Rockin the City of Angels!

Exactly one week after Nike Women's half marathon, I ran the event that I've actually been training and fundraising for.

Jason & I trained for the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon as fundraising participants for Team In Training. As I've said before, this raises money for the LLS. They host an appreciation dinner for you the night before the event where you are cheered for as you enter, fed pastas and get to hear from some amazing people to encourage and advise and thank you for what you're doing. We got to sit at a table with and talk to Tracy Sundlan, former olympic marathon coach and the man behind the Rock 'n' Roll marathon series! So cool.
Start village: Griffith Park. 7:30 am. 54 degrees.

Our team is actually staying downtown at a hotel but we meet at 5:00 am and took a shuttle to the start line. That's right. We had to wake up at 4:00 am.

So here we are hanging out at the start, getting kinesio tape for the spots that hurt, filling our water belts, and goofing around. Coach Dave is a great coach and he was out there on the course to help and support us!

I liked having the porta-potties & bag check lined up in one direction and the start corrals in the other on a single road. Other event starts have a start village that is a little more confusing to navigate.

Course: Not the prettiest as we were in a construction area at one point? We did get to pass some good spots though and have some views of neat things like bison? Who knew there were bison living and eating in Los Angeles? The hills weren't that bad. With a little more hill training I could lick those suckers. I just finished the Nike Women's half in San Fran the weekend before this event so...hills 1, Tiffany 0...for now.

Finish Village: One of the best. L.A. Live is a great place to finish. LOVED having gear check immediately available upon getting your medal and exiting the finisher's shoot. Other events make you walk through the entire village to get to your comfy sandals, phone, and wallet, which is cruel and unusual and not good for the vendors.

I hear they might have to change the course next year as this one was adopted from the previous event owners. That'd be fine with me but I hope it still finishes at L.A. Live.

And here is the medal and pin that I love. Team in Training gives you a pin when you finish your event miles. I have a 26.2 pin also.

I do like the LA medal! Another to add to my collection.

Thank you Competitor!

This was my sixth? Rock 'n' Roll event. I am a big fan of this marathon series and am very happy to have a hometown event that I can include on my 2011 Rock Legend tour!

NWM: The Half Marathon Itself

Start: Union Square. 7:00 AM. 54 Degrees.

Several intersections surrounding Union Square are completely blocked off for the start village. There is so much going on and about 20,000 people standing in the streets that it's nearly impossible to get anywhere or figure out where you need to get to for bag check or your corral. I was supposed to meet some friends to run with and it was a miracle we found each other.

So we start. Running along the water and passing the piers was pretty cool. I remember passing the things I had seen the night before and I was already making plans on where I wanted to eat later. In the first 3 miles there were no serious elevation changes. A hill a little after 3 and then we were okay again until just after mile 6.

I had been running with my friend Melanie whom I had met during a short stint working for the LLS on the side. She was from the TNT triathlon team and is in much better shape than I am. She was in it for the full that morning so even though we ran only a few miles together, I feel like I helped her keep a slower pace for the start of her long run. She had an amazing finish time, btw!

Then there were hills. Monster hills. Shoot me in the knee hills. Just about the time the hills became an issue, it began to sprinkle. Did I mention it was kind of windy and cold? I had to walk down hills like the one above due to IT band pains screaming on the outside of my right knee. I knew then that my time would not be good, but I had to take it easy so that I would still be able to run the L.A. Rock 'n' Roll half marathon the next weekend.

In terms of course support, signage, and cheering spectators this event was pretty good. It was cool to see the "I run to be" signs and so many folks willing to stand in the cold and wet to cheer for their favorite marathoner. The Ghirardelli chocolate mile was only about 6 or 8 girls handing out chocolate squares. At least I got caramel! Yummmm.

And then there were the firemen all dressed to the nines with a tray of pretty little bowed boxes! A note for the finish line: When you cross, don't immediately stop to see which fireman is the cutest before deciding what mob to get into for your Tiffany's necklace. (If you want to see the necklace, see my last post). And if you're determined to take a picture of you and your fireman before moving along, then at least have your camera ready and be quick about it!

It was hard to approach the finish line and maintain speed because you could see the crowd of women literally 3 feet beyond just standing there crowding around these tuxedos. I was cold and in pain so I couldn't really enjoy my moment. I just ducked around some dazed looking ladies and nabbed a box as I passed to get beyond the mass of finishers.

