Trail Running Blog

Hollywood Half Marathon Race Report

The Hollywood Half Marathon was my 5^th half marathon for the year and third (I believe) inaugural race. I actually wasn’t going to run this race but my cousin, who I ran with on his first full marathon, wanted to run this half. The course was pretty straightforward, basically an out and back with a pretty tough final two miles uphill. Results: 1:40:54, 13.16 mi (7:40 min/mile), 1^st 5K: 22:38, 2^nd 5K: 23:25, last 6.9K: 54:39. Placing: AG: 49/319, 247/6103 overall. I think I ran once the week of the race so I should be pretty happy about the results. And those last 2 miles were one of the toughest finishes to a race in quite some time. Vitamins and good nutrition can sometimes make the difference.

The race actually took place on a Saturday which is pretty uncommon and the expo was only on Saturday. Fortunately, my cousin was able to pick up my bib for me so I didn’t have to worry about driving up to LA in a rush on Friday. I carpooled with my cousin to the race the next morning, but almost missed the start of the race due to traffic. I heard that traffic was pretty bad the day before at the expo, so I suppose we should have left a little bit earlier for the race. 6 o’clock was coming up and we were still stuck on the off-ramp trying to get into Universal Studios. We were able to finally get into the parking lot and walk over to the start near the Universal Globe and through City Walk.

I suppose the Hollywood Half is a fun race for out-of-towners since they can see the touristy things within Hollywood. But I usually can’t appreciate the views and scenery as much as others while running a race, I’m more preoccupied with the way I’m feeling and focusing on finishing the race as soon as possible. But some of the things we encountered during the race: Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood & Highland/Vine, Hollywood Sign (I didn’t notice it), Walk of Fame, Pantages Theater.

They only had a 1:30 and 1:40 pacer, but I was looking for a 1:35 one prior to the race (obviously, I could have just stayed with the 1:40 pacer). It didn’t even matter anyways, since we got to the race so late, we basically walked straight into the corrals and headed out. I really don’t remember too much about what happened during the course. My splits were all over the place (as opposed to my last half that I ran). I suppose I have the hills to blame for this, but honestly my body just wasn’t into it and I was pretty sluggish for most of the race. The uphill was pretty tough, especially at that point in the race after running 9 miles already. I know I definitely slowed down, but I didn’t walk and just kept moving forward.

I finally finished the race and was exhausted but still wanted to wait for my cousin as well. I found him a little while later and it looked like those 13.1 miles did a number on him. He was pretty exhausted and already sore from the race (he did admit that he did not train as hard for the half as he did for the full marathon. He did say that the next race he does run (if ever) will probably be a 10K which is very unorthodox (first full, then half then 10K, that’s backwards!)

I actually have another trail half marathon next week which is pretty ridiculous. I swear, I think I felt super motivated one day and registered for all of these races at once. I won’t have any more races for the rest of the month and don’t have anything planned for May either (unless you call running around chasing my nephew on his 2^nd birthday a workout..) I need to dedicate May to building up as many miles as possible because I signed up for another FULL marathon in early June. My coworker ran the RnR Las Vegas Half at the end of last year and decided to try a full marathon. I was planning to run the half this year, but I can’t let him one up me!

I actually have quite a few ‘good’ race pics this time, check out below..