Running the LA Marathon

Happy to shower, eat, sleep and celebrate.

Last year, on the eve of  February 11, 2014 to be exact, I was sure I would never be able to run a marathon again.  What was supposed to have been a fun 5K training run, organized and sponsored by Big5 and the LA Marathon, turned out to be sheer pain by Mile 2.  As it turned out, I had build up an inflamed hamstring, and ignored the odd tug in my left leg, until on the streets of Pasadena, a fiber muscle tore.  I could not run the LA Marathon that year and spent the next ten weeks in recovery.  

Los Angeles Marathon 2016.

Slowly, over the next months I started running again, but I was mentally prepared to accept that a long(er) run would be out of the question.  Over the summer, I ventured out onto the trails, soaking in the dark woods, working through things at my own pace.  Surprised, I discovered that my body was picking up the load – gradually, I was raising the mileage.  I started training.  With a full schedule at Pepperdine School of Law and a law clerkship certainly not an easy task.  I got up at 3:30 am – to get my miles in - and often put in 18-20 hour-days.  I am not going to lie. I found myself being physically and mentally drained at times.  Certainly not a good outset to run a full marathon.  The real test though was the 22.5 mile run – the "trial run."  Again, I braced myself to face and accept the impossibility of running another marathon.  But at the end of that day, I was still standing, and aside from some soreness, without pain.

Running 26.2 miles to get the medal from friends

Yesterday I proudly finished running the Los Angeles Marathon.  I did not run for time – and mentally I set my finish line to Mile 22, where I knew friends would be waiting.  I took the time to thank volunteers, fire fighters, police officers and medical staff along the way, and posed for cameras. I did not meet my wall, but I did have a moment or two where the race felt "long" - at Mile 12 and at Mile 25.  Around Mile 15-16 I ran into a friend, a student runner from SRLA, who bravely struggled through probably one of his worst races in his life due to food poisoning and heat fatigue.  We ran the race together for several miles, and he paced a slow but steady finish.  When I crossed the finish line - PRing one minute faster than my last marathon at 4:04, I was blessed to receive the medal from a friend, Claudia, who I met when we worked the finish line last year.  It was a good race, and dare I to say that I will be back next year?