Start line!
It all started the day before. I woke up at 6am so that I would be tired enough to fall asleep. I originally wanted to get up at 5 but I couldn't fall asleep the night before so decided an extra hour would be the way to go.
I Got up and got dressed and went to get breakfast and then went home and relaxed.
I went on a date afternoon with the boyfriend to get Philly cheesesteaks and compression socks! We spent about two hours searching everywhere at the outlet and finally found compression socks at reebok, the last store we went too! He also got a pair and is now obsessed with them like me. (See I'm rubbing off on him...)
We went home where Ralph tried on all of his purchases-new running gear and shoes to train for the Avengers half! I made pasta and he left to go to a bday party around 7. We made a plan to meet at the finishers party because we assumed that cell service would be crappy. I texted him location so he couldn't forget. He wished me luck and off I went.
I tried to relax even though I was pretty anxious and finally got into bed at 8. I was so nervous and put on teen beach movie to fall asleep (for some reason this movie calms me down A LOT).
I woke up at 1am because I needed to pee and was thristy. Since I was about to lose an hour, I decided to chug two glasses of water which would give me about 2 hours until I needed to wake up again. And I knew dehydration would not suit me well for the race. Hopefully I wouldn't have to wake up again.
Only problem was I so worried about oversleeping that I barely slept! It was so nerve wrecking. However when my alarm went off at 4am (yay my alarm clocks works again!) I hopped up out of bed and was off to get ready.
The hour time change sucked. I only got 6 hours of sleep when I could have gotten 7 which would have helped immensely as while I was running, I could tell I was tired. This won't be a problem for future races because what are the chances it'll happen again (watch it totally happen for an LA rock n roll one year but at least that's the other way-gain an hour!)
I got dressed and was sad not to be in any costume. :( marathons, especially hot ones, are not the place for that. It was just sad after my great costumes from Princess Half weekend. However I did pack my Olympics Roots lucky jacket to wear and check before the race. I also had my rundisney Mylar blanket to wear after gear check and it was chilly-around 50 in the morning.
I Got up and got dressed and went to get breakfast and then went home and relaxed.
I went on a date afternoon with the boyfriend to get Philly cheesesteaks and compression socks! We spent about two hours searching everywhere at the outlet and finally found compression socks at reebok, the last store we went too! He also got a pair and is now obsessed with them like me. (See I'm rubbing off on him...)
We went home where Ralph tried on all of his purchases-new running gear and shoes to train for the Avengers half! I made pasta and he left to go to a bday party around 7. We made a plan to meet at the finishers party because we assumed that cell service would be crappy. I texted him location so he couldn't forget. He wished me luck and off I went.
I tried to relax even though I was pretty anxious and finally got into bed at 8. I was so nervous and put on teen beach movie to fall asleep (for some reason this movie calms me down A LOT).
I woke up at 1am because I needed to pee and was thristy. Since I was about to lose an hour, I decided to chug two glasses of water which would give me about 2 hours until I needed to wake up again. And I knew dehydration would not suit me well for the race. Hopefully I wouldn't have to wake up again.
Only problem was I so worried about oversleeping that I barely slept! It was so nerve wrecking. However when my alarm went off at 4am (yay my alarm clocks works again!) I hopped up out of bed and was off to get ready.
The hour time change sucked. I only got 6 hours of sleep when I could have gotten 7 which would have helped immensely as while I was running, I could tell I was tired. This won't be a problem for future races because what are the chances it'll happen again (watch it totally happen for an LA rock n roll one year but at least that's the other way-gain an hour!)
I got dressed and was sad not to be in any costume. :( marathons, especially hot ones, are not the place for that. It was just sad after my great costumes from Princess Half weekend. However I did pack my Olympics Roots lucky jacket to wear and check before the race. I also had my rundisney Mylar blanket to wear after gear check and it was chilly-around 50 in the morning.
My only costume piece :(
I pre packed everything the night before and was making tea while checking email and was so excited to read an email from my co workers wishing me good luck. It made me so happy! I really love my coworkers!
