For several years I’ve wanted to run the LA marathon but got distracted with the Napa marathon and the Little Rock marathon, both held on the same day. Well, it turns out it wasn’t much worth waiting for.

The weather, which had been marathon-perfect cool and cloudy on Saturday, dawned clear and hot on Sunday. The start was chaotic, with honeybuckets lining the bridge we had to cross over on the way to the start. There weren’t enough buckets for all 20,000 of us, so I spent 30 minutes in line and barely made it into the starting corral for the 8:15 start. Crowds and narrow streets conspired to make my first 2 miles over 22 minutes. I know Coach Joe said to take it easy but this was ridiculous. The second mile was up a long and steep hill, with a delightful downhill on the other side which promised to tear up the quads if taken too quickly, but the crowds were such that that wasn’t a problem. We passed the Hollywood Bowl, then continued down to Hollywood and Vine (getting “Love Potion Number 9″ stuck in my head for the next 4 miles).

The crowds were intermittent both in number and enthusiasm. Even though I had a big “TJ” written on my shirt, I’d often pass large – and very silent – groups of spectators. It was unnerving. Around mile 10 and 11 we went through the Guatemalan and Ecuadorean sections of town, which was a party. At this point I was keeping pretty even splits of around 9 min/mile.

The sun and heat had grown worrisome to me by this point, so I was careful to stop at every aid station and drink one glass of gatorade and one of water, and then if I could grab another glass of water I’d dump it over my head. I also decided to eat everything that anyone was handing out – I had so many banana chunks and orange slices I eventually had to turn people down. It’s hard to resist a tiny 3 -year old holding out a piece of orange, though. I had some jelly beans, some gu, a Jolly Rancher (that didn’t stay in too long), a donut, and at mile 21, the Hash House Harriers had a beer stop, so I spent a few minutes there enjoying a dixie cup of cold adult beverage and talking to the crazy Hashers.

I hit the halfway point at 2:07, (2:02 real time) so I was right on schedule, and continued to feel good. I was actually getting a little bored at around mile 15 or 16, as we ran through a deserted and industrial part of town (every marathon does this to us!), and though I tried to find runners around me to talk to, there weren’t many willing to have a conversation.

At mile 20 I was feeling solid and pretty certain I’d finish in around 4 hours, so I thought it would be interesting to be as aware as I could of the energy of other runners around me, and to observe the changes in people as we got into the real heart of the marathon. It was great to see the drawing in of every runners attention and focus, and almost see their inner dialogues as they occurred. Sometimes these were successful and sometimes not, as a runner would slow to a walk, or stop altogether, or make moaning/groaning/swearing sounds. I had my own opportunity to work with my inner dialogue at mile 19. My husband and a couple of friends had said they’d see me there, so I spent the whole mile searching the crowds for them. It was exhausting, and I never did find them. At mile 19, that kind of disappointment looms large, and it threatened to take over my psyche. Where are they? Why didn’t they come to see me? Don’t they love me? But I managed to nip that in the bud, put it out of my mind, and ran an 8:15 mile to keep my mind occupied. After another brutal hill at mile 22 or so, the rest of the course was flat and fast and we had the downtown (the finish) in our sites.

Between mile 25 and 26 I was starting to flag, and my hips were starting to hurt, but there were crowds of people 3 and 4 deep on both sides of the street, screaming at us. That gave me a huge boost, and then I saw Tom and Jackie and Kathy – they DID come to see me after all! I was so psyched by it all, and by the thought that I was nearly done, that I ran a 7:45 for that 25th mile. My overall time was 3:59:47, about what I had hoped for (and slow enough for my coach, I hope!). I drank about a gallon of water, some chocolate milk and ate a power bar, and then went out to celebrate with a mushroom swiss burger, some deep fried macaroni and cheese, and a snickers bar milkshake. Today – some stiffness in the quads, but mostly just an overwhelming exhaustion. And some pride when I look at my 27th marathon medal!

TJ Ford, Portland Oregon, USA
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