The Finish Village would have been better if:

1) Gear check wasn't all the way on the other end of all the vendors.

2) Gear check was more organized (even at the Start village) in terms of finding where your bag would be. It wasn't alphabetical. You just had to remember which bus # & window your bag was "in" and some kid would look through the bus window at you, disappear for a second, and then come back with your bag.

3) It wasn't so cold and windy.

There was good smelling stuff and I wanted to buy an event t-shirt, but the lines were laughable again, and I could not fathom sticking around even after I'd put my warm clothes on.

The Nightmare Walk Home:

As I didn't run the event as a TNT participant and pay for a bus or shuttle ticket to take me back to my hotel, my husband and I had no transportation from the finish at Golden Gate Park back to our hotel in Fisherman's Wharf. City busses leaving the area were packed. Taxi's were impossible to get. We walked for 2 hrs in the cold wetness before stopping at a bench to wait for a taxi that never came and then getting on a bus that got us within a few blocks of our hotel.

It was a sad 2:40+ run and I finished at 10 am. I didn't get back to my hotel until 1. It was painful for so many reasons.

Am I glad I did it? Yes. I love my necklace and now I know what NWM is all about.

Would I do it again? Hell no. Not this event. Not those hills. Not that weather. No.

NWM: The Overall Event

Location: San Francisco, CA

Great city. Really nice for a large event. Lots to see and do. That being said, I couldn't believe the small scale feel of the expo. It was in Union Square and there just wasn't much to see or do there. It was laughably over crowded. They do know that this is a huge event, right?

Yes, they do know it's a huge event and that's why the expo is so small. Right next door to Union Square is the Niketown store (an entire building) where they really want you to go. It's all dec'd out for Nike Women's Marathon 2010! Not that much great merchandise. So far, not impressed.

When I got my swag bag at registration, it was full of the usual informational and marketing materials.

I was really surprised to find Nike had so many things misspelled on their materials (i.e. "tage" instead of "tag").

I also wasn't thrilled with their course map (or the event website for that matter). It had a very hip design like the banners at Niketown but the information wasn't that clear or helpful. I kept having to compare their artistic course map to a google map to figure it out.

The name wall was cool. It's a great idea. All the registered runners have their names up here. Or, at least all those who registered through Team In Training which fundraises for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Unfortunately for some, the names at the top of the wall are incredibly hard to read or even take a picture of. So if you're A-L, you probably can't take those fun smiling pictures pointing to your name. But it's still fun to see it there. I'd been registered under my maiden name, and even then it was misspelled....

So, I'm used to an event T-shirt given to you at the expo. Not here. Nike has a finisher's shirt, so it's given to you after you finish. I hadn't packed a shirt to run in because I assumed I'd be getting an event shirt, not a finisher's shirt. Good thing Niketown was there to save the day and sell me one of their expensive running tops....

This year the Finisher's shirts were pink. That's fine with me. I think the design is pretty nifty. It's a technical T so I can wear it on training runs. I think it's even slightly fitted for a female shape.

There are differing opinions on whether the finisher's shirt should be a technical T or a regular cotton T. I love the technicals. Something I can work out in and a conversation piece.

And the real reason for the torture: the finisher's necklace which replaces a finisher's medal in this event. I could've gotten it engraved but I like it how it comes. I wear it all the time now.

OVERALL?

Honestly, I'm so used to Competitor events, which are well organized and always the same so I know what to expect, that I was disappointed with NWM. It also may be partially because so many people have raved about it that I expected something more than I should have.

It IS a huge event that raises a lot of money for my favorite non-profit. It is also just a lot of Nike selling it's own brand, which is supposedly cool enough to be a hit without needing to do too much else.

I RUN TO BE was the slogan of the event. It's vague and tries to be philosophical, I guess? I don't know. I do like it though. They wanted each runner to fill in the blank by engraving the necklace or by customizing a Nike running shirt. They're sample fill-in's were "Sexy, Fierce, Strong". Maybe just "strong". I'd still wear that it 10 years.

I didn't customize a shirt but I would finish the slogan with: healthy, strong, challenged, an example, a difference, part of the answer, the best version of me.