After a short break from my blog, I am back.
The LA Marathon was awesome. I grabbed my new PR which was a time of 4 hours of 28 minutes. I was stoked considering I spent the week leading up to the marathon complaining about my legs feeling sluggish and my calves and shins felt as if I’d already run a marathon. I may be a veteran of 8 marathons but no one escapes the nerves and the phantom pains which seem to get me each year but once the race day was here, I knew I had two just go out there and run and that’s what I did.
It was a new course, which was challenging from the start as we started out running up an unpleasant incline around dodger stadium, then down and then up again and out of dodger stadium. I knew this would be a battle the whole way. I never really got into rhythm the first six miles and it was starting to look like I would struggle to even make it to mile 10 but around mile 8, I just let it go and turned it up a notch. I stopped at stage where some women were singing and I danced with one of them. I was starting to really relax and just enjoy the race.
When I got into the groove, it seemed like I was gliding out there. I didn’t feel any pain or fatigue. I was simply in the flow of the race. The miles seem to just fly by. I bumped into several friends running throughout the race and that made the race seem like a regular day in the park. It’s always hard to describe the feeling when you’re out there amongst twenty-five thousand people running and striving towards one goal and that’s the finish line. As I crossed miles 13 and 14, I knew I was all but there but not quite. I was feeling so good and running so fast, I wondered how long I could keep it up and we hit miles 19 and 20 my legs let me know, they had enough and it would be on me to push through the road block the rest of the way. It was a struggle from miles 21 to 26 but I was so excited about the possibility of completing another LA marathon that I didn’t care at all about the time but in the end, it was a victory all the way around. It’s one thing to finish the marathon but depending on what fashion you finish the race can carry over for month to come.
So what now? Well my blog was not just about the LA marathon it’s about my running in general. The marathon is really just the kick-off for the rest of my year. I’ve had my break now it’s back to training and dropping down to the 5k ranks which in my opinion is the hardest race to run, not in terms of the miles but the time. It has taken me over five year’s to get my 5k time down to 21 minutes and that’s still a heart pounding, on the verge of cardiac arrest 21 minutes. I don’t intend on settling there. It’s never an easy transition from training to run 26 miles down to 3 miles at a frantic pace but I love the distance and the challenge. My first race since the marathon was yesterday at the Hermosa Beach 5000, which is a race where all the speed demons come out to show their 5k skills. This is a race where 47 year olds are running 6:30 minute miles or better. I managed a disappointing 22 min and 30 seconds but I’ll be happy with it for now. Back to the training zone to reach my goal of 19 minutes.
Spring is here, there are a lot of upcoming 5 and 10k’s around Los Angeles. If you are looking to get back into shape, then this is a good first step.
Run with purpose!
