At long last, I have some time to sit down and begin my Los Angeles Marathon postings. It’s been a crazy busy week this week. So, thank you for patience. I ran the marathon on Sunday, went to Disneyland on Monday, and had a St. Patrick’s Day meal with my wife’s family Tuesday. So, finally, on this Wednesday evening I have a chance to go back and recap the week leading up to the Los Angeles Marathon. After all, I haven’t had a chance to talk about the last bit of training leading up to the big day!

Tuesday of Marathon Week, I was up and ready to take on another 3 miles before work. What a great way to kick off LA Marathon Week! It was my fastest 3 miles before work yet! I almost got under the 32 minute mark! I could tell that I was off to a great run right from the start. The first mile was fast and so was the second. As a matter of fact, I almost broke 22 minutes for the first two miles. It was easily the fastest I’d covered that distance! I felt great and just kept on going all the way to 3 miles. Even though I didn’t crack 32 minutes overall, I was very happy with this run. I knew that this would be the last run where I’d push myself before the marathon. So, it was everything I could have hoped for!

As you can see, Thursday‘s run was slower. Honestly, I didn’t sleep well the night before this run. Combine that with it being my final training run before the marathon and the taper period, I wasn’t very motivated to keeping the time quick. I was in the mindset of finishing off the training. Time didn’t matter as much for me on Thursday and the time showed it. All was good, though because I finished my training strong and felt ready for a marathon!

Saturday, I headed off to the Los Angeles Marathon Expo to get my race gear and enjoy everything the Expo had to offer. They held the Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Last year, I attended this Expo to be inspired. This year, I attended as a participating runner! It was thrilling to be there! I took in a Q & A with Bart Yasso and another one with Deena Kastor. Both gave me a lot to think about for the race and beyond. I will be writing a full report on the Expo next week. I took some video of both Q & A sessions that I want to be able to share with you guys. In addition to the seeing Bart Yasso and Deena Kastor, I chatted a little with our favorite runDisney race announcer Rudy Novotny. All of the information I received told me that this marathon was not one to attempt a PR with. Also, I decided to take both Rudy and Bart’s advice and not wear the hydration vest for the race.

Not only did I go to the Q & A sessions, but I got to meet Bart Yasso….

Rudy Novotny…

and Deena Kastor!  Yes, fun times indeed!

After the Expo, I headed home to take care of a few things and get my running gear laid out for the race.

Sunday was race day! I was up early in the morning to head down to the start of the race. I did park in Santa Monica to catch a shuttle to Dodgers Stadium. I was pretty happy that they had the stadium open for us runners to wait for the start! That meant we had access to real restrooms and an actual seat to sit in while we waited for the start. The Los Angeles Marathon is using a Stadium to the Sea course. It starts at Dodgers Stadium….

Through Hollywood….

Down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills….

and finishing in Santa Monica! Of course, I’ll cover the race in way more detail for my race recap next week. However, I do want to share a few thoughts today. First, due to the extreme heat that was forecast for race day, I heeded the advice of everyone associated with the LA Marathon and didn’t even try to PR this race. Instead, I took it easy and focused on having fun. There were lots of pictures taken along the way. If you follow me on Instagram, you know what I’m talking about. I took pics and posted some of the more fun pictures as I was racing! Looking for fun pictures to take really made the miles go by pretty quickly! My finish time was super slow. However, I accomplished what Bart Yasso had advised. He said we should take the race about a minute per mile slower than we would usually go. I finished a little over a half hour slower than I finished the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon. So, I almost got that completely on point! The last thing I want to say is how overwhelming it was at times to see how much support the runners received on the course! The citizens of Los Angeles showed amazing support! I loved this race and plan on running the 2016 Los Angeles Marathon! Hopefully, the weather will be cooler for that race!

To celebrate finishing my second full marathon, Brooke and I headed off to the Saddle Ranch at Universal City Walk for a prime rib dinner! Let me tell you, it was amazing! What was funny about this is that dinner was the only real meal I got all day long. After all, you can’t too big of a meal before running the marathon. I finished around 2pm and didn’t get back home until around 4:30pm. So, my lunch was also small. It took forever to get back to the freeway in Santa Monica and then the traffic was bumper to bumper the entire way home. To make it worse, it was in the upper 80’s/lower 90’s outside and my car’s air conditioning decided it didn’t want to work. So, I had a miserable drive back home. So, this meal was awesome for many reasons.

After dinner, I was a really tired, but super happy camper!

As if getting both training runs in during race week and finishing my 2nd full marathon were not enough to be excited about, I also lost 2.4 lbs. and 4% body fat! Yes, the Journey to 160 continues!

Week 10 of 2015 is one that I won’t forget for a while! It just proves to me that finishing the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon was no fluke (as if that were even possible)! I’m now a 2 time marathon finisher! Next year’s Los Angeles Marathon will take place on Valentine’s Day. The moved up the usual March date because the LA Marathon course was chosen to host the United States Olympic Marathon trials. On February 13, 2016, all the Marathon Olympic hopefulls will line up and run this course. In order for those who qualify for the USA Olympic Team to be able to properly train for the Olympics, they needed to have the race earlier. After seeing first hand how much excitement there was for the 30th Los Angeles Marathon, I can only imagine how much more insane it will be next year with the Olympic Trials! I can’t wait!