LA Marathon - RunMarathon

Prologue - I've been nursing a LCL strain 2 weeks before the marathon which hampered my training. When I did run I noticed that I started feeling pain in my left ankle (most likely from compensating for the LCL).

On the day of the marathon I felt pretty good. My LCL wasn't tender or painful to the touch, which it was the week previous. Nevertheless, my plan was to start SLOW and use the first 8-10 miles to warm up SLOW and to walk the major hills. Then I was going to ease into my training pace which was around 9:30-9:45 miles. I approximated that I was going to be able to do this till around mile 22-24, then I was going to just gut out the rest. My gameplan was to really ease into negative splits and just go SLOW SLOW in the beginning.

The first 4 miles started out exactly according to plan. Then I started feeling the tightness in my LCL. This got worse when I walked the big hill on mile 4. That's when I knew that I was in big, big trouble! I tried my best to relax and adjust my running to compromise with my knee. This definitely led to a compromised gait. From mile 4 - 13 I did my best to adjust to keep the tightness at bay, which I was able to do with some success. However, I quickly realized that my 10 mile warm up pace, would indeed be my race pace (one of the worst feelings in the world -- or so I thought).

Once I hit around mile 13 I started feeling muscle fatigue that I had never, ever felt before. Even in my training runs when I went to 18 miles and beyond, I wouldn't feel muscle fatigue until miles 16 and on. I am positive that this is because of my compromised gait. My quads were pretty much shredded and I have actually never had quad fatigue before. From mile 13 on, it was a constant battle to just 'put out fires' and try to access what was hurting and what I could do to mitigate that pain (when I realized that I would have to do this from mile 13 and on -- this was THE WORST feeling that I have ever had running).

I was able to gut it out with walking/running until I hit San Vicente and the home stretch. I must have been super tense because for some reason my biceps and shoulders were fatigued and cramping as well. Thankfully I had a ton of family and friend support and I used the last downhill descent to actually run sub 10 minute miles to the finish.

1. Should have rested more on my injured knee to try and bring it more to 100%.
2. Never should have changed my gait on purpose.
3. Once knee started tightening should have tried using the Galloway method/ratio with my natural gait.
4. Drank more water and taken some salt at least at the halfway point (once the sun came out it actually got quite hot).

The post race area was a NIGHTMARE!

Here is my post race: Elation at the finish, grab space blanket, get medal, grab water, grab bagel. Start getting pounded by horrible headwinds as I am instructed to walk to the family reunion area which looks to be at least a 1/2 mile away. Start cramping and feeling very very cold as I start walking to the reunion area. With about a quarter mile to walk, the street is flooded with dozens and dozens of runners and spectators (its basically elbow to elbow for 2 blocks). I give up and decide to sit by a wall while I see people getting very agitated to the overcrowding. While I am sitting I see 2 people faint and another SRLA runner throws up by me in the bushes. Its too crowded and crazy!


Knee BUT I would chalk this up to being a rookie.


Overall the LA Marathon was unforgettable, especially being my first marathon. The course was challenging, but honestly not much to look at. The crowd support was pretty good, VERY AWESOME in some stretches for sure. Thankfully the weather held up, if it rained like it did last year, yikes (I was horribly cold at the finish). The finish area was a horrible nightmare.

For the race itself, I was shooting for a 4:30 although from my training I thought that I might even crack a 4:20, boy was I off. Nevertheless, through a bad knee and some fatally stupid decision making the one thing that was absolutely priceless was that I was taken to some real deep waters this race. I found out a lot about myself and what I could gut myself through. In the end isn't that what its all about?