The La Marathon was pure FUN! - that's right it was one of those very special events that gets you all excited and allows you to just do not over think! - on this occasion it was the thing that made it possible for me to clear my head, and for a number of reasons.The LA Marathon started down at Dodger stadium and wound its way around the course through LA finishing at Santa Monica Pier......
Lets step back a few paces and understand how this one transpired,
1. Monday prior to the event I "googled" the marathon, and secured my place.
2. Tuesday I made a reservation, Thursday I paid and locked in the event.
3. Friday I caught a plane to LAX - Insane!
4. Sunday I ran the LA Marathon
5. Sunday Night I caught the plane home.
The Marathon had an insane start time to be at the shuttle bus to take us to Dodger Stadium on the other side of town, 4.00am, BUT this is where the journey started and why it ended up becoming one of those very special events, and a huge success.
Boarding the bus with my Coffee in hand, and bag of food and goodies, I was half asleep, but before long the excitement of the event transpired, I met a few fellow runners, and we managed to chat for a while about all things running, just nice people, in this day and age this is very hard to come by........ and I value these types of chance meetings more than anything along the marathon journey......
After a few hours of waiting around we all headed out to the start line, parting ways never to be seen again! - but a nice way to kill a few hours.
Debate was strong as to if the rain would hold off, and the Answer was, Just until the start,...... literally a few minutes later the Sky's open up and the rain falls down.
The start was slow, with 20,000+ runners getting out of the start line I lost a good 5 minutes as the runners slowed to a crawl getting out of the gates, Although it was not long before I got away, clawing back those valuable minutes before I knew it I had passed the 3:30 pace team, yes and I was a good 4 minutes later starting than them a quick calculation a little later in the course and I was on track for a 3:20 finish, HECK!!!!! AMAZING how on earth did this happen and than I find myself saying to one self, DON'T SCREW IT UP !!!!
The garmin gets set to a pace and I am not allowed to let it drop below the required pace for 3:20.
30 Km and still going strong, happy happy happy! - I might just pull this off I think to myself.
But than a couple of KM later after I passed Rodeo Drive, the worst case scenario happens, the cold, wind and rain has got to me and I come to complete halt! (Oh bother, well I said a lot worse) here I am for minutes that seemed like hours stretching my legs in every which way I can, consuming Gels, and the jelly baby things from Gu, it come back together again but all I could manage to pump out was 10km / hr - :( :( :( :( Jeff got very sad :( :( as I realised I had just lost my first sub 3:30 ......... a little while longer I managed to gain the enthusiasm of the crowd, the thing I find about life is you cant do it alone, and a marathon is the same thing, I looked to the crowd to give me just that energy, and that's exactly what the people of LA did - hey maybe even a few movie stars did too ;) .
But I was back on track to finish, hoping for a 3:45 as the 3:30 pace crew re-caught me and over took me, than the 3:40..... this was not just a marathon given the conditions it was Survivor, a war zone and a marathon all in one.
The conditions made it similar to what I will experience on May 15 in the extreme challenge of the 100Km North Face 100.
So I am very happy that I finished this one in around 3:48 .I was really surprised when one of the fellow runners Reid that I had met hours earlier finished at almost exactly the same time, and he come over and shook my hand! - this was Great as we congratulated each other for the champions we were after an experience that we had just been through.
You had to draw every piece of physical and mental energy to finish this one - dig deep and keep on target.
So as we walk down the finish line, it was kinda cool, we found a little hotel that managed to get us out of the shivering cold, only steps from hypothermia - bundled into a conference room, food, towels we managed to finish up...... parting ways congratulating each other!
A very cool run and a nice way to finish and I hoped I didn't get a cold, upon returning home I found that Reid had beat me by a whopping 19 seconds, so I think I need to race this guy again.......
In any case.... getting to the airport a few hours later, Qantas had managed to get me an upgrade to Business Class on the A380, a flat bed to sleep the way home, Thank Goodness.
Now I had said I was planning a revamped plan....... here it is! If decided come June 22nd, Ill head back to the US for a good 6 months to base myself on the coast of sunny California, a place that I can just train, and re-energize from the year gone past........ I find that sometimes we need to totally remove our self from the negativity and beliefs of our surroundings to make something as big as I'm trying to work! and this is part of the shot at it I'm going to give myself! Ill take my Bike, Runners, Camping gear, and energy to setup camp somewhere near Santa Monica!, I'll head back prior to do some apartment hunting, but this is exciting stuff and gives me a HUB to Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Canada, Chicago, San Francisco......... oh and Hawaii! - and maybe some of Europe.
Some Pictures from LA - The Face Book Link!
LA Pictures
Marathon Pictures
Also since I got more out of this weekend, friendly people, tough running conditions and I made yet another unexpected big decision, I am going to donate $350 to the Life House @ RPA in Sydney Australia, Cancer Research and Treatment Facility........ a cause that is near and dear to my heart, running inspires the greatest from me, and I am honored I am able to give back in a small way.
Till Next Time,
Cheers
Jeff
