As is becoming typical with AREC races, a number of us decided to make the long trip up to LA together. First, we began by having a mini-pasta feed at Lance Millar's house Friday night. We had a bit of a problem getting to sleep, because we so into Swingers and that Stanley Kubrick classic Eyes Wide Shut (hint: don't see it!).
A few hours later, Todd Byers (and Seattle friend, Michelle), Laura Chaides, Lance and I met up again at Lance's and encountered very little traffic, and even were able to score a free parking space, only about 5 blocks from the start.
Unfortunately, with our overplanning, we were about 45 minutes early, and so we all agreed to meet 15 minutes before the start of the race about a block back from the starting line. What a mistake! It took Laura, Lance and me about 10 minutes to wriggle through the crowd, and once we re-met Todd and Michelle, hardly anyone would let us crowd back towards the front. As a result, we started a bit back, and got pretty separated.
In fact, through most of the race, despite WANTING to run together, I saw Laura for 3 of the first 8 miles, but I was never quite next to her; I saw Lance for a couple of miles, until he peeled off and got in a port-a-pottie line; and I never saw Todd. I ran with Beth (or "Little Dutch Boy") for about a mile, passed the overzealous Chris ("PMS") at about 9 miles.
The forecast had been for rain, but it was just a little overcast, and pretty darned muggy. In fact, I hoped that it would rain a little, because at least that would cool the temperature off.
I reached halfway in about 1:55, well on my way to my 4th sub-4:00 marathon and I was feeling good. (Look! I even look like I'm running here!)
At about mile 15, however, I felt like I should walk just a little bit to regain my breath, and I continued to do so through about 20 miles, and I did so without dropping too much of my pace.
Starting about 50 minutes into the race, I began taking on Gu and continued to take every 50 minutes (unfortunately, they recommend every 20-30 minutes), and so as the race progressed, I was getting more and more dehydrated (Gu removes a quantity of lactic acid, as well as any additional liquid).
At mile 21, I gamely ran through the Los Angeles Hash House Harriers Beer Check, drank a couple Dixie cups full of beer, saw faces I recognized for the first time in 2-1/2 hours and started walking as soon as I was out of eyeshot.
At mile 22, I was hit with the worst foot cramps I have ever had! I had minor foot cramps at mile 13 and 14 that each only lasted about a mile each foot, which I've trained on running through, but this, this was unbearable! My entire right side cramped up - my foot, my leg, my knee, my waist, my stomach, and my shoulder. I almost fell over it was so-o bad.
Right at that moment, I came across a TRH colleague, Leo Gutierrez, who is known to have run a 3:30. He was sitting down and stretching in the middle of the road. You know people are having a bad race when you pass someone who trains at 2 minutes per mile faster than you!
I kept trying out little jog portions, but as soon as I would jog a step, my legs would start to cramp up again, so I was satisfied with merely walking.
At mile 24, Lance (finally) came jogging by, but was going a little too fast (10:00/mile) for me to run with.
At mile 25.8 (or so), I struck up a conversation with a runner who was going about my pace, but lost most of the conversation as we made our way down the final hill, which I sorely wanted to run but could not. It was a good thing, because we were nearly hit by a firetruck, whose driver apparently did not realize there was an event closing some of the streets of L.A.
At about 100 yards from the finish, I went into my sprint. After about 5 steps, both of my legs cramped up and I gingerly walked in, to shouts of "Kick it in, tall guy, you can do it!" (which kinda pissed me off!)
Just through the finish (4:15), I met up with Lance (4:09) and Laura (4:16), and we shuffled over to get our picture taken. Although Laura was disappointed with her time, we all agreed that we felt a lot better than after Long Beach.
What I learned: