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| It was absolutely staggering, tear-wrenching pain that completely wiped everything else from my mind.
I finished the LA Marathon yesterday, on Sunday, March 4th, with a time of 4 hours, 20 minutes, and 35 seconds. I had an average pace of 9:49, an average speed of 6.1 mph, an average heart rate of 181 bpm (yikes!) and a max heart rate of 201. It's also worth noting that, according to my watch, I ran 26.51 miles. Go figure.
Two nights before, Laura and I watched Without Limits for inspiration. I have to say, I hadn't missed running track as much as I did that night. Fantastic film to watch before a marathon!
One night before the race, I went home relatively early after a fantastic dinner thanks to Mario, and laid everything out in preparation for the next day. I put on my clothes to make sure the bib didn't bother me, and the key tied to my shoe wouldn't flap around. I noticed I cut my foot on the rocks from the beach earlier that day (oopsie), so I had to hope that it wouldn't affect me the next day.
That morning, I woke up at 5am, and headed to the bus to drive over. Once at Universal Studios, it was a 45-minute wait to pee, followed by making our way to the start chute. It was staggering to think how few people have run marathons before, but then to look around and see everyone around you getting prepared for one. Thousands of people all about to do the same masochistic thing. The final head count was 24,015 runners.
Mile 1-2: Pace - 9:05, 8:52
The first two miles were uphill, the steepest hill section on the course. I ended up meeting up with Ansel and keeping pace with him. Both miles were taken fairly slowly, partially due to the hill, and partially due to the crowds. Everyone was still trying to find their own pace, but with so many people immediately walking or sprinting, it was an obstacle course. Not going to lie, running down to 7th and Figueroa during rush hour all those times was fantastic practice to dodge people.
Mile 3-5: Pace - 7:29, 8:02, 7:51
We crested the hill, and looked down to the city of Hollywood; stunning. The Hollywood Bowl entrance was to our right, and as we kept running, we passed Hollywood/Highland. Ansel and I were still keeping pace with each other, which was good. I kept looking at my watch and, even though I kept noticing we were going about a minute per mile faster than we should have at this point, didn't slow down significantly. I had some slight leg fatigue, but I wrote it off, since it felt similar to when I was pulling 8:30 miles during the long training runs along the beach.
We ran though some nice suburb, located south on Vine, that I never really realized existed. Lots of kids handing out orange slices. It was also here where I learned what the pink 'Legacy' bibs meant; they were on runners that have run every LA Marathon since its inception. The thought of that was a little awe-inspiring.
Mile 6: Pace - 8:51
I couldn't remember why my pace dropped so much this lap. Oh yeah, I, uh, had to pee. We passed three Elvises (Elvii?) with a boombox cart singing. They passed us while I was in the bathroom, so we ended up passing them again after I ran out. It started to get warm now.
Mile 7-9: Pace - 8:16, 8:11, 8:14
I started running through Koreatown. I was debating whether it would be worth the time loss to stop at Manna. Seriously debating. I also accidentally dropped Ansel somewhere along here, whoops. Thankfully, he only finished around eight minutes after I did. There was Korean dancing and drums along the route; this was the first time it really hit me how many people came out to cheer on the runners.
Mile 10-13: Pace - 8:28, 8:17, 8:11, 8:14
My times weren't showing it, but I was starting to feel mentally and physically fatigued. I was a little worried, partially because there was still over half a marathon to run, but also because it was around three or four miles earlier than I usually felt this drained. Now that I'm going over the data in retrospect, I noticed that starting with mile 9, and continuing through mile 16, my heart rate spiked to an average in the mid to high 190s. Far too high, and evident I was definitely working too hard. It was also along here that I started feeling dehydrated, but unable to get re-hydrated. I was stopping at the water/Gatoraide stations more frequently, but it wasn't particularly helping.
At a turn around mile 10, I saw a school of blind students were out cheering on the runners. Again, the sheer number of people out was, honestly, a little touching.
At mile 11, we got a glorious view of campus on Hoover. My pace quickened a little as a result.
