I'm baaaaack. So after a long hiatus from blogging I decided I'd post some thoughts about the recent LA Marathon. Dave and I trained for months for the LA Marathon which just occurred this past weekend (03/02/08). Its strange that its actually already come and gone..I'm relieved and disappointed. We both completed the marathon although I'm a little unhappy with my time. Just over a month before the marathon during my training my knee really started to hurt. I tried icing and stretching and ibuprofen and it would be fine during the 'off' time but sure enough a few miles into a run it would hurt again. I knew going into the marathon I'd have to walk probably a little..which actually turned out to be a lot. So in the end I finished with a time of 6:12. I really am happy that for this first marathon I at least finished. My husband rocked the course with a time of 3:30 which is incredible! Here is a link to both our times: Kandis - http://results.active.com/pages/oneResult.jsp?pID=36817716&rsID=59831 and Dave - http://results.active.com/pages/oneResult.jsp?pID=36817715&rsID=59831
We stayed in LA the night before the marathon to make sure we were rested and didn't have to get up and drive really early to downtown LA. The marathon started at 8:15 am which is a little later than I had expected but was nice because it meant I could actually sleep past 5 am :) We both woke up early, I ran down to Starbucks to get us both some coffee to 'jump start' things. We ate, got dressed and rode the metro rail to Universal City where the race would start. The metro ride was a little uncomfortable for me..partly because it was crowded and mostly because I sometimes get a little motion sick. So the nervousness of the race and the movement of the train was making me a little sick. That on top of the fact that I was standing and holding onto a rail behind an older guy who was a 'story teller' - I'm sure you know the kind and kept talking about how 'you gotta keep things moving' before a race...which apparently to him meant you constantly were moving your hips and bending over and sticking your ass out which no one wanted to see .. jumping around... stretching your arms over your head..... well you get the point. So after we exit the metro we head towards the start area to get all lined up and ready. On the way there are a bunch of port-a-potties lined up. There were a LOT of potties and even more people who wanted to use them. Being that I am a woman and that I was nervous I suddenly by seeing the potties felt the urge to go. So I kiss Dave good bye (we never start together) and stand in line. At about 15 minutes to start I decide that I will wait on 'going' until later since I haven't moved more than a few people in the 15 minutes I've already been standing in line. I finally make my way towards the mass of people and wait patiently for the gun to go off and to make it over the start. During this down time is when I think to myself that I could easily slip out and not do the race...who would notice? Needless to say I decided to stay. Once we get going it takes a while to actually run since there are so many people packed into the starting area. After the running actually begins though I feel good.. I'm excited. Right off the bat I notice a woman running near me. I pick her out because she is wearing a cute outfit and looks good in it..which leads me to stare at her butt and wonder what my butt would look like in those pants...then I notice her toned arms and think..hmm I wonder what I need to do to get arms like that. So this takes my mind off running for a while and I notice she's got a really good steady but slow enough pace so I decide to use her to pace and I run behind her for a while. I almost lose her after the 2nd water stop when I stop to get a drink but she doesn't. I looked up and she was gone... suddenly I panic and think oh crap..who am I going to follow now? I'm frantically searching around for her when my toe catches on a lip in the road and I do one of those slow mo falling motions. Obviously it wasn't slow-mo but I could totally see myself from the sidelines. Legs flailing..face contorted.. arms splaying out.. luckily I catch myself before I actually go down. At this point I quickly get back into stride and put on my cool face...and pretend nothing happened..certainly no one noticed, right? Anyways, I catch back up to my 'pacer'. We both run together until mile 5 when a pack of runners sticking together get between us...and I never did catch her again. I'm on my own and do ok with pacing. Then comes mile 7 and the pain in my knee just can't be run through any longer... so I stop to walk for a while. I try to keep a really good pace and do this for a while before I break into a run... this I do off and on until mile 18 when I cannot run any more and must finish the race walking (unless of course you count the times when I see an official camera and break into a run for the picture :) Close to mile 21 I seriously think I can't walk any more. My knee hurts, my hip is sore, my foot hurts, my shin hurts...what the hell is happening to me. But luckily a man with a bowl of jolly rancher candies and a man with a bowl of fig newtons appear to save me :) By the way, that was the BEST fig newton I had ever had. It was nice that it was solid considering I'd already consumed 3 packets of Strawberry Banana GU which is good..but still...its GU. After the snack I find renewed strength to finish the race. I also happen to start walking next to an older man and we chat. He's a 73 year old ex-marine which makes me smile because it makes me think of my Dad. This new friend of mine has run SEVERAL marathons which he didn't start until he was in his 50's, wow! So he keeps me busy until we reach mile 26 and he decides to jog the last 0.2 miles in. Crap.. if this guy is jogging in of course I have to. So I eek out all I have to cross the finish jogging. Yippee!!! Its over.
So I walk through the finish and up through the 'stuff' that always accompanies a race like this.. random snacks and drinks. Had some McDonalds cookies which were GREAT. They have the sides of this vendor corridor all fenced off so they make you walk through the WHOLE thing which happens to take me about 1/2 mile in the opposite direction from my hotel.. which literally brings me to tears because I just want to be done.. I just want to sit and get off feet. So after my little tantrum I make it back to the hotel room where my husband is relaxing..fully showered and fully dressed. Hmm.. guess he's been back a while.
Its a quick shower and we checkout of the hotel..on our way back home. That's it.. its over! Oh yeah.. we did buy 2 bacon wrapped "mexican hotdogs" from a street vendor on the way to the car. SO GOOD.
So, before I started this I basically did it just to do it.. then I injured my knee and wasn't able to actually run the whole thing.. which leaves me wondering what my time could have been if I had been able to run it entirely. Hmm, will there be a next year :)
