I have decided that my next full marathon will be the 30th running of the Los Angeles Marathon in 2015. So, it is my desire to be going 26.2 miles on March 15, 2015. That’s still more than a year away. So, I’m not going to be focusing on this until later in the year. However, after much consideration, I’ve decided not to attempt another full marathon until next year. Why? Simple. I want to build a stronger running base before attempting my next 26.2. I’d like to have a little more experience before taking on my first non-Disney full marathon. The Los Angeles Marathon is a little tougher with more hills in it than at Walt Disney World. So, finishing won’t be as easy. Plus, there won’t be any theme parks to help the miles go by quicker.

On Saturday, I went to the Expo for this year’s Los Angeles Marathon looking for some inspiration. Without a race on the calendar until the end of this month and my next half marathon not happening until April 5th, I’ve found my motivation lacking. So, even though I wasn’t racing, off to the Expo I went.

Just like the other Expo’s I’ve visited, you are ushered into an area where you pick up your race bibs. As you can see, it was quite busy. There were around 25,000 runners that would be running the Los Angeles Marathon.

After you got your bib, the next place to hit up was the official merchandise area. Asics was the official sponsor of the 2014 Los Angeles Marathon.

One of the things I knew I’d find at the Expo were lots of inspirational signs. The Expo for the Los Angeles Marathon did not disappoint.

Loved all of the signs!

How true…

Loving all the signs!

This sign was just outside of the official Merchandise.

They had a DJ in the official merchandise area! How cool is that? Since I arrived later in the afternoon, a lot of the official merchandise for the LA Marathon was 50% off. The downside of arriving so late? Not much in my size. Oh well, this wasn’t my race after all.

Look who was there signing autographs? It’s Ryan Hall! The line was a little long. So, I didn’t choose to wait. Plus, I didn’t really have anything for him to sign.

At the area they had open for various speakers, Andrew Kastor was speaking. I really wanted to see his presentation. However, I thought it was at 4pm, not 2pm. So, I didn’t catch all of it. He offered a lot of advise for the runners on the LA Marathon. Most of the advice I’ve heard before…the value of hydrating and not doing anything new on race day, etc. He was very interesting to listen to. One of the more humorous bits of advice that I had not heard before…a way of cooling down on a hot race day? Pouring water down your shorts. Yep. Take one of the cups of water offered on the race course and pour it down your shorts. He did say it wasn’t something he’d tried out. But, another experienced runner swears by it. This advice came because it was going to be a hot race with highs in the 80’s on race day. He also cautioned the runners not to try for a PR on this hot day. Obviously, no one has control over the weather conditions. So, he said that runners who chose to slow down a bit were being wise and should not feel bad about that decision. I wish that I had been able to hear the entire talk. However, it wasn’t meant to be.

While at the Expo, I did get to see the finisher medals for the OC Marathon and Half Marathon for this year! It’s always fun to see some of the bling I want to get. The OC Half Marathon is the next one I’ll be registering for…either this week or next week.

This is a little blurry, but the OC Half Marathon will be race number 2 of 3 I need to finish in order to get this medal…the Beach Cities Challenge.

Outside, Asics had something going on that I only caught the tail end of. So, I’m not sure who Ryan Hall was up with. Although, the woman in the middle mentioned being an Olympian. From the looks of it, this was something for the legacy runners who had finished all 28 previous Los Angeles Marathons (and were running the next day in the 29th LA Marathon).

Attending the Expo definitely got the juices of inspiration flowing. Unfortunately for me, it also wiped me out. By the time I got home (I took the train), I was not feeling well and didn’t get my training run in like I had planned. It was one of those kinds of weekends where the body needed rest. I also cancelled going to watch the Los Angeles Marathon the next morning. With the time change and loosing an hour sleep, I was unable to wake up early enough.

This is how KTLA started their coverage of the 2014 Asics Los Angeles Marathon. If this doesn’t inspire, I don’t know what will. I thought KTLA did a fantastic job of covering the Los Angeles Marathon! They covered not only the elite runners, but the regular folks as well. The only issue I had was with the start line coverage. One of the reporters decided it would be a good idea to interview a runner right past the start line. As a person who has run in several races, I know this is not a good idea. We runners just want to get going. Stopping for an interview on television is not what we want to do at the very start. Other than that, I thought the coverage was excellent. One of the reporters actually ran portions of the race and interviewed various runners while they were running. They also had Deena Kastor as one of the principle commentators. She did awesome. I also appreciated that KTLA continued their coverage for more than an hour after the elites had finished and continued telling the stories of those regular folks who finished 26.2 as well. Good job KTLA!

I’m looking forward to running in this race in 2015!