattan Beach, I was still chugging along at a comfortable pace. While I could have picked up the pace a bit, my legs did feel genuinely fatigued and didn't want to thrash them for the sake up putting a slightly better time and also compromise future workouts.
Mile 11 - 8:00
Mile 12 - 7:49
Mile 13 - 7:21
Finish Time = 1:42:58
Big thanks to the 13.1 Marathon series for hooking this blogga up!
6 comments:
Great race- very happy that you got to do it and threw down a great time despite having been sick.
Well done...good job.
Great seeing you out there Billy, and nice work!
Fun seeing you out there, even for a little bit. Sorry I'm such a turtle, but glad you went off on your own, you would have died with me... :) Glad you didn't throw up or feel absolutely terrible, but I do love your tags for this post! haha
Great report. Running a race sick is the best because then there are zero expectations and you can just have fun.
Also that pic of the dude is still one of the best pics of all time.
great job dude - nice way to kick start your training! You know why you got sick right? It's meat. All about the meat. :)
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