Lessons learned

As I write this, I'm watching last years race (LA Marathon March 19, 2006), hopefully this years race will teach me more about the race. But first, what I learned the first time I did the LA Marathon.

Race walking was what I chose. I was really excited. I was two meters away from the starting line (can you spell dumb and crazy!).

The gun went off and my race walking technique kicked in. I was actually passing runners. And kept passing them until a little past mile 7. Can't remember the exact mile marker, the pain from both legs cramping up was just excruciating.

The 19 miles that were left were done at a more humble pace and the pain from the original cramps I experienced never did go away during the trek. I do remember mile 19, because at that spot, there were a group of volunteers spraying participants with some kind of pain killer. I volunteered for the experiment and almost fell on top of one of them as my legs were just about shot.

The finish line was full of joy, my race walking technique was back and people were cheering (I thought the cheers were for me), but I was in full tear mode. You really can't see that at the finish photo but a valuable lesson was learned.

Start farther back!