Trail Running Blog

Los Angeles Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon Race Report 2014

This is the third time running the Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon. This race was #2 of 3 in my Rock ‘n’ Roll Tourpass, #3 being the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas half coming up in a few weeks! I was initially planning to run the San Jose half to get the Cali Combo medal (run 3 of the 4 California races), but a friend wanted to run Vegas and who can say no to a trip there? As usual, I didn’t have any specific goals for this race, but I did run a 1:31 a few months ago in San Diego, so I was hoping to run no slower than 1:35 (my default goal time). The results were quite surprising: 1:31:17, 6:57 min/mile, age group: 20 out of 483, gender: 94 out of 3202 and overall: 103 out of 7821. The only time I broke 1:30 was in my second half marathon over 4 years ago and I haven’t really gotten close since then. I thought so at the time and I still do now, that race was just a series of events that worked out perfectly for me (just enough water/food before the race, not going out too fast at the beginning, not wasting time at the water station, cool temperatures, etc.) But I’m pretty sure if I dedicate real training for a race, I could beat that time!

Prior to this race, I ran the Spartan Race in September and then a fun run obstacle race in early October. Looking at my workout history, it doesn’t seem like I ran much that much in the month of September, but I did run (almost) every day for 3 weeks prior to the Rock ‘n’ Roll LA. So yeah, other people will train for months for a race, I dedicate 3 weeks of running (not necessarily fast/hard either..) and I run a 1:31. I’ve told others before, my training runs are usually in the 9-10 minute pace, but my race pace ends up sub-7 minute pace?! The only explanation I have is that I run in the mornings and my body (and mind) is not awake, so I just sort of trot along for 30 minutes or so. My long runs are probably even slower, I usually just try to increase my mileage up to (or close) to the race distance. I feel more at ease knowing I ran that race distance before.

This race is actually pretty fun because it’s in Los Angeles. I will drive up from San Diego to my parent’s place and drive to the race the morning of. It also takes place at the end of October and a lot of people will dress up in Halloween costumes, so it makes for an entertaining race. Of course, I would never dress up for a race since I feel like it would just slow me down (I don’t even like holding anything in my hands during a race, let alone a full costume!) This race was also near the Daylight Savings change so the first few miles of the race were kind of dark, which isn’t that big of a deal, just colder than usual.

As I mentioned, I had a rough goal of 1:35, which is a 7:15 min/mile. But that pace sounded too fast for me considering I was running 9+ min/mile pace while training for the race. So I was shooting for more of a 7:20-:30 pace for the first few miles and go from there. And like most of the other races I’ve ran before, I couldn’t hold back and ended up running a 6:41 first mile! The good thing was that I didn’t feel too tired (as if I sprinted or something..) so I kept going and a similar pace. I was afraid that I would hit a wall after a certain number of miles, but it didn’t really happen.

The course was pretty straight forward, it was basically an out and back course with a lot of U-turns, which kept all runners in a very close vicinity. I don’t think I mind that very much, although it can get boring. But I’d much rather run around other people then head off to some random place where you’re all alone (with the few runners nearby). Because it was such a condensed course, there were plenty of spectators and course support, none of which you can have too many of. The course felt a little different this year, we actually ran through the parking lot of the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum, where the USC Trojans play their games! One of the final turn around points was on a bridge just before crossing the Los Angeles River.

As mentioned earlier, the final race in this series that I will be running is the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon. This race is very different from other races in the series. It takes place in Las Vegas and you actually run on the actual strip…at night! I’ve only ran one other race at night and I definitely prefer to run at night since I usually run faster then. The only problem with racing on Sunday night, you can’t really do much in Vegas before or after. You probably wan’t to be drinking or eating out at buffets prior to the race and then you’re probably too tired to go out after the race. But it should be a fun race either way. Meb will be pacing the 1:45 group, which I know for a fact that I can run pretty comfortably. I could not stay at his pace when he was running with the 1:30 group, but I definitely will this time around. I’ll probably round out the rest of the year with either a turkey trot and/or Christmas run.