A week or so ago an email arrived from the
L.A. Tri Club asking for volunteers to be pace timers for the
L.A. Marathon. They would need 52 of them. A pace timer is someone who rides a bicycle in front of the elite runners and at the miles markers calls in the split times for the top three runners to the media. Sounded good to me. We would get a very unique view of the marathon and have clear roads to ride on. I immediately signed up. I got the word on Thursday that I would be participating. Surprisingly, they never got the 52 volunteers they were seeking, but enough of us volunteered that we had a good contingent.
Not wanting to deal with traffic and parking for the marathon, I decided that I would ride my bike to the site. We were to meet about 200 yards in front of the starting line at 6:00 am. I knew it would take me about half an hour to get there, but as I am obsessed by time and hate to be late, I left about 4:50. It was nice because there was almost no traffic and and once I got onto the course all of the streets were closed to traffic. I got to the site plenty early and found that I was the first one there. A few minutes later I saw the the familiar L.A. Tri Club uniform on a cyclist in the distance. I waved and he came over. We all wore our L.A. Tri Club tops to identify ourselves to the race officials. The second guy there was Shiggy. We introduced ourselves and wondered where everybody was. Was this some kind of elaborate hoax? Eventually more and more folks showed up. As it turns out there was an email sent out that said we were to meet between 6:30 and 6:45. Neither Shiggy nor I received it. Still haven't.
Anna Wills who was in charge of this thing showed up and gave us our assignments. I was to ride in front of the elite men and fortuitously I was partnered with Shiggy. We were to go to miles 4, 11, 17 and 24 and call in the numbers and split times for the first three runners to the media. We could do that.
One of the riders was Monica Morant aka Iron Monica of
I Just Want The Tattoo. She wrote one of the most detailed blogs documenting her training and her experience leading to her finishing Ironman Brazil last year. The only problem was that she stopped writing after her race report for the bike section of her Ironman. She said that today is the one year anniversary
of her Ironman and that she was going to finally finish her report. We'll see. The photo below is of Iron Monica and Shiggy.
We watched the start of the wheelchair race and then the hand cyclist race. The elite women went off next and all of the cyclists who were going to report their pace times took off as soon as the women did. The cyclists had about a two hundred yard head start and flew down Figueroa Blvd. From our perspective we watched as the women ran by.
The women get a 17 minute head start on the men. Their official time is how long it takes them to complete the marathon, but whoever actually crosses the finish line first, whether male or female gets a $100,000 bonus.
As soon as the women ran by we got into our positions 200 yards in front of the starting line. When the airhorn blared, signaling the start of the race, we were to start our chronometers and take off for our positions. Since Shiggy and I didn't have to do any timing until mile 4, we had a little bit of time to see how the mile markers looked. Shiggy announced that he had to take a pee. I suggested he wait until after we called in our first time and then used the port-a-potty at the mile marker.
We hadn't really figured our how we were going to do this. I suggested that I would call out the numbers and times and Shiggy would write them down. Sounded good to him. We got to mile four. There are large banners over each mile marker, so they are easy to spot, but the actual exact spot was a small green line spray painted near the curb. We found that waited. A couple of minutes later we saw the pace car and the media truck heading down the street. All of the runners were running in a pack, so the first three would essentially have the same time. I picked up their numbers and shouted to Shiggy. As they crossed the mile marker, I looked at my watch. I called out the time and Shiggy wrote it down. We hopped on our bikes and took off. About thirty seconds later, Shiggy said, "Should we phone this in?" Oh yeah, that was the whole point of this. I'm glad he thought of it. He called it in to the media and then went in search of a port-a-potty.
Very shortly after this, I caught up to the back of the group. A couple of other L.A. Tri Club pace timers were still in back and they informed me that the motorcycle cops who were trailing the elite runners wouldn't let us pass. The street had narrowed and we were going to have to wait until it opened up a bit. A few minutes later Shiggy rejoined us and we were all a happy little group.
It seemed to me that we would be able to safely pass and I was starting to get a little nervous that we would miss our next timing spot. I asked the motorcycle cop when we could pass and he said soon. A couple of minutes later we turned a corner and the street widened and we passed by. The following video is of that segment.
