Wednesday, March 22, 2006

I Heart LA

I just wanted to report that I had tons of fun in LA last weekend and also managed to cross an item off my life's to do list by completing the 21st Annual Los Angeles Marathon. Here's my best shot at summarizing the 5 hours 27 minutes and 53 seconds spent on the course in addition to the days, hours, and months leading up to the big day. (Sorry so long!)

Marathon Striptease

Although I carefully picked out my race day outfit a couple weeks before boarding the plane and brought back up clothing in case the weather was cold, there was an aspect of dressing properly that I had not prepared for. LA has been having a bit of a cold snap lately, meaning that it dropped below 70 degrees and has been raining some. But on race day, the weather was perfect sunny and around 65 degrees. However, this was still a little chilly for shorts and a tank top and I would likely be too cold while waiting for the race to begin and when running the first few miles. Deborah, who has run two marathons, suggested wearing extra clothes at the beginning and ditching them during the race. It's a common enough phenomenon that the clean up crews collect and donate the cast-off clothing. So we went to Goodwill the day before and I bought a "disposable" warm-up outfit for around nine dollars. (The pants and top were even the same brand and looked pretty darn cute even though I picked them exclusively based on functionality and cost.) I ditched the pants right before the start line (I almost tripped taking them off, but not quite) and I lost the long-sleeved shirt around mile three. I wonder if they'll end up back at the same Goodwill from whence I bought them . . .

Strength in Numbers

The Marathon Expo the day before had lots of exciting booths with free samples, demonstrations, race gear, etc. And, it was LA so the Expo included a contest to win plastic surgery and a Scientology consultation table. Although I didn't win free implants or learn the ways of L. Ron Hubbard, I did chat with the people at the Clif Bar Pace Team booth. I talked to Sharona woman who said she would be leading a group that planned on finishing the Marathon in 5:30and she seemed really cool and encouraging. I had trained alone and planned to race alone, but after talking to her, I figured I might as well meet up with the group at the starting line and give it a try. Even though I decided to join the group on a whim, I'm so glad I did!

The Big Day

The night before, we met up with Karen for a relaxing carb-loading meal at an Italian place in Pasadena, stopping off for some yummy frozen yogurt before heading to bed early. I didn't get much sleep that night, but more than I usually do before big events like these. (I didn't sleep a wink the night before the first day of the bar exam or the night before my first triathlon.) I at least slept long enough to have a really dorky dream wherein Chief Justice Roberts yelled at me for buying clothes from Goodwill with the intention of throwing them away during the race.

We got to the start of the race in plenty of time, I didn't forget anything (except to put sunscreen on my legs), and I found my Pace group after only a slight detour through the group of runners in the sub-4 category (hard core!). The other people in my pace group seemed nice and the crowd was pumped up with opening words by Cruz Bustamante (I guess Arnold was booked) and continued blasting of the song, I Love LA (which is still in my head.)

The race started out fine. The group was to keep about a 12:30 minute / mile pace and take two walk breaks every mile. (I didn't train this way, but it actually ended up being a really good way to do it.) Sharon ran while holding up red and yellow balloons so we could always find the group in case we fell behind.

The first bit of drama I endured during the Marathon was, as always, the result of my worst enemy during events like thesemy bladder. I figured that it would just get more annoying the longer I waited, so I left the group around Mile 2 to wait in line for a port-a-potty. Unfortunately, this took at least 15 minutes! After leaving the bathrooms, I was worried that I was too far behind to catch up with Sharon, but I decided that I should at least try. I ran at a faster pace with no walk breaks, peering frantically into the distance for the red and yellow balloons. When I hadn't found them by Mile 5, I started to panic a little. I knew that at some point I would have to slow down and settle into a steadier pace, and I started to stress myself out trying to figure out when to give up on finding my group. I managed to calm down once I starting thinking about what I had just done. I had just run five miles like it was no big deal! This in itself was a huge accomplishment from where I was a year ago.

I kept running and soon enough I passed a group holding a sign for a 13-minute mile pace, which meant that I couldn't be too far behind my group. I finally found them somewhere between Mile 5 and the 10k marker. When I spotted those balloons, it literally felt like I was six years old and had just found my mother in the supermarket after losing her in the cereal aisle. It was such a relief! I'm sure I could have finished the race without the group, but having someone else in charge of the pace made the mental aspect so much easier.

