General Discussion Race Reports! » Hollywood Half Marathon Rss Feed  
Moderators: k9car363, alicefoeller Reply

Hollywood Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


View Member's Race Log View other race reports
Los Angeles, California
United States
Superhero Events
20C / 68F
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 13m 49s
Overall Rank = 2349/
Age Group = 20-24F
Age Group Rank = 112/
Pre-race routine:

Spent the first couple of days before the race outside of LA doing Six Flags and then came into Universal City for the race expo on Fri. Wandered around and went to a movie the night before the race and then got up at 4:50 (6am race start) and had a mish-mash breakfast. Neal and I forgot about breakfast until about 6pm the night before the race...luckily we had stowed 2 bananas and a danish from the continental bfast out by Six Flags where we stayed the 2 nights before...how do you forget bfast? Anyways....so I had a bun that I saved from our dinner and half of a danish...We got dressed and walked up to the race start!
Event warmup:

I tried to go to the bathroom 3 times before leaving the hotel...but couldn't go...so I ended up "warming up" in the bathroom line before the race. Fail...Surprise that I couldn't go in the hotel and then all of a sudden had to go like 10min later at the race start....grrrrr...Neal waited with me for awhile before it got really close to the race start and then he left to go find the 7min/mile group. The race technically started before I was out of the washroom but they were doing a pseudo wave start, so my "wave" didn't start for about 10min after the initial start.
Run
  • 2h 13m 49s
  • 21.08 kms
  • 06m 21s  min/km
Comments:

So I will start off by stating that this was not a good race for me. I nearly added 20 min to my PR. I will qualify that statement with the fact that I am half way through clerkship and just finished general surgery a week before the race. Training was a bit hard to come by for the month leading into the race and even before that, training had not been very consistent or as frequent as needed. So I guess it was expected to not do very well.

I started off with the 9/min mile group...which was probably more like a 11-12min/mile group. So I had a bit of a slow start dodging a bunch of people walking. I was feeling pretty good over the first few kms...probably because it was all downhill...so I was pretty happy. We made it on to Hollywood Blvd and then km after km started to get ticked off. Around 8kms I was already starting to feel it in my legs...GAH...at 10kms I remember thinking to myself that I could probably have been happy doing the 10k. I hit the turn around and hit the first aid station after the turn around and THEY HAD NO CUPS LEFT!! Ok, ok fine...I'll just run to the next aide station...WHAT?? YOU HAVE NO CUPS LEFT??...Gah...so by the third aide station people were just grabbing the jugs and pouring it into their mouths. Some of the aide stations started a "waterfall" where they would pour the water into your hands and then you slurped it up from there. So in order to do that you had to stop and line up for a "waterfall"...in the grand scheme of things not super big deal and I would probably be more irritated if I was doing well...but by that point I didn't mind taking a break for water. I hit the last km and died up that huge hill I had been so happy to run down. It was not a pretty picture. I was just slogging along...It felt like I had been running on a track of mud. I started walking a bit and then realised the longer I walked, the longer it would take me to finish the damn thing...so I started slogging again.

Slog...slog...slog....finally hit the top of the hill and ran the last 800m or so to the finish line. So good to be done.

Neal and I had agreed on a meeting spot and I started to limp towards that spot. He spotted me before I got there anyways and we sat on the sidewalk for awhile before taking the limo bus back up the hill (I didn't want to walk) and then we went back to our hotel to shower before heading out again!
What would you do differently?:

Training properly for a race would probably be a plus...
Post race
Warm down:

Walk to the limo bus and chilling on the sidewalk.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Not training

Event comments:

No cups and the GU station wasn't until 10 miles...I think it would be better placed at 7 if you are only going to have 1 or at 5-6 miles and 10 miles.




Last updated: 2012-02-21 12:00 AM
Running
02:13:49 | 21.08 kms | 06m 21s  min/km
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Bad
Course: Out and back course from Universal Studios Citywalk into Hollywood, down Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Blvd.
Keeping cool Average Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Below average
Mental exertion [1-5] 2
Physical exertion [1-5] 2
Good race? No
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? No
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3

{postbutton}
2012-04-11 9:07 PM

User image

Champion
6656
500010005001002525
Subject: Hollywood Half Marathon


2012-04-11 11:45 PM
in reply to: #4144750

User image

Master
2912
2000500100100100100
...at home in The ATL
Subject: RE: Hollywood Half Marathon
Melissa - interesting they had a wave start for a HIM... I have never experienced that before - seems like it would have just added to the weirdness. Breakfast mixup, bathroom issues, hydration issues, and uphill finish. Sounds like this race had it all! I know it was obviously not your fantasy time, but you finished it and that is all that counts sometimes. At least the vacation part sounds like it was fun!
2012-04-12 8:00 AM
in reply to: #4144750

User image

Royal(PITA)
14270
50005000200020001001002525
West Chester, Ohio
Subject: RE: Hollywood Half Marathon

Ending a half mary on a monster hill climb is brutal!

Lack of water and a late gu stop just don't seem right.  You did well despite poor planning on the officials parts

 

2012-04-12 10:12 AM
in reply to: #4144750

User image

Payson, AZ
Subject: RE: Hollywood Half Marathon
Out of water cups is not cool.  I volunteered for a race once where we started to run  out of cups and the RD ran all over the place making sure he got us more.  Sounds like you did the best you could do given the limited training.  Good job on getting to the finish.
General Discussion-> Race Reports!
{postbutton}
General Discussion Race Reports! » Hollywood Half Marathon Rss Feed