The LA marathon is a pretty amazing race. Now, I won't let my biased for the city sway my opinion here. When traveling for a destination run, I look for several things. The course needs to be fun, the atmosphere needs to be lively, and finally, the hydration stations need to have quality products. LA hits all of these points. Before I get into these details, let's go back to race week. My approach this time was to get into the city during race week. My goal here is to get last minute workouts, get a solid eating and hydration plan, and most importantly, enough sleep before the run. Traditionally, I've flown in on Friday, then Saturday is full of running around for packet pickup and the obligatory visits around the city. By the time race day comes around, I haven't slept, eaten and hydrated well enough and my run suffers. This time, I flew in during the week and I was hoping to have a better run. The week was pretty uneventful. Work traveled with me, which is ok. I had my beach house on the boardwalk, and would work during the day, and hang out on Abbott Kinney at night. Friday is when things picked up. I decide to go get my packet at the convention center on Friday, this would leave me with the evening free to have dinner with great company that night. If you've ever been to Venice you know that parking near the boardwalk is not fun. So, I had a spot in a garage about 7 minutes from my house. I go walking into Santa Monica to get my car and travel the 30 minute treck into downtown for the convention center. For those familiar with LA, I parked at the renaissance center in Santa Monica. I'm about to reach the elevator and there's a spot of uneven pavement in my way. Wouldn't you know it, my left foot goes to step, and the uneven concrete claims another victim. My ankles rolls a bit, now, I've done this several times before. So, I immediately pull off of my foot to prevent a worse sprain, but my ankle joint is damaged, and it pops pretty loudly. After about 5 minutes of pretty amazing pain, I gather myself and start to think about what just happened. Being in this position before I knew that I needed to get a brace and keep the join loose in order to have any chance to run on Sunday. So, I get in the car, drop the top and head into the city. Once, I make it into downtown, park my car, and limp into the convention center, I encounter the typical marathon crowd. The first dude I run into is doing a typical FaceBook picture, where he's in front of his bib and the LA marathon signage. I stealthy traverse the sea of Facebook "posers" and make it to the bib pickup stand. This marathon does a good job with it's signage, it has a lot of places for photo ops at the expo. The first vendor group I come to is ASCIS, they were the largest corp sponsor and they had the larges area at the expo. They actually had some pretty sweet collectors edition running shoes made for the run. I had to purchase some, since I don't know how many more times I'll be running these events. At some point, I need to let my legs rest and I'll hang up my runners shoes and get all the surgeries my body desperately needs, but I digress.
After getting past the ASCIS area my main goal was to grab a compression sock and a non intrusive brace that would aid and not impede my running by changing my gait on Sunday. This proved to be pretty challenging, since at this point all of the people at the expo are either in full on "poser" mode or free sample hoarding mode. The only good thing is that I was able to keep my foot moving and this helped my ankle not become stiff. Finally, I find a place with braces and compression socks. I purchase one of each and I'm on my way. Now, it's back to the car and over back to West LA before traffic gets bad. Back in West LA, I get back home and prepare for my night out. The evening couldn't have been any better, we wind up at Hal's on Abbott Kinney, which has some pretty amazing food, just don't try to have a conversation while there. When i go there I feel like visiting Quaterbacks must feel like playing at QWEST field in Seattle. I can't even here myself think. Saturday the plan was to go do the LA thing. As I wake up Saturday morning, my first thought is "looks like another sunny day in Hell" Which is perfect we drive to West Hollywood in the x4 with the drop top down. We do all of the major landmarks in West Hollywood, walk of fame, beverly hills, and some how I get roped into visiting Dash... Now, I'm not really into pop culture, and I've heard of the Kardashian's I find the whole idea of their fame repulsive and idiocracy at it's finest. Nevertheless, I find my self at this establishment. I know, poor poor pitiful me, right? Now, me being the loveable asshole I am, my first questions is where's the shitter in this place? Probably not the question the workers of that terrible establishment hear quite often. Mercifully, we don't spend much time there, and we're off. The rest of the day was spent in West Hollywood, and finally we make it back to West LA. After that it's dinner, shower and bed time. During the day, I start to feel more confident in my ankle, there's no stiffness, and the pain has subsided. So, my plan is to wake up in the morning, go thru the motions and see how it all feels in the am. Sunday morning I wake up and it's feeling a little ginger, so I get in the shower and get ready to drive to dodger stadium. Once I arrive we walk over to the stadium and wait for it to be closer to run time. Sit down in a corner and watch the crowd of anxious people walk all over the place in anticipation. Knowing how these events play, I wait until closer to run time before I start to stretch. As the crowd disappears and start time inches closer, I begin to stretch. At this point there's not much soreness, and I start to really press on the joint to make sure it's stable and pain is minimal. I feel a little soreness, but nothing that's going to stop me at this point. My stretching becomes more intense, and I start to really press the joint for pain. Knowing my body, I can tell this will be a challenge, but not un-doable. Now, I'm ready to approach the finish line say my goodbye's and hit the pavement....