Mile 14: Pace - 8:34
It was the mile stretch through the Coliseum area. Shawn was there to cheer me on and take a picture, although this was when I started feeling drained. He said that I definitely was looking in pain. It was fantastic that he was able to make it up here; I definitely need to return the favor for the Rock and Roll Marathon.
My pace went above 8:30 for the first time, and mentally it was getting tougher. I refocused on just keeping my feet moving. Interestingly, it wasn't muscle pain that was wearing me out, just a lack of energy.
Mile 15-18: Pace - 9:04, 9:52, 10:19, 10:55
There isn't too much to say here, other than this was when it started to hurt a little more. I was still trying to fight dehydration, and I was slowly working my way through my Chewy bar and Sports Beans trying to refill my rapidly-zeroing fuel stores. My energy was plummeting pretty quickly. Towards the end of mile 18, they were handing out Gu-Shots. At any other time, they taste vile, but during that moment, I thought the mango-flavored goo was one of the most delicious things I'd ever had in my life. I remember constantly doing math in my head about how many miles were left. At this point, the math wasn't sounding very good.
Mile 19: Pace - 9:46
I turned the corner, and I could see Los Angeles, I could see the familiarity of Figeuroa, and I finally got the feeling again that it was completely doable. Sprint had students run next to you with cell phones, so I called my dad and told him I was a little over an hour away. I ran through the fire trucks spraying us with water, the inspirational tunnel (I heard 'We Will We Will Rock You'), and was feeling pretty good. I thought my energy levels were returning (since that tended to happen during long runs), and, after checking out my watch, I realized if I hit a pace around 9:10, I could still finish sub-4 hours. I picked up my pace, I was feeling fantastic, USC students were cheering me on, it was great.
Mile 20: Pace - 15:19
Moments later, my legs completely gave out. All of the muscles below my hip cramped at once, and I stumbled off to the side of the course to the water area. I'll admit I was crying at this point; I don't remember feeling pain so sudden and staggering before. Everything else stopped mattering, even though all I wanted was to keep moving. Two of the volunteers came over, and helped me stretch, gave me salt, and helped me pull it back together. I thanked them after around five minutes, and started walking again.
People cheer your name a whole lot more when you walk.
Mile 21-23: Pace - 10:38, 12:10, 13:21
After getting a brief glimpse of downtown, we turned right to head down to east LA, passing through the Fashion District on the way. My legs weren't recovered; I had to slow down every five minutes to stretch them out and keep them from cramping up again. It was also made tougher by another hill to work our way up. I don't remember too much from this stretch, except that there were a lot of kids cheering me on because of my USC jersey, a lot of signs that said 'Welcome to East LA!' and when I did the mental math for how many miles were left, it was finally beginning to sound reasonable (three miles, instead of thirteen).
Mile 24-25: Pace - 12:36, 12:54
We were on a bridge, and as we went up and down over it, we had a glorious view of Los Angeles, absolutely breath-taking. I had never seen LA from that angle before; the runners with cameras or cell phones all took them out. I need to go back there and take pictures. My legs were weights that my hips had to move; the normal muscles weren't too keen on working anymore. Towards the end of mile 25, it was finally reaching places where I recognized again. A girl was running next to me in a gold and green shirt, with the word 'Pre' on the back. Again, Without Limits is a fantastic movie to watch before a marathon.
When I was slowing down at one point, a photographer yelled/cheered at me "Fight on! You're a USC Trojan! Trojans never quit, they always finish!" I love going to this school.
Mile 26: Pace - 11:49
I recognized the streets again, I knew where I was, I just had to finish. The streets were lined with hundreds of people. I tried to increase my pace, I was so close to the end. My left quad decided that it was done running, so I was drag/limping my left leg behind me. The crowd saw this, and cheered even harder for me to finish. I saw the Trojan dressed up that the team saw in the morning. I could see the intersection of Flower and 7th, and knew I only had two blocks after that. The pain was staggering again, but my legs wouldn't stop moving.
