Monday, January 17, 2011

2011 13.1 Series Los Angeles

This weekend I participated in my 1st of 3 races of the 13.1 Series.  
I'm doing 3 events so I can get that special medal!


This race was held in near Santa Monica and Venice. This is still a relatively new series, so the # of participants wasn't as crowded as other races that I've been in. At first I was skeptical about how few participants were there (I heard about three-four thousand). However, during the race it was actually really nice to not worry about the crowds. Usually the first 2-3 miles are spent dodging elbows and passing up people. But for the majority of the race I didn't really have to bother with elbows or people who were too ambitious and went in the 5 min corral, when they're really 13 min runners.

This is a good race to aim to PR in. Its Flat and Straight. You start at the beach, and run up Venice Blvd about 7 miles, and then turn around and run back down Venice Blvd. Its nice to not have to strategize about if there is a curve coming up, or where the path is taking you. Its just 1 straight shot.

They had a good # of water locations with Gatorade, at almost each station, if not at least every other station had an energy drink. The first few miles there was a water stop at each mile marker. Then in the middle of the race, it was about every 2 miles, then Some races I've been to, only have water stations at every 2-3 mile marker, and every 2-3 stops will have Gatorade or an Energy drink, so it can be about mile 4 or 6 before you get a sport drink. They had the fruit punch Gatorade at this race, which is in my opinion is the best tasting one. The yellow one just gets really boring. haha.  I usually carry my own liquids, so I don't lose time fighting the crowds for a drink, but usually half way through the event, the sun starts beating down, and I grab water to toss over my head and down my back.

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