Al’s LA Marathon Race Report


Kate and Al Around Mile 18

Well, the Marathon is over. I felt a bit under-prepared going into the last week. This was my first marathon. I had not done any training runs over 3 hours, and had caught a pretty bad cold the two weeks prior to the race, which was still lingering. I also had planned to do a couple more training runs with Steve, but the last few months before the race, I was occupied by a house remodel, and a possible impending job transfer. But I had been running plenty, and figured there’s got to be some people in worse shape running it.

I met my friend Doug at the parking garages downtown about 6AM. We got on the red line, and headed off to universal. We wore our sweats, it was still a bit cold, and would check our stuff at the Sweat Storage by the start line. We checked in our stuff, and headed over to the starting area. It was a mass of people, as far as you could see. We must have been somewhere in the middle. We walked across the start line at about 8:38, and started off slowly, since it was so crowded. The first few miles were deceptively easy, as it was all downhill, and we probably ran too fast, like a lot of people did at the start. However, there were lots of walkers and slower runners, causing us to have to shift left and right.

I had commented about how crowded it was to Doug, and another runner near me heard me and replied that it would not open up until mile 9 or 10… wow, oh well I thought, I’ll just have to get used to the crowd. We were doing really well for the first two hours. We had run the city of Angels 1/2 marathon in 12/06, and though difficult, we did it in 2:20. I was shooting for 5 hours today. I was still feeling pretty good when we reached miles 12 and 13. I was drinking plenty of water, and eating a GU or two at least every hour. It was getting hot. The sun was out, and it must have been in the mid 70’s.

We were keeping a 10 minute pace. My friend had fallen behind shortly after that though, and I spotted Steve. I started running with him for the next five or six miles. He really helped keep my pace, since I wasn’t running with a metronome. He also helped by giving me some electrolyte pills, and some on the spot coaching, which helped tremendously. We did the alphabet band name thing like Toyna mentioned in her post. I don’t think we got past the A’s… (By the way Steve, here’s the band ABC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_(band) that you didn’t remember). I pretty much ran with Steve and some of his gang until mile 19.

At that point, I was running with his friend Katie for a couple miles, when I decided to stop at the exit of the Champion music/motivation tunnel. I thought that would be a good place to wait, and see if I could spot my friend. I waited for 10 minutes, he didn’t show, so I kept going. About mile 20, I saw my friend’s wife, who had accompanied us in the morning. She was riding the Redline around the course to try and keep up with us. I stopped with her and waited for another 10 or 15 minutes until he showed up. I really wanted to finish the race with him, since we had been training together for it for the last six months. He was still running, but very slowly. He told me to keep going, so after some more water at mile 20, I continued on.

This is where things got extremely difficult for me. I was running solo at this point, trying to keep going. The east side of LA was pretty desolate in spots except for runners. Not many spectators. Not much motivation. The view across the 6th street bridge of downtown LA was enough to keep me going. There were also some people handing out cups of beer in front of a place called Sam’s Hoffbrau. I thought it was brewery, but someone told me later it’s a strip joint. I found out later, Doug made a pit stop for a beer inside, and was high-fived by all the patrons inside as he exited.

By mile 23 and 24 I was in bad shape. I couldn’t keep running, so I told myself to walk 1 minute, run 5 and just repeat this until the finish line. It was all I could do to keep that going. When the one-minute walk was up, I mustered enough strength somehow to start running again. The last mile, as people began to line the streets and cheer the runners on, propelled me to the finish. A runner who had finished already was sitting on the curb about a 1/2 mile before the finish, and gave me a “Looking strong Alper! You’re almost there!” This and all the other people cheering was really overwhelming. I finished the last mile without walking. The last mile seemed to go by too quickly, and suddenly it was over. I had crossed the finish line.

I was in a lot of pain as I walked through the finish area grabbing a banana, some trail mix and orange juice. I went to the Sweat Storage picked up my stuff, and headed to the reunion area to wait for my friend. I saw his wife, and we hung out there together for him. I stretched out and tried to hydrate. He came in about an hour after me. He said he walked the last few miles, but we had both finished, and we were happy with that. So, I actually didn’t even get my final time yet. I was so wrapped up in finishing, I didn’t check the finish clock or my watch. I think I came in about 5:15. After the race I thought I would never do another marathon. But now it’s been two days ago, and I already want to do it again.

Al – ChiRunner & SoCalRunning.com Member

March 7, 2007 | Filed Under Race Reports, Steve's Posts 

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