LA Marathon Recap

Clearly I'm terrible about post-race recaps... as this one has taken me nearly FOUR YEARS to do! But, for those of you who stumble across this blog and wonder how it turned out, let me try to recap as best as I can with my terrible memory.

So, raceday morning I ended up being slotted on one of the earliest buses to the race venue at Dodger stadium. That meant getting up about 4:15am, driving to the finish area, parking and then taking the half hour bus ride to the start. Once I arrived to the empty parking lot, it was ~55 degrees F and there was over two hours until race start... not ideal, to say the least. I sat/laid in the parking lot, listening to music and waiting for time to pass.

Eventually, it was time to warm-up and head to the start. Fortunately, when I arrived there, I ran into a friend from my triathlon days, former pro-triathlete, Chris Tremonte, who was visiting from Seattle and, along with 2 friends, was also trying to run right around 6-minute pace. These guys, arrived in costume though, with dollar store fur coats, gloves and jeggings.

As the race started, we all had nerves and purposely went out easy, chatting and making jokes throughout the first downhill mile. When we hit the first mile though, we were all shocked to see just how SLOW we'd actually gone though -- 6:30!! It was time to get serious!

After that, we picked up the pace and settled in. For the next 12 miles, thru the half, we ran hip-to-hip, chatting a bit, but mostly just cruising, through downtown LA, Hollywood and into Beverly Hills... Here's a look at splits:

6:30, 5:55, 5:55, 5:58, 6:16, 5:59 (10K: 37:54)
5:54, 6:00, 6:11, 6:03, 6:02, 6:05 (20K: 1:15:33 (37:39))
6:10 (didn't get a 1/2 split, but believe it was right about 1:19:30)

At the half, the four of us were still together and had settled into a good rhythm. I believe that's the point that Tahoma (went on to run a 2:42:43) pulled away and left us behind. The remaining three of us continued to work together and ran within 20-30ft of one another thru about 14-14.5 miles... and THAT'S when it got lonely! By mile 16, Chris and his other buddy had fallen off and I was entering a long straightway, completely on my own.... my pace fell to around 6:20 and stayed there for the next 4-miles.

Miles 14-16: 6:05, 5:54, 6:02,
Miles 17-20: 6:18, 6:19 (30K: 1:53:31 (38:18)), 6:22, 6:24

At mile 20, after the long straightaway, we began to climb into the hills for the remaining 6 miles through Brentwood and eventually, down to the Santa Monica Pier and that's when I began to hit the wall. At the same time, Chris had caught back up to me and passed looking great. From there on out it was simply a battle to keep running and keep from losing as little time as possible.

Miles 21 - Finish: 6:42, 6:40, 6:49, 6:56 (40K: 2:35:30 (41:39 - 10k)), 6:43, (final 1.1mi - 7:47))

Finish Time: 2:44:09 (6:15/mi pace)

In the end, I fell short of my goal again only improving my PR marathon pace from 6:20/mi to 6:15/mi pace, but I can say that thru the use of the Hanson's Marathon Method to training, I came away in better shape off, completely injury free, off of fewer training miles than with the Jack Daniel's plan in the two years prior. As I'll probably never have the time to dedicate to trying to better this PR, it's one that I'm happy with and an endeavor that I'm so happy I undertook. I think a great time with friends, striving for something beyond your limits is worth it every time. Hopefully if YOU are trying for the 6-minute-mile pace marathon, you'll have better luck than me... but either way, HAVE FUN!

Cyrus