Run
Comments: Run started off well. Saw the intern from work about 0.5 miles in so I ran with her until the 3 mile marker. Nice to chat with her as she is done until next August when she will join us full time. After the 3 mile marker I started to run on my own but I transitioned a little too fast and spiked my heart rate. Generally felt pretty good until about mile 10 or so when I started to fall apart. Achilles and hip flexors were feeling very tight and sore especially on uphills. Ended up walking up a two steep short hills while working on my hip flexors with my fingers. Hit the 12 mile marker through the tunnel and finished. The course was pretty nice. There was a bunch of drummers on a hill around mile 8 which was really cool. What would you do differently?: Not accelerate quite so quickly. Post race
Warm down: Found Mike at the finish. Met some LA Tri folks and then headed for the post race food. Food was bagels, oranges, bananas, pom and water. Not a bad spread for a half. Grabbed the bag and headed back to the car which was conveniently parked just outside my office. What limited your ability to perform faster: Training and to a far lesser degree the tightness in my hip flexors and right achilles. Event comments: Nice race. I did this race in 2006 (the inaugural year) and they have definitely worked on improving the race. The race was pretty great in 2006 so the improvements make it quite a nice race. Plenty of shuttles to get people to the start and space heaters spread out in the Zoo parking lot to keep you warm while you wait for the start. Nicely done. Last updated: 2008-12-07 12:00 AM
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United States
Grove of Hope
Overcast
Overall Rank = 1051/6210
Age Group = M 30-34
Age Group Rank = 90/228
Up at 5. Cliff bar and water. Out of the door at 5:30. Picked up Mike (my neighbor) and was downtown by 5:50. Lost a contact out of my eye during the drive. Caught it but it dried out before I could get it back in my eye. On the shuttles to the start at 6. At the start at 6:30. Got my number and chip and milled around until 7:10. Checked in our stuff with bag check.
Realized I forgot a race belt so I had to pin the number to my shirt. Not my favorite thing to do but not the end of the world. Ended up running in a light weight short sleeve shirt given the nice warm temps and the humidity. I was happy to leave both the arm warmers and the thicker long sleeve shirt in my checked bag.
Port-a-loo lines were long but Mike spied a set with shorter lines during his warm-up so I jogged over to them. On the jog I realized I had no depth perception with only one contact so I yanked the second one as well. I'm used to running without glasses or contacts so no big deal (vision isn't all that bad). 8 deep in the port-a-loo line when a woman comes out of one and claims it smells too terrible to use. No one else in front of me was willing to chance it so I pulled my shirt over my face and went for it. I half expected crap everywhere given what a big deal she was making about it but it wasn't all that bad and, through the shirt, it didn't smell half bad. Ran back just in time to catch the start. Chip timed so either way I would have been fine but still nice to start with the big group.