2024 Los Angeles Marathon Vlog and Race Weekend Recap

It’s the iconic Los Angeles Marathon! Join me as I share my race weekend experience including the shakeout run, expo and race day. It’s a 26.2 mile journey from the Stadium to the Sea. See the time stamps if you want to skip to the actual race.

#losangeles #marathon #marathontraining #runningvlog #running #runner #dodgerstadium #hollywood #centurycity

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Time Stamps:
00:20: Shakeout run
01:33: LA Marathon Expo at Dodgers Stadium
07:39: Race Morning
10:30: Arriving at Dodgers Stadium
12:20: The Race
17:59: Finish Line Festival
20:56: Post race reflections

This here is downtown Los Angeles somewhere around mile 4.5 during the LA marathon and here I am to the side of the course what happened welcome back to my channel here’s my Vlog and recap of the 2024 LA Marathon good morning it’s the IDS of March and two days away from the LA

Marathon and I’m here on my 20 minute ShakeOut ride just going to take it easy today first mile easy and then going to throw in some strides and the last smile and then just make it equal to 20 minutes with that I hit my four sets of

Strides between 636 to 716 minutes per mile and That’s all folks my last run 20 minute ShakeOut done now time to go home get cleaned up and grab some lunch before heading to Dodger Stadium not sure what sun block is it seems like a newly painted building here in Hermosa

But sun will be a factor during the LA marathon before heading out to Dodger Stadium I grabbed a carb Den lunch at carrari West Bakery in Redondo Beach you should check it out if you’re ever in the area here’s a Macha latte and turkey pesto Panini which should fulfill a

Quarter of my carb loading requ requirements for the day there’s just no easy way to get to Dodger Stadium for the Expo an hour later I made it to Dodger Stadium in one piece nothing that brings out a smile in a runner’s face than seeing a line of porta potties and looks like there’s a long walk to the entrance no that’s not the entrance ahead that’s the exit you actually have to walk a

Little bit more now if I had planned today a little bit better I would have done my ShakeOut run here at the Dodger Stadium parking lot because I easily could run around here in 20 Minutes oh yay we finally made it we finally got to the entrance second thought let’s just make this a lot easier and look up where I’m supposed to go with 25,000 Runners signed up it’s an advantage to have a seat of Corral so you can start up front and not have to

Do so much weaving during the race another La loyal pin to add to my collection and this one is really cool because it’s has a a shamrock for for St Patrick’s Day time to go pick up my shirt how cool is that their shirts are green this year because it’s going to be

On St Patrick’s Day oh all right mission accomplished got my bib got my shirt got my pen but now exit through the gift Shop so much green gear for purchase in honor of St Patrick’s Day and it’s a family reunion here at LA Marathon so let’s look for me oh there I am okay so I’m away from the store now we’re going to walk through these booths see what kind of freebies I can put into

This bag here we go the LA Marathon course map or basically this is the tour of La probably a lot faster to go by feet than by car and I thought the elevation profile at cim was was nuts look at this one it’s actually supposed to be a net

Downhill but yeah there’s a lot of uphills as you go along here including at the Finish all right free Samples can I try the uh lemon and ginger and it actually matches my nail polish that’s pretty cool yes I’ll have the strawberry all right great thank you hi oh I love the display this is oddly Satisfying So that’s it for the 2024 LA Marathon Expo I’m going to start heading out I walked up and down these uh aisles and got as many freebies as I could people are continuing to file into the Expo while I’m trying to leave because I’m trying to get back onto the

Freeway it’s going to take another hour to get back home it had been a productive day with a strong ShakeOut run and a fun Expo I was getting Good Vibes about what race day was going to be like for me now two more sleeps until Ellie marathon in honor of the LA Marathon

Being held on St Patrick’s Day this is how I’m going to start my carb loing process just love the marshmallows after all they’re magically delicious and full of carbs well you look at this all this time I’ve been car loading on these Trader Joe jelly beans and it turns out it’s made in

Ireland how fortuitous since this is going to be a St Patrick’s Day LA Marathon some may say to look for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but I was looking for Redemption after my poor performance at Surf City Marathon a month

Ago here we go with a flatl now I actually don’t own very many green running items most of my running clothes are either blue gray or black because I like the neutral so this shirt is the only color that I have that’s closest to Green but it’s looking teal here I guess

There’s a little bit of green there and then I’m going to be carrying six gels with me along with some salt tabs and I’m finally going to debut the vaporfly 3s I didn’t have a strict race plan so I wasn’t going to feel under the the pressure to meet certain splits this was

Going to alleviate a lot of stress off of me so I can enjoy this Marathon I woke up at 3:15 a.m. on Race morning and got my drinks ready for my short drive to Sentry city where the race ends I’ve already prepaid my parking spot so this shouldn’t be too

