My plan...due to my knee discomfort...was to go out no faster than my proposed pace for LA Marathon next month--around 9:10-9:15. First split was at two miles and I was right around a 9:20 pace (incl. fighting through a bit of the pack). By mile 5, though, it seemed I was running more like 9/mile or sub-9. Other than on the one short steep downhill (coming off the dam that is part of the course), my knee was sore, but not painful and I had no limits on range of motion, so I decided to stay with the pace as long as I was comfortable.

I was expecting no faster than 80-81 minutes per loop, but I finished the first in 79 minutes and felt good. I handed my now-soaked gloves off to my wife and went out for loop two.

Second loop (as had been the case in my 14 mile training run last weekend), my knee really loosened up. I had a little bit of arch discomfort in my left foot, but nothing really significant. Each loop is really a bit of an out-and-back and, in the first go-round, when we hit the turnaround, we were then going with the wind and had the rain at our backs, which really helped goose the pace. On the second lap, the rain stopped at that point (for about 20 min. or so), so I started to push it a little more.

At 15 miles, I knew I was going to finish strong and I started to separate from the runners who had been around me for the previous three miles or so. What a difference from my marathon last year: There, I was miserable the last six miles and either slogging along or walking while people trucked past me, but today, I was the one blowing past people the last three miles.

Thought I might negative split the second loop, but, instead, basically held the pace, which was great: 79:05/79:42.

Results in: Looks like I was 170 of 2741 O/A (6.2%); 83 of 630 non-students (13%); 13 of 49 in AG (M45-49 - 26%). There were over 2000 student entrants.

Really wish I wasn't injured. In ten years of running (spread over 30 years), I've never had an overuse injury. Of course it had to happen five weeks before my one marathon of the year and two weeks before my first tri of the season. In spite of the injury and the weather, though, this was my second race in a row where I tackled a new distance and felt like I exceeded my expectations.

Walked around a bit (calves were cramping a little), but really needed to get out of wet socks and shirt, so I ducked into a portajohn to do so.


Knee injury.


First time in this race for me and it's hard to know how the rain affected the logistics...the course was altered from previous years and it appears that the delay in the start was due to lag in getting cones, etc., out. The field is overwhelmingly LA students of all ages and it's pretty inspiring to see how tough some of the younger ones (in particular) stuck it out.