Left my house at 425 which allowed me plenty of time to catch the 443 train (the first of the morning!). I ate my banana while I walked. It was so quiet and empty. Peaceful yet also scary like the zombie apocalypse (obvi I watch too much walking dead).
Now why did I catch such an early bus when I was scheduled for 615? Well- the info booth scared me! They said 615 was way too late with security and since we were being double checked I need to allow an hour at least. The shuttles were scheduled for 515, 545, 615. I had to ensure i made the 545 and the trains only ran every 30 minutes and I was worried security would be TSA crowds. Well I had way too much time which I will get to later.
I called my mom as they were in Branson and she was already awake. It kept me company while I waited.
I got on the train and it was pretty crowded with runners. It's the train I take to work so I knew I would get bored (it was only 18 minutes but still). I packed two magazines-us weekly and entertainment weekly which kept me occupied and the nervous energy away.
I got off the train at 508 (a few minutes behind schedule) and wanted to use the real restrooms. Well they were closed! :(
I went to get in line for the shuttle (oh the irony-it was my exact bus stop for work!) and got on a bus at 520.
The security-one dude looking in my bag just like at Disneyland. And they did it as you boarded the bus so it didn't slow anyway down (which was great btw!).
It turns out the buses were continuous and not every 30 minutes! So now I know for next time, take the train 30 min later and I'll be fine. I got to dodger stadium at 535 (yup that fast, all we could see on the freeway was cars as far back as possible) and made my way to the actual stadium to meet up with mari and pee in a real bathroom.
We just hung out-sadly I haven't seen her in awhile- and waited for Mallory. She arrived and off we went to get free breakfast (I had already grabbed another pack of clif shots and a banana) and find bag check and pee one more time.
The one thing I found difficult was the signs to know where to go. It was very dark at dodger stadium and the signs were on the ground so until you got right up on it, it was hard to see which direction to go in. We finally found bag check,which had pretty long lines but I was through in less than 5 minutes, and chatted with the guy behind me. It was his first marathon like me and I was telling him about the rundisney races and he was intrigued. I told him to sign up for the Avengers half.
Left my house at 425 which allowed me plenty of time to catch the 443 train (the first of the morning!). I ate my banana while I walked. It was so quiet and empty. Peaceful yet also scary like the zombie apocalypse (obvi I watch too much walking dead).
Now why did I catch such an early bus when I was scheduled for 615? Well- the info booth scared me! They said 615 was way too late with security and since we were being double checked I need to allow an hour at least. The shuttles were scheduled for 515, 545, 615. I had to ensure i made the 545 and the trains only ran every 30 minutes and I was worried security would be TSA crowds. Well I had way too much time which I will get to later.
I called my mom as they were in Branson and she was already awake. It kept me company while I waited.
I got on the train and it was pretty crowded with runners. It's the train I take to work so I knew I would get bored (it was only 18 minutes but still). I packed two magazines-us weekly and entertainment weekly which kept me occupied and the nervous energy away.
I got off the train at 508 (a few minutes behind schedule) and wanted to use the real restrooms. Well they were closed! :(
I went to get in line for the shuttle (oh the irony-it was my exact bus stop for work!) and got on a bus at 520.
The security-one dude looking in my bag just like at Disneyland. And they did it as you boarded the bus so it didn't slow anyway down (which was great btw!).
It turns out the buses were continuous and not every 30 minutes! So now I know for next time, take the train 30 min later and I'll be fine. I got to dodger stadium at 535 (yup that fast, all we could see on the freeway was cars as far back as possible) and made my way to the actual stadium to meet up with mari and pee in a real bathroom.
We just hung out-sadly I haven't seen her in awhile- and waited for Mallory. She arrived and off we went to get free breakfast (I had already grabbed another pack of clif shots and a banana) and find bag check and pee one more time.
The one thing I found difficult was the signs to know where to go. It was very dark at dodger stadium and the signs were on the ground so until you got right up on it, it was hard to see which direction to go in. We finally found bag check,which had pretty long lines but I was through in less than 5 minutes, and chatted with the guy behind me. It was his first marathon like me and I was telling him about the rundisney races and he was intrigued. I told him to sign up for the Avengers half.
