2011 LA COUNTY HOLIDAY HALF

The day had finally arrived. It was time to run the half marathon.

I woke up around 5:45AM, put some clothes on, drank a little carrot juice and left by 6:15AM. The race didn't start until 8AM, but I wanted to get there a little early to warm-up, pick-up my bag of goodies and be able to put it away in my car.

It was very cold when I got to Fairplex. The air was crisp and there weren't really a lot of people. Not just yet. By the time I checked-in and got my freebies, people started streaming in. The biggest group was Students Run LA. There were bus loads of them along with teachers in yellow shirts.

What surprised me were all the different costumes some people were wearing. I saw Gumby, a bunch of tutus, lots of candy cane socks and reindeer ears. It turned out that this event wasn't as serious as I thought it was. A lot of people were there to have fun while they ran, but I got the feeling that many were there to challenge themselves very much like I was doing. I'm not so different after all.

Thankfully, it warmed-up. About ten minutes till race time, I used the restroom for one last urination. Then I got in line. They were staging the runners so they put the fastest ones up front and the slower ones in the back. The students were last.

I got to the start line a lot faster than the Bay to Breakers, but this race probably only had about 2000 participants. It seemed like a lot more. We were off and running and it was still quite cold so the first few miles went pretty easily. I tried turning my radio on and then it died. The damn batteries didn't charge right! I hate that fuckin' charger! It was no use no matter how many times I tried to turn it on. Ashley jinxed me by telling me that one should run and feel one with the run. I would have to do it here.

There was plenty of water unlike when I nearly died of thirst during the triathlon. The first water table came at about 2.5 miles and it was around about every two miles or so after that.

I felt great for the first six miles. It was like too easy. I stretched a little after mile 7. But then, the pain started to arrive around mile 9 or 10. It wasn't in the knees which made me glad. It was in my toes. I like my shoes, but my toes run a little wide and the D sized width is just a little too tight. I've used E sized with good results, but I noticed it was a little too loose. I wish they made a D+ or E-. Anyway, because of this, I developed blisters on the sides of the toe next to the pinkie.

My shoulders began to feel fatigued too. When I hit mile 9, I thought I only had three miles left, but then I realized it's 13.1 miles and I still had four miles to go. One mile isn't that far, but when it's your last one, it seems further than it is. At least in training.

But when I got to the last mile, there was so much encouragement from strangers, it was easy going. I even sped up on the home stretch. I looked at the board and saw that I could hit two hours, 15 minutes if I hurried. I made it just in time.

At the end, there were students who put "blankets" made of foil around us, put a medal around our necks and gave us a bunch of granola bars and a banana. I walked around in a daze for a bit and started to notice how much the bottom of my feet hurt as well as my blisters. It was like I could finally feel the pain that was always there.

I limped for a little while as I picked up my jacket and keys from the personal storage area. Then I walked back to my car to get my bag of goodies to see if I could pick-up anymore stuff at the health expo area. Unfortunately, there really wasn't anything that wasn't already there in the morning. After hydrating with some water, I made my way back to the car.

Jared had sent me a text and I replied letting him know how fast I ran the half. I felt good, but tired and even though my training got me up to eleven miles, thirteen wasn't really that much more. I think the hills I ran made me tougher because the half was pretty runner friendly meaning there weren't any steep hills.

I noticed that during the relatively steep parts, I was passing people while during the downhill parts, people were passing me. It didn't matter to me because throughout the day, you would pass people or they would pass you. My goal was not to walk and I was able to do that. I only walked a little when I was getting water.

When I got home, I had lunch and I pretty much relaxed the rest of the day after showering. My body didn't hurt or anything, but my feet did feel some ache. I was glad that I tried out this one Kool'NFit spray on my legs that felt really good. It was like methol and icy and cool and smelled great too.

At night, I fell asleep on the couch and just walked upstairs after waking up.