Hard to get to the parking lot it’s 4:30 and we’re here on Santa Monica Boulevard we’re about point 3 miles away from what’s going to be the Finish Line later this morning well since I’m stuck here might as well visualize the last3 miles of this race

All right Google Maps says I’m about 5 minutes away because of the traffic but I’m hoping later this morning it won’t take me 5 minutes to run this last3 miles good morning it is 500 a.m. on this St Patrick’s Day edition of the LA marathon and yes it did take me about

Half an hour to go. 3 mil to the parking lot from Santa Monica Boulevard if that’s LA traffic for you but the good thing is that I won’t take half an hour to go the last. 3 miles of the course I think I could have crawled a lot faster

Uh going those last3 miles but anyways we got to get going here cuz I got to catch the shuttle to Dodger Stadium okay I guess I’m on parking level three going to try to remember that so that’s why I’m recording this that way I can look

At this later I try to remember with my postm Marathon brain over there is the famous Sentry Plaza Hotel so if you want a five-star experience that’s where you stay here in Central City and right across the street over there is the Westfield Mall this year it seemed like it was

Taking much longer to get to the shuttle pickup spot than in past years this sh count as a warm-up cuz seriously I think I have walked or I will have walked about half a mile before getting onto the shuttle it took about 20 minutes of walking and standing in line before

Getting on the shuttle seriously I don’t remember the process taking this long and whatever extra time I had given myself to get to Dodger Stadium was getting chewed up well that was quite a warmup to get onto the buck guess I might as well try to get my

Shoes on since I’m running a little behind here on top of that what normally is a 25-minute ride from Sentry City to Dodger Stadium took an hour yikes I’m not sure why there was a delay this year but it seemed like there was more traffic getting into Dodger Stadium

Since they allowed private Autos to drop off runners in past years you could catch a shuttle at Union Station if you decided to come from the start line it was 6:20 a.m. when we arrived and I only had about 20 minutes to drop off my gear check bag use the porta potties and

Get into my CED of Corral I was in a state of panic and that’s not a good mindset to start the race okay so I just used a porta poty after standing in the world’s longest line now got to get to the start Corral I don’t think I’ll be able to get into

The seat of Corral which is a shame because I was Corral SE cuz I think the I closed it but got to go got to go then I thought no I made every effort to get to Sentry City early so I could get to Dodger Stadium with plenty of

Time to spare I’m getting into Corral C no matter What oh my gosh all right I actually made it I got it in all right I made it into car SE this is the latest I’ve ever gotten into a Corral thank goodness they’re taking a while to announce the elite because that’s what got me an extra few minutes to get into my

Coral what a disorganized morning it had been and I tried to calm my frazzled nerves at least the good thing was that this was not going to be my Boston qualifier attempt or even some sort of fast finish time attempt instead I had a loose goal of finishing under 4 hours

Which I was confident I could do after my last few speed workouts my coach and I decided decided after my disappointing experience at cim in December and Surf City last month that I would run relax and who knows maybe surpris myself this is my favorite race of the year and my

Eighth LA Marathon so I know the course well it’s like having a home court Advantage things were going well until 4 and 1/2 miles into the race okay so I’m at around m 4 and half and I actually had to stop for about 30 minutes now because uh there was a runner who seized and went down right next to me so of course being the ER

Dock that I am I had to attend to him I couldn’t just run and then of course had to stay behind and wait until he was transferred over to the paramedics CU I just couldn’t leave him there so you know all my time goals are dashed now

But whatever I mean at least that Runner is safe um you know he’s safe with the EMTs so I’m G to continue to run we won’t going to run for time today we’re just gonna run for fun for the fun of running here we go back onto the

Course yeah my time’s going to be wonky cuz then I it took me about about uh 25 minutes to realize I should have paused my watch um so I actually don’t know how much time has all LPS but oh well that’s just how it goes probably not a good idea to get a

Chili cheese dog right now but it is an LA Marathon tradition no way I only run ahead of the hot dog guys I don’t want to be behind them look we got Kobe right Val Marathon I recalled seeing the 545 Pace group pass me as I gave a warm handoff

Of the Fallen Runner to EMS so part of me was in a state of panic I’ve never been this behind in a race before and since there were no clocks on the course I couldn’t figure out my chip time maybe it was a bad idea to have hit paws on my

Watch deep into the resuscitation phase but then again I was trying to protect his neck maybe I should have let my watch keep running my new goal was to finish under 5 hours since I needed some sort of timebase goal to keep me motivated one by one I was able to pass

The 545 530 510 5H hour group I found my friend holding the 450 sign around mile 15 so I started to feel more relaxed after that hey hey Aloha I got to catch up with you I’m so happy give me some macarons all right yeah macarons we run

