26.2 Miles of Hills and Fun
The day before:
On March 16th, my friend James and I attended the LA Marathon Expo hosted by ASICS. I remember the initial jitters I got prior to visiting. If I am being honest, I knew once I got to the expo, everything was going to set in. I scanned my number, got my bib (always make sure you get your safety pins ok haha, but I definitely grabbed my 4). I started walking around, soaking it all in, especially because we got to see the actual starting line at the Dodger’s Stadium – and that’s when it hit, we were starting on a hill. I tried not to think too hard about it because it’s really easy to get in your own head about every little thing.
The energy of the expo sets the tone, so I highly recommend walking around, looking at all the different booths. I definitely made an impulsive decision out of excitement and chose to buy a new pair of socks by a brand I’ve worn throughout my running journey. Here’s one tip I’ll share now….NEVER RUN IN ANYTHING NEW (I’ll come back to this later). There was a huge display of the course, as well as a huge wall of names of people registered to run. I felt kind of emotional reading my name, and I felt reassured that I was going to cross the finish line no matter what.
Night time rolled around, we walked to Grand Central Market, grabbed some food to carb load, then went back to start stretching and getting ready for bed. Our alarms were set for about 3:30 - 4 AM. I did the famous layout of my outfit, had my watch/phone/headphones charging, and ensured everything I needed was going to be easily found the next morning.
Morning of:
This sounds funny, but I kid you not, every morning of a race, I really don’t want to eat anything and I get super nauseous. I was trying my hardest to eat one of my Honey Stinger waffles to have something in my stomach, but the nausea was super strong. My friend and I just kept encouraging each other – but it was time to head out of the hotel. We walked to catch the shuttle and waited for what felt close to an hour, and it was awesome to connect with so many other runners who were either seasoned runners or people who were about to run their first full 26.2.
From the time of waiting to get to the shuttle, to the actual ride, I was just trying to sit with my feelings. I felt scared but proud that even this initiative is something to be celebrated. The sun started to come up, and we had just made it in time for the starting time. We ran to the restroom, stretched, got our watches ready and hit “start.” I remember my watch was taking its time, and I wasn’t really wanting to listen to music yet. I wanted to just take on the energy of the other runners and different locations.
My time goal went out the door a few weeks prior - so my goal was to finish, but most importantly to have fun. Within the first few miles, it was perfect. From the people I was smiling at, to the spectators playing music outside their homes, and to my favorite part – people selling chili dogs so early in the morning. I started laughing to myself because it felt good. We don’t really know the purpose behind everyone running, but we’re doing this together. I started to feel a rush of emotions, and felt like I couldn’t stop smiling that for a moment it made me forget there’s about another 21 miles of this.
I got to see my friend James take off, and told him “see you at the finish line,” as I was using slower pacers than he was. Immediately into the race, I realized that this was about to be the most hilly course so it was okay if my method was to walk a bit up the hills then run on the flat surfaces. Around mile 6, I still had not put on my headphones and noticed someone else was running on her own, and it was almost like the perfect encounter. I started joking with her saying there was no way the pacer in front of us was going at his marked pace because he literally seemed like he was flying. She laughed, and from there, we just started to talk about running while running.
We clicked instantly, and from our small conversation, we agreed to just run the rest of the marathon together. It was awesome, because it felt like we were friends who knew each other already. We just agreed to approach hills as our rest periods, take any restroom breaks as needed, encourage one another, and honestly, I can’t thank her enough for the experience. When one of us would feel low, we constantly pushed each other such as “just make it to the stop light,” or “just make it down this hill.” We did this the rest of the way.
At one point, I felt almost like I was going to get emotional passing 15 miles, because that’s the longest I had ever run. So this day was going to be a lot of firsts for me! We ran through popular parts of Los Angeles, from downtown to Silverlake to West Hollywood. I felt good. There was one particular point around halfway through when we decided to finally take a restroom break, stretch, take energy chews etc.
I had a bit of pain coming through on my hip, and remember those new socks??? Yeah, they were forming a bubble on the side of my foot. It was my fault though because I bought some that were lightly cushioned instead of the medium cushioning I usually get. Luckily my new friend gave me a bandaid, and we set out on the road again. It was so fun getting cold oranges from spectators, drinking water and also the electrolyte drinks people were handing out. That’s something I’m actually proud of, staying hydrated the whole way.
There was one part of the race that I loved, but also hated. We got to mile 18 and I saw a lot of my friends here, who ran up to me, were holding up signs and cheering me on….the part I hated was that it was such a tease to see the finish line. The sun was truly starting to warm up, and after getting that high of seeing the finish line, all I wanted to do was to be done.
I started to truly struggle from mile 22 and on. There were hills, beaming sun, and I could feel myself getting anxious to see the next mile marker. I’m so thankful for my new friend I had made, because all we kept saying was to just finish. She was such a motivating person, and I honestly don’t know If I would have been able to finish if it wasn’t for her. With each mile, we knew we were about to complete one of the hardest and hilliest courses.
Between mile 25 and 26, I ended up running into another friend and after hugging, she said I looked really good! I started laughing because I know I didn’t feel good. She said she was so shocked to see that I looked solid and as if nothing was hurting. The crazy part of this is that she saw me after the hell that mile 22-25 were.
Then finally, I saw “Mile 26” and the finish line banner. I thought I was going to be much more emotional, but I surprisingly felt just so happy and accomplished. The emotions that were running through me as I was about to cross the finish line was that I kept the promise to myself that no matter what, the plan was to complete it, and I did. I felt unstoppable, I felt chills run through my body once I put on the medal around my neck. All I wanted to do was take a photo and just feel the energy of what it was like to finally be a marathoner.
This day marked so many special moments for me. Seeing my friends, meeting my new friend, running across LA, and most importantly proving to myself that I could do this. I texted my family, then met up with other friends and took more photos. It was an incredible day, and what’s so interesting is that I actually felt worse after my half-marathon. BUT after the marathon, I was so ready to socialize, eat and hang out with friends. This was one of the hardest things I’ve done, but I realized that my mental game was strong that day, and I felt the support of the running community around me. I remember laughing that I did the whole thing without listening to music, so I was as present as possible for. It’s still something I can’t believe I completed, but I’m proud to say I hit my goal of running a marathon before turning 30.
Anything is truly possible. Don’t set limitations for yourself. It might not turn out perfect, but it turns out in the best possible way, and soak it all in.
