Today was a big one: 17 miles! But what really concerned me when I woke up on the morning of January 21, 2012 was the rain which sounded like it was pounding on the concrete with little mercy. Was today going to be a repeat of the 2011 Los Angeles Marathon which turned into a violent monsoon long before we reached the finish line? Were we going to risk getting hypothermia as we did that day? I got more prepared today than I had in the past, putting on my running gear and bringing a dry set of clothes to change into in case I got soaked. And remembering the talk last week about “nipple guards,” I practically covered my body with anti-chafe cream. Always hope for the best and expect the worst!
The rain was still coming down when I arrived at Griffith Park, and the runners were all huddling over a canopy temporarily put up to give us some respite from what we were about to run through. The coaches reminded us not to forget to drink water and Gatorade as, even though it was raining, our bodies were not going to suck the rain into our bodies through osmosis and that we need to keep “putting something in our mouths.” That line ended up backfiring as it provided us with a visual completely unrelated to running.
Actually, when the coaches brought that up, I suddenly realized I forgot my water belt. This is the first time I have ever left it back at the apartment, and this was the wrong run for this to happen. Getting so nervous about coming back it like a sponge needing to be wrung out constantly from absorbing a ridiculous amount of water, it completely slipped my mind. I ended up snagging two bottles of grape Gatorade and two chocolate chip granola bars from the picnic table the team uses, so that saved me from having to be sent home. No one is letting us go out there sans water and food anymore.
We all started off easy as the need to conserve energy was a must. For the past few weeks I have started off faster than I should have, and a 17 mile run was the wrong run to start at warp factor 5. Our coaches also warned us not to jump in any puddles as they don’t know “what is underneath them.” This was especially good advice because for all we know, there might be a major pothole not visible to the human eye underneath. Hell, we may get sucked down into a netherworld and swallowed up like its quicksand. Remember all those movies where characters get sucked up by quicksand? They still freak me out…
Also, getting our shoes wet would have made us feel like we are lifting weights while we run. To make this clearer, let me quote from a “Star Trek” episode entitled “A Piece of the Action” in which Scotty tells an arrogant gangster:
“You mind your place mister or you’ll be wearing… concrete galoshes!”
“You mean… Cement overshoes?”
“Uh, aye.”
I have to say it was great to find those grape Gatorade bottles. Pouring it down my throat for and feeling it cover my body seemed like a river rushing down the Rocky Mountains. Gatorade has never tasted as good as it did on this run! Heck, it even gives those peanut butter and pickle covered Ritz crackers a run for their money!
We did have one hill to contend with, and it wasn’t a deceptive one. The coaches did warn us about it, and they described it as one of those “WTF hills.” Now while we groan at the mention of them, we were reminded how they are worth the trouble. When we come to San Vicente Boulevard in the marathon, we will have another “WTF hill” to run up. They did point out that it won’t be as bad as the one we’re running up today. But when we run the marathon, we will be glad we took this one on. There is indeed no excuse for being properly prepared.
As I made my way to the top of said hill, I noticed a street sign which had written on it Monte Vista Avenue. That was name of the high school I went to years ago, and I was a Cross Country runner during my time there. On our course, we had to run up the hill in Oak Hill Park which was torture on our legs. Just the thought or sight of that hill still gives my legs that same burning sensation, so passing this street seemed like a cruel irony.
This run had us going through Burbank and parts of Glendale, and the coaches described it as a “studio tour.” We ran around Warner Brothers, NBC headquarters, and Walt Disney Studios among others. I’m not sure if I noticed this before, but a building at the Disney Studios had the seven dwarves as pillars holding up a large part of it. At the top above the others was Dopey. Now while Dopey may live up to his name, this says a lot about his strength!
My body held up better than I expected it to. Usually different parts of my body make clear how annoyed they are with me doing this training, but they didn’t get as sore as they normally do. I’ve come to the point where if my muscles and joints start hurting more than they should, it means I’m doing something wrong so I adjust accordingly. My feet however hated me, and they hurt like hell in the last 3 or 4 miles. It’s like they were yelling at me:
“YOU BASTARD!!!”
Towards the end, it felt like I was limping to that finish line as my feet felt infinitely sore. You know you’re in trouble when you start verbalizing your aches and pains, and I don’t mean just the financial ones in this world today. We started out at around 7:20 am, and we finished our 17 mile run close to 12 noon. We all earned this accomplishment almost as much as we earned to take the rest of this day off to sleep. Some of us still had jobs to go to though, and that strikes me as a metaphorical “WTF hill” if you ask me!
There was a banquet waiting for us at the end of yummy raspberry pastries, blueberry muffins, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches among other things. Those monetary jack and cheddar cheese sticks from Trader Joe’s were especially good, and I couldn’t help but have several of them. Everybody however was wondering where the chocolate milk was as it is now collectively seen as the recovery drink for us runners. It didn’t matter that we had a number of things to choose from; WE NEEDED OUR CHOCOLATE MILK!!!
I didn’t hesitate about having an ice bath this 17 miler, and I ended up buying 3 seven pound bags of ice from the supermarket. I did cheat a bit though because I made the water lukewarm so that my body didn’t go into severe spasms from cold water shock. I ended up putting all three bags of ice in, but because the water turned out to be a little warmer than lukewarm, it melted really quickly. I had to keep adding cold water (which felt like heaven to my battered feet) to make me feel like a human ice cube. It was nice and therapeutic though as I laid back and listened to the latest episode of “Hollywood Babble-On” with Kevin Smith and Ralph Garmin.
FUNDRAISING UPDATE: As I write this, I still have yet to learn how much I raised from my fundraiser at Bob’s Big Boy Restaurant in Burbank this past week. To date I have raised over $740 for AIDS Project Los Angeles and now have until mid-February to reach my fundraising goal of $1,000.
Click here to make a tax deductible donation.
Other days of 2012 LA Marathon Training:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9.5, 10, 11, and 12