City of Angels Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Having been in the middle of training for the original winter date of LA Marathon (since moved to May), I was in great shape for this. Almost no trace at all of the calf and Achilles injuries I've been nursing for months. This was my first time for this race, but I knew the course was hilly--wasn't sure whether good health or hills would have a bigger impact on my time. My goal was sub-1:39 (PR, for my single 1/2 mary to-date, was 1:42:08).

Went out quick--at or just under 7:00 pace. First two miles--which were rolling terrain through Griffith Park--were both under 7:09. Normally I'd start to pull back, but I felt good, so I pressed on and started to think in terms of 1:36-1:37.

Race was generally without much memorable incident. First significant hill comes just about halfway--long climb over the Hyperion Bridge, which is basically straight, so you see it all. Got through that in good style.

Since I used to bike commute through some of this area, I was concerned about how hilly the second half of the course would be. As it turned out, the organizers had routed us around most of the bigger hills I'd thought we might be going over in Silver Lake.

There were some draining uphills in miles 9 and 11 on Sunset through Echo Park. Mile 11 was the only time I noticed my pace dip below 8:00/mile on my Garmin.

I thought I'd really pick things up at mile 10, but I didn't have the energy I usually do. Not such a bad thing in this case, since I'd been staying at a sub-7:30 pace throughout. For the last 4 miles, I was going back-and-forth with (I discovered later) the 15th place O/A woman. Thought I had lost her after the hill at 11, but she passed me with a mile to go. The last 2K were pretty tough...got a nasty stitch at mile 12 and both my quads were yapping at me...I definitely didn't leave anything on the course today.

Course went through the very long 3rd Street tunnel, so I knew my Garmin wasn't going to be accurate...thankfully I'd started the stopwatch on my watch as a backup. Rounding the turn for the last 0.2 stretch to the finish, I saw I needed a strong kick to stay below 1:37. Made it--new PR: 1:36:39. Pace was 7:23, a full 10 sec. per mile faster than my goal.

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Field included over 2500 secondary school students from Students Run LA, so some adjusted results are:

O/A - 225 of 6208 (4.0%)
All M - 210 of 3152 (6.7%)
AG (M45-49) - 21 of 189 (10.5%)

All adults - 164 of 3381 (4.8%)
Adult M - 151 of 1594 (9.5%)

(Total of 2827 kids entered)

Can't think of much. Tapered well (and didn't needlessly overtaper). Didn't have much left, but still had some kick...don't think I could have gone any faster, really. Beat PR by 5:30 and goal by almost 2:30. Good day.

Liz was there at the finish and gave me my finisher medal, which was nice. I finished at 9:10am and she was scheduled to volunteer until 11:30, so I wandered over to the post-race "festival" and picked up my t-shirt and had a couple bagels and a banana. Cooled down then walked over to the volunteer parking lot and changed into non-sweaty clothes. Had a chance to hang out in a grassy park area and stretch, massage, and generally relax. After Liz got done, we headed for the car--ran into DoloresM2 and her dad near the lot.


Nothing, really. Felt well prepared and was at my healthiest since Vineman 70.3 in July.


This was the third year of existence for this race and it is well-run for a 100% volunteer promoted event. Post-race food was plentiful if limited in choice. No expo. Addition of the Students Run LA kids basically doubled the size of the race from last year.