13.2 miles, 2:39 moving time, 1,037 ft elevation, 300 suffer score.

There’s a lot to say about this race. So, if you in a rush, flip ahead to the pictures, cuz the medal and city views are awesome.

I was pretty much in denial about this race. I promised Lynda I would run this with her, but I was not excited about it. We ran the inaugural race 2012 and I had a pretty bad experience. I froze to death and bonked hard. Since then, the race moved from 9pm start to a 6pm start. Much better. The course also changed from skid row and laps around the Dodger Stadium Parking lot, to more hill top park and better city view. I was also tired from the Resolution Ride earlier this morning. My brain was tired and packed poorly for the race, Lynda made up for my wardrobe errors. Lifesaver.

Gregg carpooled me and Lynda to the race downtown LA. I never hang out there. Woah, it’s whole ‘nuther world. Very spotty. Crappy to glitzy by just turning a corner. We parked a few blocks from the finish line and walked to the starting line, which were about 1 mile apart. On the way we saw some DTLA usual sights. Homeless people shouting obscenities, cool old building that have been renovated, and some great restaurants.  The starting line was at 7th and Grand. Disco light shows and Loud DJs at the starting line.

Lynda and I took it as a training hill run. No PR. It was way too hilly. 1,037 ft climbing. We started out running through the skyscrapers and then did an out and back in the 2nd street tunnel. This threw off my Garmin by 0.6 miles. Bummer. I played around with it a bit and ended up messing up the timing too. Double bummer. So, the distance and time were both F’d up. But, the good news in the tunnel, we saw Scott and Nicole on the out and back. We passed Chinatown’s Dragon Gateway and headed north. Hills Hills HILLS. Taiko Drummers at the Dodger Stadium Parking lot. We ran along the edge of the parking lot for some great skyline views of the city. We ran on the inside of Dodger Stadium, that great.

Lisa and Corrina passed us as we headed up to Elysian Park. This was a long out and back, or rather down down down and up up up through the park. It was very well lit up. I felt pretty good through mile 9. Then I bonked. Everything got tired. Lynda was patient and got me some nutritional stuff. I walked and jogged it back. Eyes were tired and closed a bit too.

Finish line was at City Hall. Lynda found Choco Pies and was very excited. We saw Amy, Corrina, Lisa, and Todd at Drop Bag Pick up (that was a bit of mess). Gregg finished well before us and was already waiting in line. Space blankets kept us warm while waiting in line. I always use my blue and green duffle, it’s easier for them to find as opposed to the thousands of same black bags. All in all it was a very hard, hilly, race, with some great city views. The weather was cold, but not as bitter cold as a couple years ago. I felt that the Hill Repeats and Track workouts saved me, otherwise it would have been very ugly race again. As we walked back to our car, we stopped for a nice Italian dinner. Scott joined us halfway through. He won his age group! It felt good to sit down and savor the day.

Here’s the Strava data. It’s a bit skewed due the the tunnel dropout and my messing around with the settings. But, I could tell I did some hard work by the heart rate spread. My Mio Link worked well. Just to get a Half Marathon Strava trophy, I turned on my watch walking back to car to make up for the lost 0.6 miles in the tunnel. Ha! Take that tunnel.