LOS ANGELES WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER - RUSTIN MICHAEL BLOG » Rustin Michael is a Los Angeles based wedding and portrait photographer

Earlier today I completed my first half marathon to the tunes of U2, Bush, Dave Matthews Band, Foo Fighters, and Tree 63. I raced in the inaugural Los Angeles 13.1! The race started on the Venice boardwalk, went all the way up Venice Blvd to Culver City, then we turned around, and ran all the way back to Venice finishing up at Main and Rose. I had been training for the past several months for a half-marathon. I had actually planned to run one in October, but that didn’t work out. Then I was going to try one in December in Vegas but decided to pass and save some money by running closer to home. Here are some images Victoria took earlier today. Keep reading for more about my experience and finishing time.

Me just before the race.

The race started but it took me about a minute and a half before I could cross the start line due to the crowd.

I started out the race pretty well. I took it slow: running my first mile in about 9:45. I reached mile 3 by 27:00, so I was on my 9 minute mile pace to finish under 2 hours which was my goal. I was feeling great! About half way through mile 6 I started to feel my arch of my left foot rubbing against my shoe. I had run more than 6 miles at a time before with my shoes but never had any problems. Just after the 7 mile marker I stopped for about 20 seconds to see if I could adjust anything to fix what I was feeling. I ran about another 10th of a mile and stopped again, for about 30 seconds, taking my shoe off and retying it but still had the same problem. I started running again hitting mile marker 8 around 1:12:00, still on my pace. By then, the arch of my right foot started having the same problem. I kept running since I didn’t have anything else I could do, and as I continued my feet hurt more and more.

I hit mile 10 at 1:32:00, but my pace had slowed. I continued running, knowing I only had a little over 3 miles to go. I was pretty sure if I had stopped running and started walking I wouldn’t have been able to start running again. By mile 11 my right little toe started hurting. With every step my feet hurt. I kept pressing on. By mile marker 12, I knew I wouldn’t finish under 2 hours but I knew I would come in just over 2 hours. I slowly crossed the finish line at 2:02:35 while listening to “Blessed Be Your Name” by Tree 63. You can see my result here. As soon as we got back to our car I took my shoes off to discover 2 giant blisters where my feet were hurting. Luckily I have Victoria to patch me up!

All done!!

Me holding Gideon after the race. Gideon got to wear my medal

My cool new medal. The middle part with the 13.1 spins around.

Overall, I am pretty happy with how things went. I have no doubt that if my feet weren’t hurting I would have finished in under 2 hours. At the end of the race my stamina was still good and I could have kept going if it weren’t for my feet. Plus I completed the whole race without walking or stopping except for the few short seconds to mess with my shoes. I guess now I need to do another half-marathon to hit my goal of under 2 hours. Who wants to run with me?