The alternate title for this post could be “mistakes I made in my first marathon” or put a little nicer “lessons I learned.”
This photo, all nicely filtered and instagrammed, is a lie. My friend who lived near the course took it when I approached her at mile 16 or so, and sent it to my mom. My mom later told me she was happy to see it because I looked so good, but soon found out when she saw me a few miles later it was a farce.
How I actually looked:
Here are the top three mistakes I think I made when training for LA:
1. I didn’t prepare for the hills
The LA Marathon advertises itself as a “net downhill course” presumably because that sounds better than “rolling hills.” It is true that a lot of the course is flat and the last six miles are slightly downhill, but I would recommend training on hills if you are going to run this race especially steep DOWNHILLS. I’ll get to that in a sec.
2. I went out too fast
Obvious rookie mistake. I knew it was wrong, but it felt so right.
3. I did not fully understand nutrition
In my second two marathons, I have drank water or gatorade almost every mile after the half-marathon point. That works for my body, but I didn’t know it yet in LA. I took fuel about the same way in all three races, every five miles, so I am not sure if that had any effect on my performance. In this race I used Honey Stingers, which worked fine.
Since this race was a year ago, I’ll recap it the best I can from what I remember.
Miles 1-6: The good times
I was lucky because when I ran LA in 2013, the weather was perfect (apparently this year it was brutally hot). I started out feeling great. The first thing I realized was that the first two miles of the race leaving Dodger Stadium were downhill, and a steep downhill (maybe I should have looked at the course map?) I knew enough to know not to sprint the downhill, but it’s hard to completely hold back on that long of a downhill when it’s the first two miles of a race.
Around mile four or five there was a pretty steep uphill. However, it was not so bad because I felt good, slowed down a bit and it was pretty short.
I personally enjoyed this part of the course because it took me through a lot of parts of LA I had never been to, such as Chinatown and parts of Silverlake.
Miles 7-15: Still feeling good
This part of the race from what I remember is pretty flat. For those familiar with LA, you are running alongside the 101 (I think) into Hollywood. Hollywood also had some great cheerers and some fun things to look at along Hollywood Blvd.
The only thing I can really remember thinking is how good I felt, and how I knew I was going way faster than I thought I would. I had expected to run around a 4:30, but was running under 10 minute miles. This should have been a sign to slow down, but like all rookies I thought to myself, “what could go wrong?”
Miles 16-18: Ummmmm
I apologize because I may not be getting the exact mile right, this may have started at mile 15. Somewhere in that range the course turns by the Chateau Marmont, and you run a very long, steep downhill onto I believe Santa Monica Blvd. This is where things went south for me.
I think the main problem was I was not prepared for steep downhills. They wrecked my quads, and when I emerged from this hill I could feel it all over my legs. I went from feeling pretty good, to feeling very weak, Not a great feeling when you still have 10 miles to go. I took a couple Gus, but it did not really help.
This is where I ran into my friend, who is also a runner, and she took the above picture. She was nice enough to run a whole mile with me which distracted me for a while from the pain in my legs. (In my second two marathons I have carried and taken ibuprofen to not have this pain like I did in LA. I don’t know if that’s unhealthy but it’s always helped me.)
After she left me I was feeling very weak emotionally and physically. However, I knew I would run right by my apartment around mile 20, and my parents had said they would meet me there. So I thought to myself I just needed to get through these next few miles and I would see them.
Miles 18-22: I am dead
Turns out, my parents could not find parking near mile 20, so instead met me at mile 18 which was in Westwood near UCLA. This whole part was flat, but I was really struggling. When I saw them I yelled out “What are you doing here??!” because I was so focused on seeing them near mile 20. Haha. Luckily they didn’t care.
Both of my parents have run marathons so it was comforting seeing them and for them to encourage me that I could keep going, even though I wasn’t sure if I could. I remember thinking “I can’t believe I have to run eight more miles.” I knew I could do it, but it seemed impossible.
This part of the race also sucks (in my opinion) because you have a very gradual uphill through the LA National Cemetery. The uphill seems like it will never end. I would recommend anyone running this race keep in mind this hill because it is brutal so late in the game.
I had never been so happy to see Brentwood, but since I was in my neighborhood I also knew how much I had left to go before the finish which was disheartening.
Miles 23-26: Struggle bus
The last part of the marathon, which goes down San Vicente until you finish on Ocean in Santa Monica, I am sure is wonderful if you are feeling good because it is downhill and beautiful. Unfortunately I could not enjoy this, as I was dragging my unwilling body like a lump. I remember when I crossed the finish line I was so incredibly happy because I was done, not because I was proud of myself (that came later).
My time for this race was: 4:42:05 or 10:45/a mile.
I was satisfied with my time, but I knew I could do better.
The LA Marathon was not only the hardest of my three marathons, but I also was sore for much longer afterward. I think this was because of the three mistakes I mentioned above, but also because the training plan I used for LA was much lower mileage. I have found for me personally, I do better when I run more miles during the week (35-50) during marathon training. I think it helps me physically but also mentally, because by the end of training eight miles does not seem as difficult a feat as it did during LA.
Overall, I would recommend this race. It was well-organized and very big, so all of the events were very exciting. I would just keep in mind the hills and the potential for hot weather.
I will try and discuss training in another post. If anyone stumbles upon this blog and wants to share their thoughts on LA, I’d love to hear them!
Einahpets 