Race Report: LA Marathon March 20, 2011

"That was so stupid!" - me, my first words after finishing my first marathon on a windy stormy Santa Monica Sunday.

The beginning of my misery was waking up at 3:30am to prepare for the race. I had stuffed every pocket of my ultra-techy running gear with Gu's. (my squirtable food to help me run faster). Then covered all of that with my gigantic and hideous thrift store sweats and a garbage bag in hopes of staying warm and dry. (This later becomes a crock)

Mere and I catch a 4:30am shuttle to Dodger Stadium. This bus is full of equally sleepy racers, but just enough cocky loudmouths to drive me insane. These jerks found this to be the best time to brag about their past achievements.

4:50am - 7:15am We sit in Dodger Stadium in the cold and bored. At least it's dry.

OK so the race finally begins ... I shed my thrift store exterior and take off. Just in time for the storm to begin. Each mile was growing more and more uncomfortable in terms of weather. By mile 10, I was drenched and lost all feeling and function of my hands. At least, I learned how to use my mouth a lot more to tear open Gu packages and what have you. And what's that sound? Oh it's my squishy shoes because I had just run through 1/2 a mile of ankle deep water! Miles and miles of complete sogginess and wind chill. Everyone talks about mile 20 being the scorcher. No -- it's mile 26. As you turn onto what is called the home stretch, you get struck by a huge gust of wind coming from the ocean. Thanks, God, you got me there!

Finish time: 4 hours and 42 minutes. 12 minutes passed my time goal. Oh well. I was more concerned about pooping my shorts, which did not happen.

So as a completely depleted runner, you're happy you cross the finish line. But wait, you have to walk almost 2 huge blocks through picture taking and medal distribution and swag. This is useless to me because I still can't use my hands. Thank god they gave me this strange paper blanket to keep me "warm".

Overall, I'm in disbelief that I paid $150 to put myself through almost 5 hours of torture. Mentally and physically. Physically was the pain in my legs. The feeling that my legs weight 500 tons and my joints are aching. In terms of cardio, I was fine. Just leg pain. Plenty of "Shut up, Legs" leg pain! Mental torture-  I honestly knew that I would not be happy with myself if I walked at all. But when you're cold and tired and wet and in pain, it seems so easy to do. So I had to fight that urge.

 I was hoping for that end feeling of accomplishment, but when that blind guy and 470 others passed me in the last 4.5 miles, that went down the toilet, and thankfully not down my shorts (RIMSHOT!)

To summarize:

So, what was my favorite mile? 26th

Least favorite? 26th

Overall thoughts - Horrible. Thank god I didn't poop my shorts.

Favorite running gear - Lululemon all the way!

Do I recommend this to others? Yes. It's a great way to test what your limits are.

Will I do it again? Maybe. Probably not.

Currently: Cannot walk. Can hobble.

PS.

My marathon playlist was crucial through all of this. I highly recommend putting all of those songs that instantly make you want to hit something.

Here's an part of my playlist (as it's difficult to find suggested marathon music sometimes)

The Time - Jungle Love
Rolling Stones - Start Me Up
Supergrass - Moving
.38 Special - Caught Up In You
TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out
Cee Lo - F*ck You
Amy Winehouse/Mark Ronson - Valerie
Eurythmics - Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
MoneyGrabber - Fitz and the Tantrums
Motownphilly - Boyz II Men
Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield
Heartbeats - The Knife
California Gurls - Katy Perry
Justin Timberlake - Damn Girl
NERD - She wants to Move
Power Station - Some Like It Hot (still worked)
Miss You Much - Janet Jackson
Hip to Be Square - Huey Lewis and the News
The Negatives - Hood
Empire State of Mind - Jay Z
The Humpty Dance - Digital Underground
One More Time - Daft Punk
9 to 5 - Dolly Parton
Single Ladies - Beyonce

etc...

It's easy. Accessible. Mind numbing and perfect for HORRIFIC situations.

Is Beer the new Wine?

I sense a pattern among people my age (late 20's, 30's): we are dropping words like IPA, Porter and Stouts versus the traditional Pinot or Cabernet. A growing case of beer snobbery. 
Previously, I've always associated beer with the Homer Simpson's of the world- beer bellied and drunk by the 6-packful. But thanks to the more sophisticated "tasting" instead of chugging, and the fine biological structure of "better beers", the caloric intake is still minimal. So it was a pleasant surprise to find that most of the people that crowd these popular microbrew/gastropubs are fairly young and in good shape. (Could be an LA thing or a deeper circle of yuppie-dom).


Collectively,  we rush to get the new exclusive beer that came from a very far remote microbrewery where the local beer buyer had to sacrifice a finger for or just a little dignity for a keg. Yup. No grocery beers for us- just the stuff worth research and traveling hundreds of miles to taste. And why not? I enjoy going over to the local gastropub/brewery to taste something entirely new and different. Granted, I had to work myself up to the IPA level, but I now appreciate a good beer. As I've always appreciated a well-crafted drink that people put some thought into (like coffee or tea) and doesn't empty my wallet.


Mike introduced this new interest. He and his friends began visiting local breweries near out of town bike races (which is often the case), and now find themselves deciphering flavor profiles and using words like "hoppy" and bold as adjectives. Now, we find ourselves tasting new premier beers nearly every week, but we're far from being the only ones.  PS.  Don't worry we won't judge your PBR, but we'll probably prefer not to drink it.


My favorite beers are Russian River's Supplication, Rodenbach Grand Cru, Russian River's Pliny the Elder and Mikkeler's Beer Geek Breakfast Weasel