The whole time we were doing this, I kept thinking to myself, "how cool is this?" The answer, of course, is really very extremely totally cool. It was fun riding the streets with no traffic. It was great seeing the world-class runners up close. It was fun passing the other pace timers when they were at their stops. It was especially fun riding with Shiggy. He was taking photos of everyone and everything. Most of the photos on this report were taken by Shiggy. It was such a great time. From the time I heard about this, I was excited. But the reality of doing it were better then the expectations.
It is easy to keep up with world-class marathoners on a road bike, they average about twelve miles an hour, but you do have to move. You can't just be going for a leisurely ride. There were times when we had to sprint to catch up and get ahead of the runners. It is really amazing how fast these guys run over a twenty six mile race. I am not sure I could keep up with them for a hundred yards on fresh legs, and yet they usually run the second half of the race faster than the first. There was a time a little later in the race, after we had phoned in the time for the 11 mile split, when we had to pass the runners again. They were going down a little hill and it seemed to me that they were just moving unbelievably fast. I slowed slightly and rode even with them to see how fast they were actually going and the speedometer on my bike said 17 mph. Now, they were going downhill, but still, they were running 17 miles an hour more than 11 miles into a marathon.
My friend Monete Chew, with whom I attend
church and Bible study, emailed me to let me know that she lived on the route and that she would probably be out washing her truck in the morning. As we went down her street, I saw her building and her truck. There she was. I stopped for a few moments and said hello. Her clothes were partially wet, but her truck looked great.
The Great Magnetic Wife and I were house sitting for some other friends from church quite near mile 17. That was our next stop, so I called her up and asked her to meet us. I was getting a little hungry and so I asked her to bring some bananas. There she was at mile 17 and so were Bill Lockton and Iron Monica Morant. The women had split up a little and they were waiting for the third place woman to pass to call in her time. The photo above is all of us at mile 17.
The third place woman arrived soon enough and they were on their way. A minute or so later the men came running by. They were still in a group and clearly getting very close to the women. We said goodbye to The Great Magnetic Wife and were on our way. It was only a mile or two later that we passed the leading female runner. She was by herself at this time.
We got to mile 24, our last stop, and were greeted again by Monica and Bill. This time the wait was a little longer. When we saw the runners coming it was still the woman in the lead, but the top two men were about ten yards behind and gaining fast. They were about to pass. We had to wait a little while longer for the third male, but Bill And Monica were still waiting for the second and third female when we left.
At this time we didn't really have to rush anywhere. We wanted to get to the finish line to watch the end of the race, but we had finished our assignment. We kind of casually rode behind the leading runners. There were a number of L.A. Tri pace timers all riding together at this point. About a mile and a half from the end we decided to surge ahead and get a good spot for the finish. It was a great deal of fun. About thirty of us, all dressed alike, were riding down the street. People were cheering us for reasons unknown, other than that they were ready to cheer something.
About 200 yards before the finish we were taken off of the course and got a front row look at the finish. By this time the leading male, Wesley Korir, a Kenyan, was all by himself and running incredibly fast. He finished in 2:08:24, a course record.
All of the pace timers gathered for a photo and then headed for the finish line festival. I loaded up on free nuts, provided by a sponsor and headed to the beer garden. I had asked Bill Lockton, who is a past president of the
L.A. Leggers, where the Legger aid station was located, as I did not notice it on the ride. He said he was headed that way and asked if I want to ride there with him.
It sounded like a good idea to me. We rode most of the way, but he stopped a few blocks away to go to his car and change. I went to the Legger aid station and saw number of familiar faces. I handed out water to Leggers and anyone else who asked. We loudly cheered on any Leggers who came by and generally had a great time.
Another friend from church,
Doug TenNaple, was running, or more precisely shuffling the marathon, you can see his race report
here. I was hoping to see him, but after a while I gave up. As it turns out I had not missed him, I just was not patient enough. His race report is worth reading.
Overall, it was a great day. This is the best way one can possibly view a marathon. It was really a blessing to be so close to such world-class runners and really get a feel for how fast they go for so long. Just riding the streets of L.A. without having to worry about cars was really amazing. I remember saying to Shiggy as we were waiting for the runners at mile 24, that as a runner when you see the banner for mile 24, you think to yourself, "oh good, it's almost over!" I was having so much fun that when I saw the banner for mile 24, I thought to myself, "oh no, it's almost over." I would have gladly done it again right then and there.
I hope I have a chance to do this in the future.