Mile 26.2: Pace - 9:57
The final two blocks were emotionally overwhelming. Seemingly thousands of people, held back by fence, cheering for everyone. I heard Shawn call my name (surprisingly, amid everyone else doing it), I turned to smile, and there's now a fantastic picture of me finishing. Crossing the finish line was the second time I cried during the race, or at least had my eyes welling. It was five months of preparation for this one single moment.
I'll be honest, through the pain and all the times my legs were convinced I wouldn't be able to do it, I was confident I could. It was a matter of doing it, and I'm incredibly glad I did. The people I got to know, the people I got to know better, everything was worth it in the end.
I'm planning to continue jogging; I think I'm addicted to the runner's high now (just to reiterate, my time was 4:20). I'm definitely planning to run the marathon next year. I can already hear my legs protesting, but they'll get over it in a few months. | | |
| Sometime Friday morning, my poor little Honda Civic was maliciously taken from me and lost to the jungles of Los Angeles. I thought it was gone forever, until Saturday morning, we received a call from the police saying they found it and to go retrieve it from the impound lot.
This is what we found:
Yikes. My poor baby  . What they took that you can't see includes the shocks, the airbags, the change drawer, the little lever you pull to pop the gas cap open, my Suburban Legends CDs (bastards), my prescription sunglasses, my Apple ID badge holder (but they left the ID, go figure), the radio and speakers, and other various little car parts I probably couldn't tell were when I was looking around.
On the plus side, at least, they left my Apple static cling (they don't make those anymore, whoo), and the license plates (I have something to frame for posterity's sake at least).
The insurance company's going to check out the car, and determine whether it's cheaper to repair it or to crush it into a three foot by three foot cube and paying out the worth of the car. If it's the latter, which is more likely, it means time to start looking for decent, inexpensive, manual cars to get before classes start. CraigsList ho! | | |
| I got the chance to go down to the beach with Senna and take some pictures. I think sometime I'm going to go down to the pier at 3am or so and take lots of time exposer pictures as the sun rises. Hopefully some shots will turn out nicely.
I took Senna down to the beach and took some night photography. I'm still trying to get used to the D70, so these were all with the P2. Senna was surprisingly (pleasantly?) obedient for once.
Matt and his dog:
There's something slightly 'fixed' in the above image that I did in Photoshop. Can anyone guess what it is?
There were a lot of people on the strand tonight. Probably because it was a really nice night to be outside  . | | |
| I haven't been able to play around in Photoshop (or, uh, post on these journals) in a long, long while.
I've forgotten how awesome March can be for films. Granted, last year wasn't great, but the year before had Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This year, V for Vendetta is an amazing film. Is it an action thriller? A controversial thought piece? 1984+50? Either way, it's a surprisingly good film. The message is a little heavy-handed, but it's still an interesting message.
Inside Man and Thank You for Smoking are two more March movies that I'm aiming to see before they leave theaters.
Whenever I'm walking or driving through Los Angeles, I'm always wondering where everyone's going.
I haven't been to the beach in way too long a time. The weather in LA's been nice lately, though. | | |
| "Nerdality++;"
I was at the Palos Verdes Library today and wandered down to the used book section in the underground parking lot to see if I could find anything interesting.
I grabbed a book on entitled Get Fit with Bicycling, written in 1979. Hey, cycling hasn't changed much in the last eighty years, getting fit even less so. And the bikes are the same as mine.
The real prize of the day, though, was a box of old Macworlds from 1985. I was flipping through them when the title hit me like a Vogon Constructor Fleet hits a small, insignificant blue-green planet. There it was, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Macintosh," with a full-page cover of Douglas Adams. Glancing inside showed the articles on the author, his multiple Macintoshes, and the Infocom text adventure. The picture of him in the magazine shows him with his trusty towel; it's white and green.
On a side note, out of all the companies and all the advertisements in the magazine, Macworld, Microsoft, and Apple are the only companies still around today.
Yikes. | | |
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