Last night I joined over 12,000 people downtown at the LA Coliseum and thousands more around the globe to be part of
The Human Race, the largest running event in world history and for us in LA to see Kanye West and Common in a huge post-run concert.
The event was pretty awesome in its scope and a lot of fun in spite of some major logistical blunders on their part, more on that later. But what the event was for me was a major wake-up call. Through the course of this very social and full summer, I had allowed myself to slip to weigh the most I had in months. An injury that kept me from doing a lot of different excercises could be blamed, as could the very busy schedule and crazy social summer we'd just concluded. Yes summer is officially over and not a minute too soon. I have been eating and drinking to much crap, caffine, and alcohol and not getting my veggies(I have been planting them, just not eating them).
I had no intention on getting a good time. With over 12,000 runners bumping into each other I knew that to try to run this run for a time would end up in stupid frustration. I've run several other hugely hyped Nike 10k's, (the Run Hit Wonder series) and knew it was better just to relax and enjoy the event, which I did.
In other races there is a division for runners over 200lbs, which I qualify for right now and of course, called the "Clydesdale" division and after hitting 40, that puts me in the "senior" or "master" or at least the "over 40" category. And that is just how I felt, a big ol' horse lumbering back to the stable. I felt terribly out of shape. So, once again I am setting out to get back in shape. This time around I'll "Just Do It". See Nike's less than subtle branding is working.
Getting back to the race. It was cool. It's always very festive. And getting parked and getting my bag checked in and the pre-race hype, with race results and video coming in from around the world was really well done. The race itself was a pretty easy and fast course, although I was surprised as to the insane humidity that left me soaking wet.
As Nike put it, "Runners had the time of their lives as they made their way through a 6.2 mile course featuring 9 global performances ranging from Japanese Taiko Drummers to French Can Can Dancers. Host Randy Jackson was able to keep the show rolling with exciting special guests such as Olympians Lisa Leslie and Jessica Mendoza."
My time, was 54 min 57 seconds, which put me in exactly 2000th place, not too bad, but not that impressive. Like I said, it was a big wake-up call and it was more of event than a run. My first mile was spent dodging slower runners and walkers. The best LA time was 30' 38" and with Munich coming in 1st with a 29'25" time.
As far as how LA did Number 1 was Tapei with 46'15" (What is that about?) Los Angeles came in just ahead of Istanbul at number 21 with a run average of 1h 05' 20".
And then the post-race concert, I was totally looking forward to celebratory beer while taking in Kayne and Common. I just need to grab my bag from the Bag Check-in. I mean the LA marathon with around 20,000 racers managed to get my bag in a couple of minutes and I finished before like what around 10,000 people, so how bad could it be.
Over an hour of waiting in line in one of the worst organized things I've been part of and I finally got my bag. The concert was well under way, I could hear it and see the lights and smoke rising above the stage, as another frustrated racer put it, trying to make light of it, "It's almost like being there".
Finally got my bag, got that beer and enjoyed that last half of the concert.
A sea of red race shirts rocking out to Kayne.
It was a cool, memorable event.
PARTY, PARTY,PARTY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know this pic is fuzzy and hard to make out, so I'll explain. This is the line of people
STILL waiting in line for their stuff, after the concert at around 11 pm. There were literally hundreds still waiting to get their bags. It was crazy!!!!