Overall, I thought the first half of the marathon was very enjoyable and doable. I chatted with people, enjoyed running through LA's various neighborhoods, and engaged in my favorite pastime of people-watching the spectators and other runners. I high-fived the pom-poms of a local cheerleading squad and ran through a tent that was blasting the theme song from Chariots of Fire. I wouldn't say that it was easy, but the first half was well within my comfort zone.

Finishing Strong

It started to get harder around mile 14-15, partially because of some uphills and partially because the reality of what I was actually doing started to sink in. Jason and Aura live around the Mile 16 marker and they stood outside their house to cheer me on. I stopped long enough to give Jason (from my small section first year of law school) a big sweaty hug, and then kept on going.

I felt a second wind around Miles 18 and 19, which were breezy and partly downhill, but I started to panic again around Mile 20. At first I was like, "Oh, 20 down, 6 to go, no problem." But then I started to freak out when I realized that 6 more miles meant more than an hour left of running. How could I possibly run for another hour? I also started feeling weird, sharp twitches in my calf muscles, which made me worried that I was going to hit "the wall." I thought eating might help, but every banana, pretzel, or balance bar I took a bite of just made me feel like I wanted to puke.

Jessie, Julian, and Deborah were standing and cheering at Mile 22 and, when I passed by, Julian joined me for a bit. I kept telling him that I was doing fine with my Pace group and he didn't have to run with me, but every time he tried to leave I was like, "Julian, don't go!" He cheered me up, telling me a few stories and instructing me to just listen and pant and I finally released him around Mile 23.

Shortly after this, I was worried that I might start balling at any minute for no reason other than I just felt so overwhelmed by everything. But I held it together, smiled for the cameras, and kept putting one foot in front of the other. I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel once we finished Mile 24, and during Miles 25 and 26 I was in a state of total disbelief. Even though intellectually I thought I would be able to finish, I don't think I really believed it or appreciated it until those last few miles. I took it pretty easy during Mile 26, but after passing that last mile marker, my legs just started moving independently from my body. I surged ahead of my group and finished with a chip time of 5:27:53.

All in all, it was a fun race and it was so nice to have friends cheering me on along the way. My parents followed my progress from Austin over the internet and when I called them afterwards, they seemed even more excited than I was.

Final Thoughts

I feel some obligation to wax philosophical on what these six months of training and five hours of running have taught me. Of course there's the cheesy and the obvious: trust in yourself you can achieve anything and when times are tough, just take a deep breath and put one foot in front of the other. More importantly, this experience has taught me to not be ashamed of mediocrity and that doing something is better than doing nothing.

I'm not a fast runner. I never have been. Even though I work out a lot, even though I do triathlons, I suck at running and I'm slow. When I started training in October, I thought maybe that I would work up to running the marathon at a 10-minute mile pace (which is my typical 5k pace). It didn't take me long to realize, however, that this was an unrealistic goal. It was very discouraging to read books about marathons (even those aimed at beginners) that would casually describe an 8-minute mile as taking it easy. But these books also had very helpful advice: when running your first marathon, finishing should be your only goal . I kept training and pledged to finish, even if I had to walk the last ten miles of the race, per my Mom's suggestion.

I decided internally that finishing was my only goal, but I still avoided telling people my actual anticipated race pace. I just downplayed it and said that I was going to run really slow. And, I figured that after the race I would similarly avoid revealing my slow time and focus only on the fact that I finished. But, you know what, I ran the LA marathon in 5 hours, 27 minutes, and 53 seconds, and I am proud! I hereby proclaim to the world that I ran 26.2 miles at a steady pace of 12 and a half minutes per mile! (By "world," I mean my two loyal readers who wouldn't care if it took me ten hours to finish.)

The point is that I ran my own race, I did my very best, and there is nothing to be ashamed of because all I can be is myself. I could have shrugged and said, "I'm not a very good runner, so why bother," but I didn't. I could have spent the last 24 Sundays sitting on my ass instead of braving the cold for a long run, but I didn't. Emma, you ran 26.2 miles in 5:27:53. This is hardly an occasion that requires wearing a bag over your head!

Thanks to everyone for their support and good wishes! Hopefully, I'll post pictures soon!

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