LA MARATHON
Feb. 14,
2016
4:20:40 4529/20,623
overall 22/186 Age Group
lace
|
Name
|
Bib
|
Age
|
Div Place
|
Gender Place
|
5K Split
|
10K Split
|
15K Split
|
20K Split
|
25K Split
|
30K Split
|
35K Split
|
40K Split
|
Clock Time
|
Net Time
|
Hometown
|
4529
|
JOHN VOLKMAN
|
2144
|
65
|
22
|
3308
|
31:17
|
1:03:36
|
1:33:51
|
2:03:58
|
2:35:09
|
3:06:28
|
3:38:12
|
4:08:50
|
4:21:38
|
4:20:40
|
FRESNO, CA
|
Our Valentine’s weekend actually started with
Jodi running 21+ miles on Friday morning. Then she, Katie and I drove to LA
Friday night and got up early Saturday morning to drive to Dodger Stadium where
Jodi was entered in the LA Big 5K. Before the race I got some pictures of the
some of the memorabilia at Dodger Stadium bringing back a lot of fun baseball
memories of the Giant-Dodger rivalry. Then we ran into Shawn and Dorina Young
who had run to the start from their hotel. Dorina was also racing the 5K. Shawn
and I were running the marathon on Sunday so we hung out during the race and
cheered the ladies. Katie ran with
Jodi who ran 26:00 and finished 4th out 162 in her age group. She
was only a few seconds out of 2nd; it was a really strong run the
day after her long run!
After
a quick clean-up and breakfast, we went to watch the Olympic Marathon Trials.
We had such an amazing time watching with a number of Fresno friends and
cheering for two locals who were running: Molly Friel and Fernando Cabada. It
was an extremely warm day for a marathon which didn't start until after 10AM.
We saw the thrill of victory with Galen Rupp winning the men’s in his first marathon
and Amy Cragg getting first in the women’s after being fourth in 2012, and the
agony of defeat as Dathan Ritzenhein had to drop out (you can see him in the
pictures hugging his wife) and Kara Goucher finishing 4th at age 37.
Sunday morning I got up
at 4:30 while Jodi and Katie slept and got to the bus pickup about 5:30.
Arriving at Dodger Stadium I got to hangout with Anita Lee, Bill Hastrup and
Oliver Valenzuela. Then I ran into Amanda Whitten and Matt James as I was going
to my corral. Ahead of me in the corral I saw Julie Weiss who was running her
100th marathon; she is the runner who came to Fresno last year for
the showing of Spriit of the Marathon 2 which Fleet Feet showed at the Tower
and in which she has a large part. She and her coach ran with our Fleet Feet
team the morning after the showing. Interestingly, she married her coach which
I’ve heard has been done locally, tooJ I talked to her during the
first mile and you can see her with the purple balloons in the pictures.
My plan for this marathon,
since it was going to be a warm day and I was using it as a training run for
Boston, was to run a comfortable pace around 9:30 and walk about 30-60 seconds
every two miles or so at the aid stations. A few miles into the race I found
Anita who also wanted to run comfortably as she was training for Napa Marathon
in three weeks. We stopped a number of times to take pictures so we could
really enjoy and remember the run. You can see pictures of hot dogs being given
out on the course (yuk!), Hollywood and Vine, Graman’s Chinese Theatre, Rodeo
Dr., and Gucci’s. We stuck to our plan really well and I ended up with 4:20:40,
a 9:54 overall average pace. We looked for Jodi and Katie at mile 4 and 10
where we hoped to see them, but due to traffic issues that didn’t happen. But
they were there at 25.5 and I got my Valentine KissJ
The weather wasn't as
warm as Saturday and we had quite a bit of shade. It wasn't optimum by any
means, but it was doable. The last 3 miles or so, as we neared Santa Monica,
were actually foggy and had a gradual downhill. The coolness really felt good
and my last two miles were my fastest at 9:00 and 8:50 with an 8:09 pace the
last few tenths. I had caught Oliver with a little over a mile to go so we had
fun seeing Jodi and running in together.
After the race we met Shawn and Dorina and drove them back to their hotel.
Shawn ran an amazing time a week after returning from their honeymoon in Italy!
They also bought me a wonderful gelato for a post-race treat which I enjoyed greatly!
But my Valentine’s Day
was not over. After I got my ice bath (ask Jodi how that went—quite funny) and
cleaned up, Jodi and Katie took me to Westwood for a fabulous Persian dinner.
Lots of yummy protein in the delicious meats and then we got our replacement
carbs at another place with which they surprised me. We went to Diddy Riese
which specializes in ice cream/cookie creations. Great way to celebrate
Valentine’s and an incredible weekend!
Here are times of ones from our Fleet Feet teams and friends that I know
who ran LA:
Martha Soto
|
4:57:26
|
John Volkman
|
4:20:40
|
Jesus Rodriguez
|
3:27:43
|
Amanda Whitten
|
3:37:00
|
Bill Hastrup
|
4:11:59
|
Anita Lee
|
4:21:03
|
Oliver Valenzuela
|
4:20:40
|
Janine Harvey
|
4:21:21
|
Shawn Young
|
3:04:56
|
Janine Harvey
|
4:21:21
|
Julie Weiss
|
5:40:48
|
This was Marathon #146; 21 states on 2d go round; 9 Canadian provinces.
Next up: Jodi-Napa Marathon on March 6, 2016; Me-Boston Marathon and Big Sur on
April 18 and 24, 2016.
Pictures at:
