So who knew that this was going to be the very last major marathon held in the US in 2020? Not a soul. We were all completely blind to what was right around the corner.
Preparation
I had my first half of 2020 booked pretty solid. The plan was to kick it off with the Surf City half, do the LA marathon shooting for BQ-10, and then onto Oceanside and Santa Rosa 70.3s. Then recover and build for IMLou in fall. That would have been quite a ride! But the Universe laughed at my puny plans, and the things started to go haywire right from the start.
I kicked off the training on 12/23/2019 about a month off after completing IMAZ. I felt pretty decent but out of shape for sure. However, I almost immediately started having an Achilles issue in the right ankle - it was tight and achy and was not happy 3-4 miles into the run. I tried everything - a brace, different shoes, you name it... It got to the point where I could barely finish out NY day hike. I started stretching aggressively and was doing 4-5 sets of calf raises per day. I ended up taking a full week off in mid January just to calm it down a bit, and started swimming and riding more just to keep the aerobic fitness up. In February I was able to do 5 days a week of running, with some long runs, but no workouts. I think that I might have done a tempo run or 2 but that's about it. I cancelled Surf City obviously, but was still woefully under-prepared. The weekly average for the build was 32 mpw. This was not good at all.
On top of everything else I went for a recon run the Sunday before the marathon and in the process caught some usual March time upper chest congestion that lingered all week. With COVID just starting to become a real thing, it was not a very good omen of the things to come. I worked from home most of that week, hydrated and tapered (and took a ton of vitamin supplements) and towards the end of the week I started to feel better. But I had no idea what to expect from the race day.
Went to the LA Convention center on Friday with my friend Sam who flew in from NY to run the LA marathon as well. The rumors were swirling the entire week that the race might get cancelled, and we really had no idea what to expect. The feeling was definitely subdued with the hand sanitizer stations suddenly appearing everywhere. Perhaps it was just my overactive imagination but getting across Figueroa felt like we were crossing a street in Sarajevo during the 90s. We were in and out as soon as we could which was a huge bummer because I usually try to use the conventions to get deeply discounted stuff. 😀
My friend Ankur flew in on Friday and we did our shake out run in GP and I actually felt race ready. Right there after the run while eating a mediocre reheated bagel with equally mediocre cream cheese and yet some great coffee I decided to give it a go and see if Vaporflys would bail me out. On Saturday night Ankur was staying at my place and being a scholarly gentleman runner he showed up with a bottle of delicious Beringer Pink Zin! We had a nice prerace dinner where Ankur ate some not super carb rich vegetarian food, definitely not marathoner mainstream approved, chatted, played with the dogs, and then went to bed at 10pm.
Race day
We were up at 4am. I had my usual peanut butter and bananas sandwich, and my awesome wife Kristina drove us to the Dodgers stadium. It was foggy (or muggy depending on your opinion of the LA air) and a bit cool, but the weather forecast for the day looked fantastic, not hot temps wise. We found Sam near the gear dropoff and she took some badly lit pics of Ankur and I... Ankur was looking fierce!
We warmed up and I went into my assigned corral A where I saw my friend Jeremiah. The atmosphere was a bit subdued due to the COVID uncertainty just setting in, but we were all pumped for the race and hey - my Achilles was quiet as a mouse. The real question was - will the wheels fall off in Santa Monica or in Beverly Hills due to me being undertrained as hell? If the former, I felt that I could limp to the finish line... if the latter - this was going to be a walk to the pier. And on that cheerful thought we were out of the gate at 6:56am!
I started off pacing myself easy. The section through Chinatown and Little Tokyo is a net downhill and I let gravity carry me. That was fine, though I gave up a good minute right there. The section by the Grand Park is where it really gets going and I felt quite good all the way to the Disney Hall.
I cruised through the next few miles not pushing it too hard and eventually made to Echo Park in high spirits.
Then came the section through my old bike commute route that I knew all too well. The rollers on Sunset blvd were sharp as always and my quads started to talk to me, albeit very quietly. I was still holding a very good pace (about 7:10 min/mile average) and was starting to worry that I am going to overcook it. But soon we passed by my office building and then the Chinese theater and I was still pretty gungo ho about my chances, smiling even!
I think that around that mark I saw the first pro who blew up and was just walking in zigzags. I was hoping to see my co-worker Estela and her husband there but somehow missed her - such a bummer. And just like that we were back on Sunset and ran through my favorite section of Sunset Strip, and then came the big drop on San Vincente that I had truly feared. It is a super steep downhill and both times before it thrashed my legs. This time was no exception!
Since I was still ahead of the 3:15 group, I figured that I can duck into a portapotty and pee and take a 30 second break. Did that at about the 15.5 mile mark, came out and took my first GU and then started talking myself into powering through the Beverly Hills section.
It was on Burton way were my body definitely started to hurt. We ran into a bit of the wind and it was a slow grind uphill, in preparation for the rollers on Santa Monica and then the Sepulveda section. I made it to Rodeo drive, still had some spunk in me, though started to slow down a bit.
And then we turned on Wilshire and I got caught by the 3:15 group, which was a long time coming. But I hung onto that train, and had them pull me all the way to the turn on Sepulveda. By then I knew that the wheels were getting ready to come off, but I actually had a nice run up Sepulveda. I grabbed a shot of beer from someone once we turned right on Federal way, and even took a sip of Nuun for the 1st time during the run soon after (nasty!). It was encouraging that I was maybe 15-20 seconds behind the group all the way til Bundy Dr... and then the wheels finally came off. Suddenly I was stiff as a board and for every step taken the price was sharp pain. But I knew that I only had to make it past the Country Club and then I could just let roll downhill all the way to the finish line. Which is exactly what I did with the crowds just making me a bit more oblivious to the discomfort. Just a few more miles and we were on Ocean Ave!
I guess that I felt that throwing up some horns was a good idea.
Well, just a few more iterations and I have crossed the finish line for the finish of time 3:15:31, or BQ-4.5. The Garmin file here.
I guess that I was pretty elated to get there in one piece with no walking. And sure was thankful to the 3:15 group for pulling me through the toughest section of the course! In retrospect, I should have powered through the downhill section on San Vincente and recaptured about 60 seconds... but the hindsight is 20/20.
After getting my morning clothes from the gear check, I reconnected with Ankur who very quizzically asked me to guess his finish time. Being a nice person I said - 3:05 only to be excitedly corrected by my friend who had run a blazing 2:55:14! Holy shit, what a monumental achievement! We walked back to my dad's place to get a ride back to Burbank, well more like limped back... it was a very happy moment indeed with both of us exceeding our expectations. Also happy to report that Jeremiah and Sam also PR'ed and generally kicked ass - and I am so sorry for not joining Jeremiah and his wife for lunch after the race! Had I known that we would not see each other then for 5 more months.... humans and our puny plans.
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