{"id":31273,"date":"2019-03-24T19:40:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T23:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=31273"},"modified":"2019-03-24T19:40:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T23:40:27","slug":"march-24-2019-the-34th-annual-los-angeles-marathon-and-the-10th-anniversary-of-the-stadium-to-the-sea-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=31273","title":{"rendered":"March 24, 2019 – The 34th Annual Los Angeles Marathon, and the 10th Anniversary of the Stadium to the Sea Course"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the infographics and tables below, you can definitely tell when things went really wrong, when the pain in my feet got to the point where every footfall felt like I was mashing my toes into the pavement and breaking the tarsals, metatarsals, and phalanges over and over and over and over again.<\/p>\n

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It was a tough day for me.\u00a0 I started with a nagging, dull pain in both my hip and leg.\u00a0 I assume that partly contributed to a stride that had me on my toes more than I should\u2019ve been.\u00a0 But I think more than anything today illustrated just how quickly fitness levels evaporate, recede, and cease to exist when one cuts out the training runs.\u00a0 People have often asked me why I run so many marathons in a year and the answer is that I often use the races as my \u201clong run\u201d on weekends, such that volunteers hand me water and snacks along the way.\u00a0 But the truth is, I\u2019ve long feared that if I cut back, I\u2019d slide back down the fitness chart to depressingly worst returns.\u00a0 The running was a means to an end, that end being maintaining my level of fitness and hopefully addressing the mental, physical, and emotional needs of a middle-aged dude like me.<\/p>\n

And now it seems the prophesy has been fulfilled.\u00a0 Was it self-fulfilling?\u00a0 Or was it inevitable?\u00a0 Either way, it was a disheartening realization that my body lacks the stamina and endurance it had even a month ago thanks to slothful lethargy.\u00a0 I tell myself it\u2019s temporary, that it\u2019s a means to healing to ensure continued success down the road\u2026 but that road seems so very far off on the horizon.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, I got to ride out to the start line with my brother who was undertaking his first race in a while.\u00a0 He was dealing with his own injuries and we both made plans for ducking out at the halfway point if we couldn\u2019t manage it.\u00a0 We both powered through our Rubicons; and we both hit a point later in the race when we might have dropped if we could\u2019ve figured out HOW to drop out at that point.\u00a0 Both of us were in the late teens or early 20s when we hit that point and by then the med tents were few and far between.\u00a0 Unless we asked a local resident out cheering racers on outside their houses to give us a lift, I\u2019m not sure if we could have dropped.\u00a0 And as the various signs of encouragement said along the route at this point: \u201cYou\u2019ve come this far; might as well finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

One quick side note \u2013 I saw a sign today I\u2019d never seen before at a race.\u00a0 I wish I\u2019d gotten a photo of it but I\u2019ve tried to recreate it here.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t it exactly, but it\u2019s a tribute to a top notch sign in the 20s miles:<\/p>\n

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***<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t take a lot of photos \u2013 I\u2019ve done this course a few times\u2026 and honestly, my feet were hurting so much that I was just trying not to cry.\u00a0 Maybe taking photos would\u2019ve helped take my mind off of things\u2026 but I doubt it.<\/p>\n

I will though post the Before and After \u2013 from Dodgers Stadium to the Sea at Santa Monica.<\/p>\n

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And for funsies, here\u2019s what Steve and I looked like running the 20th Annual Los Angeles Marathon 14 years ago.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the infographics and tables below, you can definitely tell when things went really wrong, when the pain in my feet got to the point where every footfall felt like I was mashing my toes into the pavement and breaking the tarsals, metatarsals, and phalanges over and over and over and over again. \u00a0 It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}