Sly versus 26.2

So 16 weeks of training and a 5 month California visitation drought finally came to an end. On March 21st, I ran the "Stadium to the Sea" LA Marathon, which went from Dodger Stadium to the Santa Monica Pier. We were worried about traffic to Dodger Stadium and race officials recommended runners to be there 2 hours prior to the race. We got there with no problems, so I had a lot of time to kill. I saw Chef Gordon Ramsay, American Idol singer Allison Iraheta (she sang the National Anthem), and NBA player AC Green (motivational speaker). I sat near the centerfield wall wrapped in a blanket, waiting for the race to start. Before I knew it, it was time to line up and I hadn't even warmed up yet. Oops. Mistake #2 was getting stuck in the 11:00 pace corral. I should have wedged my way up closer to the front as this cost me about 6 minutes of time trying to break out of the pack and get into the rhythm of my pace. Mistake #3 was not using the port-a-potty before lining up. About 10 minutes before the gun was about to go off, I decided I needed to pee. It took about 8 miles to get the though out of my head, and the worry that my pee was weighing me down.

Instead of breaking the race up into 5 phases like I had planned, I ended up focusing on each mile, one at a time, trying to stay right around an 8:00 pace. This worked well, and some miles seemed to come super fast. Once I hit mile 20, I picked up my pace slightly, and really kicked it in the last mile and a half. I was cruising past people at that point. I decided a little too late to go for my goal of qualifying for Boston just a little too late. My finishing time was 3:42:08, 1:09 off from qualifying. I definitely ran a little too conservative, but I felt like I finished really strong. Overall, I was happy with my race. There's a possibility I may run it again next year... we'll see. Ha ha.

Other celebrities running were Shia LaBeouf (Transformers), Sean Astin (Lord Of The Rings), and Audrina Patridge (reality star).

The rest of the trip was great. A short meeting with Chris, massages, New Moon, and good family company. I recovered remarkably well, only sore for about 2 days (going down stairs sucked), but was able to run 4.5 miles and play in my 2 soccer games 3 days post race. I was a little nervous about being ready for the La Jolla Half Marathon 5 weeks after running a marathon, but it looks like that won't be a problem. I got back into training with no problems, and 13.1 miles seems like a breeze now.

Here's my marathon journey...

3 weeks from today, I'm out of this miserable weather and back in Cali. :)