For the macarons love you I love you too the momentum that had been pushing me at the start was gone and I had to play some Mind Games to keep myself moving welcome to Beverly Hills my other favorite place to run through it’ll be a quick

Run because I don’t have time to go shopping also I bumped into other running Friends Along the course and that kept my spirits up haha we were commiserating about how messy this morning parking and shuttle situations were I guess we channeled our frustrations into fuel the problem with being on the

Course longer than usual is that you’re taking more of the sun intensity than having to run when the course is more crowded it zaps the energy out of you to run around people which I’m not used to doing from being in a seat of Corral at

This point on the clock I would have been close to finishing but instead I still had several more miles to go going to be approaching about 20 soon on S Monica Boulevard we got to get to Veterans avenue I think that’s where we turn I don’t remember actually be a big

Deal to get to mile 20 here in about2 Miles because then that means it’s just a 10K back home there we go mile 20 we just passed the mile 20 marker means 10K to go this is my least favorite part of the Cor course the last

10K not sure why it’s my last or my least favorite course probably because with the new course we have to turn around and go back up down M Boulevard uphill yet there was a bit of a downhill from Miles 21 to Miles 22 that I used to my advantage for an easy

Jog all right we did we turned around so we’re heading back to the Finish Line even though my energy was drained my mental stamina got a second win all right 25 miles 1.2 miles left to go we can do this uphill hey I recognized a spot this is

Where we were at this morning trying to get into the parking lot so is it going to take me 30 minutes to get through oh no way here we go getting up that last incline to the Finish we’re getting there I’m proud that I ran the last 5K

Without stopping albeit it was at an easy Pace as I approach the Finish Line even my nearsighted vision could make an outline of a four on the clock did I meet my new Goal You so Much that H was right back there I actually finished under 5 hours which is as good as it was going to today with having the spot for that medical Ro seat this model is for that guy at 4.5 miles here we go dude we did it oh thank

You can I have a strawberry steing oh yeah thank you oh look at yes I can go for a cold tow yeah cold towel is good for cleaning my hands it’s like going to a Japanese restaurant and they give you a wet towel yeah it’s just like

That and now the heat sheet is coming in handy it was hot and then cold then hot hot and then cold again love it Pocky sticks and then this heat sheet became a bag for all these goodies follow me for more race day packs okay not quite the designer bag

That you would get in Beverly Hills but good enough and they’re holding a lot of snacks and that’s all that matters all right I got to go find the postrace massage they always have massage tents here and it’s a real treat after running that brutal hilly course eventually I found the massage

Tent and it was well worth standing in line to get my legs worked on running without knowing what my chip time was after hitting paws on my watch was like running without a direction at least a good thing was that I didn’t have a strict time goal so I had the

Freedom to adjust my Paces as I saw fit of all the days to not have a detailed race plan I think that having that flexibility is what turned this day into a positive experience there will be other La marathons for me to run for a better finish

Time but at least going upstairs is a lot easier than going downstairs okay so I actually made it to my car in in one piece it was actually easy to find my car for once I’m not sure what my official time is still because the reception here is so bad I

Can’t access the uh the uh tracking app or the results website so hopefully I’ll be able to get it once I get home and from the looks of this traffic probably could have ran another 26.2 miles it’s still get back home a lot faster as it turns out I finished

44920 so definitely under 5 hours as you can see the first several miles started off smoothly but then I spent the rest of the race catching up the mbym breakdown showed that I had slower splits than last year but they could have been a lot worse considering the extenuating circumstances the lesson is

To keep moving and you’ll get to the Finish Line all right so I got a pocket of reception so I was able to find my official time so it was 44920 so I subbed 5 which is great considering the situation now the question is can I get

Home in the next 5 hours cuz I’m still stopped here in the parking lot and to make matters worse the garage gate broke on me and now the employees are trying to figure this out oh boy it’s just not my day today all right so you want to

See what’s in my fake Gucci bag let’s look at all the treats I collected here we go here is the big reveal TAA and it looks like I have snacks for days even a drink and look even Scooby Snacks I have mostly sub 5H hour marathon times usually closer to the

4-Hour finish but never have thought of them as being sub fives I usually think of them as missing a sub four like they were failures 403 at cim 2023 is technically a subv but I had been viewing it as a failure to go under 4 hours meanwhile 44920 at LA Marathon is

Also subv but I was way more proud of that time it’s all about perception it was about having to try to carry out my strategy under distressing circumstances I think most people would have given up on chasing a time but I hung in there as for the Fallen Runner I reached out to

His running club and found that he was evaluated at the local hospital and discharg the same day in good condition he’s hoping to do better in his next race good luck to him overall my big goal for LA Marathon was to reclaim the joy I once had with

Running before I felt burnt out in the last few months and you know what I have so I did accomplish a major goal after all I’m ready ready to get back on my journey to a Boston qualifier later this Year