The Inaugural Hollywood Half Marathon Recap
I traveled from Miami to Los Angeles this weekend to participate in the inaugural Hollywood Half Marathon (HHM) on Saturday April 7th and to promote the 2013 Live Ultimate Santa Monica 5k/10k.
The inaugural event completely eclipsed my expectations and inspired me with its creativity and innovation in creating a unique event with a genuine 'cool factor'.
The theme of the event was "run with the stars." The HHM is the only race that starts and ends in Hollywood and features cool hot spots like Universal City and Hollywood Blvd. Here is the course map. Basically, it is an out and back course on Hollywood Blvd that starts and ends at Universal City.
The event completely sold out! The half marathon had 7,500 runners and the 5k and 10k had 3,500 combined runners. They could've handled even more people but the race director made a smart decision to cap registration to make the race more of an exclusive experience, to get the logistics right in the first year and give it more of a community feel.
This among other things shows the savvy of the HHM race director, Ken Nwadike Jr of Superhero Events LLC, who has over 23,000 fans on his Facebook page for the Hollywood Half Marathon. He is unique as a race director in that he personally interacts and answers runners' questions, gives them a voice in the decision-making process and considers them "friends" rather than "fans" who he looks forward to meeting at the expo and race. I witnessed Ken at the expo patiently answering the same questions over and over again, interacting with the runners along with his pregnant wife who is due on Tuesday and it was truly a breath of fresh air.
Ken has a very interesting life story, growing up homeless with his mother and siblings in San Diego, excelling in track in the mile where he found direction and starting a race production company that has award-winning and cool events like the HHM which gives $5 from every registration to 2 local non-profits benefiting poverty and homelessness that Ken selected. To learn more about Ken click here to watch a video interview of him.
The expo was at the Hilton Universal Hotel in Universal City and kicked off the weekend with a premium, red-carpet feel with lots of activities for runners and awesome vendors.
The shirts and bibs were super cool!
The finisher medals were even cooler!
Ok, so the event was cool. Now what about the race itself?
Well, it had an elite field with a winning men's time of 1:04:48 (Olympic Trials qualifying) and women's of 1:16:34. There was a $20,000 cash prize purse at stake so the best local talent along with Kenyan and Ethiopian elites participated.
The course was very challenging but scenic. It had a steep downhill start through Universal City for the first 5k which made it very fast and exciting. Then it was generally flat for the next 10k on an out an back loop down Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Ave. Finally, the last 5k was a steep uphill climb that makes Heartbreak Hill in the Boston Marathon look like a "Florida hill"! It was a little cold (55 F) at the start for a Floridian like me but it actually helped us run faster since there was no humidity and we could shed heat easy while running. The finish is on a final 1/2 mile downhill grade as you cross a red-carpet style finish line chute and the "papparazi" photograph you. Overall a super cool course that is unique and exciting!
So how did I do? Well, I used this race as training run and for work: networking a future event I am helping to develop in Los Angeles, the Live Ultimate Santa Monica 5k/10k. I finished in 1:21:15 which was 29th place overall and 6th in my age group. Even more important was the fact that I ran "pain-free", efficient and relaxed with Chi Running!
I gave about 75% effort and mainly just used it as an aerobic/conditioning run with some hills after recovering from a hip adductor injury the last 2 months.
The first 5k was FAST since it was all downhill (17:55) and I was holding back. I hit 10k in just under 37 minutes and 10 miles in 60 minutes flat. The last 5k was slow since it was uphill and very windy but that built some good strength and mental toughness. My times were good for someone who hasn't trained in the last 2 months and show that once I am fit again and develop speed I will be ready for a sub 1:11 performance in the half which will qualify me for the Elite Development field in the World Majors Marathons.
I wasn't ready for a peak performance (my 1/2 marathon PR is 1:12:54 in Chicago 2011) but I ran well regardless in the cool weather and came out of the race healthy and ready to start a 6 month training program today for the Chicago Marathon that will hopefully have me ready for a sub 2:29 in October.
1:21:15 is a 6:09 pace which coincidentally is my current marathon PR pace when I won the Bahamas Marathon in 2:42:53 in January. So I basically ran the half at my marathon PR pace which was comfortable and even conversational! Bottom line: I had fun and got a great workout in but didn't make it competitive since I respect my body and my competition too much.
My host, Victor Jih, ran a PR of 1:43:09 after 3 hours of sleep, having 5 drinks at his birthday party only hours before the race and not training once since he ran the LA Marathon 3 weeks before. What a rockstar! Victor also is a local celebrity/lawyer who won Season 14 of the Amazing Race with his sister.
Here is a picture of Victor and I at the finish line.
Well, that's it for this race recap! No more "races for fitness". Time to focus on my stamina/aerobic development for the next 2-3 months and continue my rehab.
Stay tuned for more posts from me this week where I will discuss my physical therapy and recovery techniques during intense training, my 6 month Chicago Marathon training program, living 2012 alcohol free (tomorrow will be 100 days!) and going 100% vegan for 6 months and hopefully longer as an athletic experiment to reach my goal of qualifying for the Elite Development field in World Marathon Majors and ultimately the US Olympic Marathon Trials in 2016. Exciting times!
