I felt pretty good the whole way. There were moments when I started to cramp in my stomach around mile 6 that made things mentally challenging. Its that final stretch, where you think to yourself, body, don't let me down, and your mind starts with the devil side, where it just focuses on that part of your body. I started taking in 2 cups of water at the water stations, rather than 1 and it seemed to help. Around mile 10, I started to feel tight in my calves, slightly cramping calves/hip flexors, so at mile 11 and 12, I walked through the water station, and took down 2 cups of water to hope that it would allow me to do my final 'kick' into the finish. I set out to run this at a pace of 7:45-8 minute miles, and hit the top end of that perfectly! In my splits, you'll notice the 8:15 at mile 7, that was from a bathroom break (which was surprisingly a fast pit stop!).

You can see how I slowed down at miles 11 and 12 and went above the 8 minute pace for those two miles, that was just the mind running the body, rather than the body running the mind. I think overall, I was grooving and felt solid for most of the race. The mental struggles weren't as great as I was expecting, considering I had a left hip flexor that started acting up (was sore to walk on all week), after a 5 mile morning run and a day of flying on Monday. I woke up this morning and massaged it a little, and it felt great all day!



Better pre-race hydration. I think I should have probably started increasing my water and potassium intake early in the week, rather than the day before the race. I was bad about keeping myself hydrated all week!

walked it off, a good 15 minute stretch, checked out the expo, then cheered on everyone, right down to the final finisher! I know how it feels to be finishing without anyone cheering you on, since I often fit races into my travel schedule, and in this particular race especially, given how many brave young kids were running as a part of the "Students Run LA" program for at-risk teens. I figured many of them wouldn't have anyone waiting to cheer them into the home stretch either! What a cool program (http://www.srla.org/about.php)


Not very many things, mostly just my hip injury fears, and I think my poor nutrition/hydration in the pre-race stages.




For race nutrition, I had approx 6 oz Apple-cinnamon HammerGel in a flask mixed with 3 oz water, and consumed 5 oz during the race, and took the final 1 oz at the finish. I took it 30 min in, then about every 20 minutes thereafter.