昔々あるところに, (A long long time ago, somewhere) I participated in the 2015 L.A. Marathon and finished! It was quite the experience and a spur-of-the-moment, bucket-list-completing thing that I did with my childhood friend Ray, and a significant step in my life, so I need to review it.
When asked about doing the marathon, I often compare it to taking a big test, like the SATs or the Bar Exam, the training is much more involved than the actual race itself. If the test (or race) is prepared for properly, the execution on test/race day should be pretty satisfying and take care of itself.
Marathon training was TOUGH. I'm still in pretty good athletic shape (although I've probably reached my athletic peak at this stage and even more so when I hit 30- it's all downhill from there), so I can probably do a 10k (6 miles or so) any day given the right amount of rest and nutrition the day before, but 26.2 miles seems like a mountain compared to that. I'd heard of marathon training groups and detailed plans beforehand, but I figured I could do it on my own (like studying Japanese, I'm kind of a do-it-yourself-er) and the plan was to ramp up each time by 2 miles, from 6 to 8 to 10 up until 20 the week of the marathon on March 15, 2015 (I'd read an article somewhere that said you could safely stop at 20 as the race-day adrenaline would somehow kick in - boy would this prove wrong).
Fortunately for me I live in a run-friendly neighborhood in West LA, and there's a perfect creekside trail called the Baloona Creek Trail (usually reserved for bikers) that runs down to the Pacific Ocean and happened to be like exactly 6 miles, so I kept adding miles until on the 5th or 6th run, I could hit the Pacific Ocean and run back (exactly 12 miles!) It was a peaceful run with minimal traffic, just me and my Ipod listening to news, fantasy baseball, all with the end goal in mind. I also ran around some old stomping grounds (get it?) around the Rose Bowl, and stopped at an even 20 the week of the race.
Day of the race was rough. Signed up pretty late for the event, so had to take one of the first shuttles from Santa Monica (the race makes you park in Santa Monica, the end point, way early in the morning then take a shuttle to Dodger Stadium, the start) at 4:30AM. AM!!!!! This after having spent all of Saturday (the race was on a Sunday) carefully selecting what to eat, checking into the race (yes there's a check-in time to get your bib, an extraneous trip IMO made necessary by their sponsors trying to sell all their running gear) and trying to fall asleep at 10PM. I know it's just a race, but it's NERVE-WRACKING knowing what your body is going to have to go through in mere hours, especially for my first race.
Dodger Stadium was PACKED with racers, more people in the parking lot than I've seen there for some Dodger games. The start is PACKED with people and my friend and I were in one of the last troughs to go so it took like 15 minutes before the pro runners started that we got to even sniff the starting line.
Some observations:
1.) the race wraps around downtown L.A. with Olivera Street, Chinatown, and Little Tokyo to begin. L.A. to has a nice loop of these ethnic neighborhoods (I think we also stopped in the Phillippinetown somewhere along the way).
2.) an easy mistake (that I kind of fell into) was people going too hard too early. I told myself not to, but because there were so many bananas and energy bars available, my body was so full and ready to go it was hard not to exert myself early on. I kept eating and sustaining myself during the race where every mile it seemed there were oranges/ bananas available, but...
3.) Mile 20 was a HUGE crash. My body just gave out, had no will to run, not to mention some nasty uphills to tire one out. I usually can go on by just walking, but I didn't even want to walk, I just wanted to lay down and not move for awhile. Adrenaline had given out and my body's practice of 20 miles had reached its limit. Not a good feeling and really only through sheer power of will did I keep going at a snail's pace. Also probably motivated by people around me passing me, like getting passed by old ladies and little kids.
4.) The half marathon also goes at the same time, and I think some people do some sort of "relay marathon" where one person does one half and at the halfway point tags their partner in to do the 2nd half, which I thought was kind of lame and made me question my resolve as I saw people starting with fresh legs at mile 13.
5.) Lots of interesting signs and supporters around different areas of marathon, and they had plenty of people with water and gatorade around which was nice. The liquids though got really warm as the day wore on (and the sun started to come out so most of that water was used just to pour down my back and on to my face, for refreshing purposes. It felt good though.
6.) USE THE RESTROOM before the race. Can't stress this enough. I didn't have to use it until after Mile 20 due to sheer exhaustion, but it totally breaks up the rhythm to have to use the restroom in midstride and have to get back into the groove again. The porterpotties are available, but definitely not suggested.
7.) There were a few big downhills that made me feel good about myself as I strided down confidently and passed a bunch of people, but I probably exerted too much energy there that I could have used later on. Probably would have learned that in a marathon group....
8.) Finishing is gratifying and getting that big finisher award medal is sweet, but then you have to find your parking spot and drive home through a ton of traffic (everybody else is trying to drive home at the same time!) And your feet/ legs are of course not working really well and everything's already feeling sore, plus pure exhaustion. It's certainly not like the movies where the main character raises his fists in triumph and kisses the girl/ goes to a huge welcoming crowd. For me and my friend we just.....went home and posted it on facebook.
All in all, the L.A. Marathon was a great, non-replicable experience and my first taste of true exhaustion but also true accomplishment (anything worth doing is hard). Not sure if I'll ever do another marathon again, but a half-marathon is definitely in play. I run for life.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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