I went into the LA Marathon with the primary goal to finish, and the secondary goal to set one form of personal best. I also wanted to make up for my disappointing performance in Honolulu. My personal bests for a real marathon was 6:01 in Chicago but I did a marathon-length training run in 5:36. My Honolulu time was 6:37. I wanted to at least beat my Chicago time and anything under 6:00 would have been OK. I figured a 5:30 finish was possible but not very realistic.

Mark and I met Josslyn, one of my running buddies from the 2000 AIDS Marathon program, at the North Hollywood Metro station for the ride to the starting line. Joss was going to try to keep up with us in the race as best she could.

The race started 28 minutes late because a suspicious package was found by the convention center (it turned out to be an empty box). LA is already one of the latest-starting marathons and adding another half hour means you're out in the sun just that much later in the day. While we waited in the pack we talked with some people from Lake Arrowhead who were running their first marathon and were asking for tips. It was weird being the veteran telling newbies what to do.

Once the starting gun went off at 9:13 it took us about 7 minutes to get to the starting line. The first couple of miles were all downhill until we ended up on Figueroa for a long stretch, turning on MLK by the Coliseum. Josslyn kept pace with us for the first 9 miles or so until she kept back because were going a little too fast for her. Mark and I were going pretty strong and by halfway were on pace for a 5:22 finish. We knew we were going fast but it still felt OK.

My mother was waiting for us around mile 14 with a goodie bag, including a orange which Mark and I shared. As we got to mile 17 or so it was getting warmer and the run was getting a little harder as we hit the uphill part of the course. We caught up to another AIDS Marathon running buddy Jen on San Vicente and she kept up with us for a few minutes and dropped back. At mile 20 I repeated to Mark Frank Shorter's quote from mile 20 of an Olympic marathon: "Why couldn't Phidippides have died here?" We were on 6th Street going through Hancock Park and I was starting to bonk. The fast pace we were running, the warming weather, and the modest hills were catching up with me. I didn't want to have a repeat performance of Honolulu where I walked from miles 23 to 25 so we slowed down our run/walk ratio from 4:1 to 3:2 since that was the only way I thought I could finish. Fortunately Mark was OK with slowing down because I needed him to pull me along. But even though we slowed down we were still on pace for a sub-5:30 finish. At this point, though, I cared more about finishing than the time.

Shaun and Mark's partner Chris were waiting for us near the corner of 6th and Western with another goodie bag and some much-needed inspiration. Shaun had a sign that said "Go Chad!! You Rock!!!" He also took some pictures and I should have them up on my web site soon.

Western has a nasty hill that we had to climb before turning on Olympic. At mile 23 I knew it was only a 5K run left and I was starting to break it down mentally just to make it bearable. At mile 24 I knew I only had about 30 minutes left. We were extending our walk breaks by about 30 seconds. Once we passed under the Harbor Freeway and past Staples Center downtown we knew we were in the homestretch, though there were 3 turns so we couldn't see the finish line until we were a block away. We took one final short walk break and headed for the chute. We crossed together with a chip time of 5:26:38. I finished 9710th overall, 7038th among men, and 1179th among men 30-34.

The trip home was a bit of an adventure. We took the Metro back to North Hollywood but food and drinks are not allowed in the station or the trains and I didn't want to risk a $250 fine. I started feeling queasy and was sweating like a pig and Mark said I was looking pale. We made it out of the station and to my car, where I promptly threw up (on the ground, not in my car!). After drinking some water and sitting there for about 20 minutes while Mark made sure I was OK, I made the 15-minute drive home, though I did start sweating again in the car. (I think I got dehydrated on the Metro and that also caused my body to overheat.) Shaun had put his "Go Chad" sign in the living room window to greet me :) I took a shower, drank lots of Gatorade and started nibbling on bread and pretzels. By 8:00 I was eating almost normally and now, Monday afternoon, my legs are still a little sore but the rest of me is OK.

A few weeks ago I got email from someone at Volkswagen wanting to do a story for their magazine (yes, VW has a magazine for its cult members, er, owners) about VW owners who run marathons for charity. If you do a Google search for "marathon" and "Jetta" my web site is the first one to come up. She said she would get back to me if they decided to go with the story. This morning she got back to me and, yes, they are going ahead with it for the Spring 2003 issue, and they would like pictures from any marathons I do this spring or summer. So I think they will have to do with the few pictures from yesterday. Had I known a few days ago I would have carried a camera with me.

And I did raise $410 for Project Angel Food. Over $9500 was raised but all but only two of us did the marathon, the rest participated in the LA Times 5K.

I'm not sure when my next marathon will be but I am taking a few months off. 19 of the last 22 months have been spent training and it's time for a break!

LA Marathon Pictures

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