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RACE REVIEW: 2014 ASICS LOS ANGELES MARATHON (3/9/14)
“City of Angels” bling.
“I love LA!” Yes indeed. Randy Newman’s “unofficial” city anthem got plenty of play this weekend at the start of the 2014 Asics LA Marathon. An annual tradition since 1986, this year’s race featured a “sold-out” field of 25,000 runners dashing along the popular “Stadium to the Sea” route. Other events included the “Big 5 LA 5K” on Saturday as well as the option to run the marathon as a 2-person relay (handing off at the midway point). This year’s race also featured two unexpected twists to give the race a little “added drama” (and boy does this city love drama). First off, this year’s race coincided with “Daylight’s Savings Time” (“Spring Forward” everyone) robbing us of an hour of much-needed pre-race sleep and guaranteeing that everyone set numerous alarm clocks to ensure they didn’t oversleep. In addition, “Mother Nature” decided to overdo things a little (okay, a lot) on the California sunshine, but more on that later.
RUN AND “CELEBRATE”
Roadkill selfie
So, my alarm (first one) went off this morning at 4:45am. No big deal because I had been awake since 4:00am in anticipation for today’s 23-mile “fun run.”
As I mentioned the other day, today was our “celebration run” for Team To End AIDS (T2). So our group of marathoners (and marathoners-to-be) met at “0 Dark Thirty” (okay 6am, but it was still dark out) in Griffith Park. Huddled in the glow of lanterns, we were given specially made “celebration run bibs” courtesy of our coach JC and a very nice touch.
So after a pep talk from Ashley and a breakdown of the route from JC (apparently we were running everywhere on planet Earth… with a hill to boot), my pace group “Team Roadkill” or “Team Road Kyll” (if you go with our funky spelling this year) gathered our forces, 19 of us today, for the trek.
“MARATHON ADJACENT”
This run is brought to you by the numbers “2” & “3.”
Tomorrow morning I’ve got a long run to do. A very long run. 23-miles to be exact or about 88% of a marathon.
But this isn’t your ordinary 23-mile run. Rather, it’s a celebration.
Back in October, I started training for the 2014 Los Angeles Marathon with my running group Team to End AIDS (T2). For 5 months now we’ve been meeting up every Saturday (rain or shine) at Griffith Park to pound pavement together and raise money for APLA (AIDS Project Los Angeles). To date, our merry band of marathoners has raised over $130,000 to help those people in LA whose lives are impacted by HIV/AIDS.
And on Saturday we celebrate with our longest run of the season. Starting at 6am, we’ll spend the next 5 or so hours running through Griffith Park and along the streets of Burbank, Glendale and Toluca Lake.
MY TEACHER
Scott Boliver smiling, as always.
A few days ago I wrote about why I run, but I purposely left out one important detail, so I could write about it today. January 3rd marks the one-year anniversary of the passing of the man who was my running coach, my mentor and my friend.
On this day I want to tell you about Scott Boliver. I want to tell you about the man who taught me to run.
As I mentioned before, back in the fall of 2008 I was a lost soul looking for something to call his own. I signed up with the AIDS Marathon training program looking to re-invent myself and do something I considered impossible. When I showed up at Griffith Park for that very first training run, however, I wondered if I had the personal strength and dedication to see it through.
Then I met Scott… Coach Scott.
WHY I RUN
Heading for the finish line at the 2008 Nike Human Race
We all have our reasons why we lace up our running shoes day in and day out. For some it’s as simple as “I’ve always run.” For me, it’s far more personal and I hope you’ll indulge me.
In the summer of 2008, my life was not in a good place for several reasons. First and foremost, I had to endure not one, not two, but three family health scares in just two months.
My mother had a rare heart condition that required her to have open-heart surgery… fortunately she pulled through like a trooper. Just a few weeks later my dad learned he had serious blockage in numerous arteries (caught just in the nick of time) and had several stents installed to keep his ticker ticking. And then my brother (who was the jock of the family) went in to get his heart checked and they found something wrong. Fortunately, a re-test showed that it was a phantom reading. Bullet dodged.
Tripping The Kenyans 