Dodger stadium early in the morning
I met up with Mallory and thought we could pee at the port a potties (there were 100s) in 10 minutes. Nope we picked the WRONG line-people were not aggressive enough in our line with heading into port a potties so everyone around us was moving at literally double speed-and it took us about 25 minutes. At least we got to see the pretty sunrise below!
We heard the national anthem, the elite runners leave and headed
To the corrals. Since neither one of us had a time, we were In the open corral and trying to line up between 11 and 12 minute miles and the 5:00 pacer. Well the corrals were only large enough to fit a few hundred people so it was a madhouse. Next time: do bag check and potty break EARLY and go get in the mile markers.
Finally it was time to head off-there's no staggered start. Everyone at once! It took us 8 minutes to get to the start line-we weren't that far back I promise so it felt like so long- and there was stuff everywhere. I think they need to have the open corral next to the time corrals with more space so people can enter and move! Also, a stagger start would be nice too even if it was just a 2-3 minutes.
OFF WE GO! Of course the song playing was "I Love LA".
We heard the national anthem, the elite runners leave and headed
To the corrals. Since neither one of us had a time, we were In the open corral and trying to line up between 11 and 12 minute miles and the 5:00 pacer. Well the corrals were only large enough to fit a few hundred people so it was a madhouse. Next time: do bag check and potty break EARLY and go get in the mile markers.
Finally it was time to head off-there's no staggered start. Everyone at once! It took us 8 minutes to get to the start line-we weren't that far back I promise so it felt like so long- and there was stuff everywhere. I think they need to have the open corral next to the time corrals with more space so people can enter and move! Also, a stagger start would be nice too even if it was just a 2-3 minutes.
OFF WE GO! Of course the song playing was "I Love LA".
Gorgeous sunrise (over the port a potties!)
Tiny tiny space for open corrals
MY HEADSPACE AT THE START:
Insane is the best way to describe it. Nervous and excited and humbled and honored. I couldn't believe this dream I have had for so long was about to come true and a lot of emotions were going through my head but I needed to focus and get ready for the journey. Because it was going to be a doozy.
I decided to do a 2 minute run:30 second walk as long as I could and then half the intervals until I felt better.
I rarely talk about time because as I have always said-"it's not about the time, it's about the finish line". This is so true at rundisney events because I will never run one for time.
My goals going into this race were a sub 5 hour marathon or as Mari has said- 4:59:59. But when the weather-which is normally an average of 60 in Santa Monica in march- was released and supposed to be 60 at the start and 82 at the finish, I knew that was not going to happen. So I switched my goal to below 5:30.
I know Jeff Galloway suggests going 45-60 seconds slower for every 10 degrees over 65, I had trained so hard and wanted to try my best.
I knew hydration would be the key and knew Gatorade would be the key as well. So off I went with 25,000 other people to achieve my goal of becoming a marathoner.
Want to hear more? Look for part 2 tomorrow where I talk about the race, the aftermath and heat and part 3 will I will wrap up (these recaps always end up being so long!)
Insane is the best way to describe it. Nervous and excited and humbled and honored. I couldn't believe this dream I have had for so long was about to come true and a lot of emotions were going through my head but I needed to focus and get ready for the journey. Because it was going to be a doozy.
I decided to do a 2 minute run:30 second walk as long as I could and then half the intervals until I felt better.
I rarely talk about time because as I have always said-"it's not about the time, it's about the finish line". This is so true at rundisney events because I will never run one for time.
My goals going into this race were a sub 5 hour marathon or as Mari has said- 4:59:59. But when the weather-which is normally an average of 60 in Santa Monica in march- was released and supposed to be 60 at the start and 82 at the finish, I knew that was not going to happen. So I switched my goal to below 5:30.
I know Jeff Galloway suggests going 45-60 seconds slower for every 10 degrees over 65, I had trained so hard and wanted to try my best.
I knew hydration would be the key and knew Gatorade would be the key as well. So off I went with 25,000 other people to achieve my goal of becoming a marathoner.
Want to hear more? Look for part 2 tomorrow where I talk about the race, the aftermath and heat and part 3 will I will wrap up (these recaps always end up being so long!)
Ready to run!
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