City of Angels Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Los Angeles, California
United States
Grove of Hope
Overcast
Total Time = 3h 01m 30s
Overall Rank = 5119/6219
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 180/215
Pre-race routine:

Oatmeal, banana, energy drink, water. Went to my parents place and my dad and I got dropped off at the start.
Event warmup:

Waiting around for the start, saying hello to people I knew, getting our bibs and timing tape thingy - a new thing I've never seen. Its not a chip but kind of like tape you put on your shoe.
Run
  • 3h 01m 30s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 13m 51s  min/mile
Comments:

Started out with my Roadrunners group for the first 5 miles. They're a fun group. They're all about keeping the pace and above all having fun. I left them after mile 5 - I got claustrophobic and I kept bumping into the girl in front of me. I love them but I had to go. Five miles is usually when I do start to pick it up so off I went. I did a 2/1 for this race. I saw people that I knew from LATC along the way and a girl I knew from AIDS Marathon who I hadn't seen since I went to Hawaii for my first marathon. It was nice to see her and we caught up for a bit. I felt good. I got to the halfway point and saw that maybe just maybe I could do a sub 3 today! So that's what I had on my mind. I wasn't bent on it but I just really tried to keep up my pace and keep moving. I didn't start feeling tired til around mile 9 or so although I didn't see a mile marker since mile 7 and didn't see one again til mile 10. The whole run was good - I only had few moments where I had that feeling of why the heck am I doing this? At mile 10 I decided I'd keep my run/walk thing until mile 11 and then run the rest of the way in if I felt like I could. I almost ran the entire last two miles to the finish. If I had known I was that close to a sub-3 I'd have not walked that 2 minutes in the tunnel at the end!! My watch was not right and my head was not right either - I couldn't think straight. I was tired. I did my first SCAQ swim workout the Friday night before and rode 27 miles the day before this race so by the end of the run Sunday I was wiped out. Overall, very good effort for me I think. It was a really good course.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing. I think it went well. :) Well, maybe not rode my bike the day before and rested that day instead.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around and waited for my dad to finish - he came in with the group about 10 minutes after I finished. Yay Pop!! We got some food, sat down for a bit. We congratulated a lot of kids who raced - Students Run LA had about 2500 kids from 6th graders to high school that ran this race.

Event comments:

This was a fun race with a challenging but not too hard course. It was very, very well organized and had a gear check and some new timing tape thingy that was very cool and seemed to work well. They had tons of food at the end. They ran out of T-shirts, but not the Coolmax ones so I think some people got those instead of the regular T-shirts even though they didn't pay the extra $5 for those. I enjoyed it. I've been running with my dad the past 4 or 5 months which I think is really special for both of us. He is 70. He's been a runner all his life - back in the day he BQ'd a couple of times. Now he just enjoys being out there. I gave him one of my race number belts and he thought that was the most awesome thing ever. I am really lucky. I don't know too many people who can run a half mary with their dad, do you? We might even do a marathon.




Last updated: 2008-11-17 12:00 AM
Running
03:01:30 | 13.1 miles | 13m 51s  min/mile
Age Group: 180/215
Overall: 5119/6219
Performance: Good
Course: Point to point started from LA Zoo to downtown LA. Some pretty good hills thrown in there too.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5