City 19 done: Los Angeles

A little bit behind on updating the blog; however I have completed my 19th Olympic City. Los Angeles has been ticked off the list.

My holiday in LA was awesome and included:

 - Shopping in Jimmy Choo on Rodeo Drive

 - Hiking in the Hollywood Hills

 - Riding tandems along Venice Beach

 - Drag shows at Hamburger Mary's

 - Getting very drunk in West Hollywood

 - Manicures on Sunset

However; I should talk about the actual race right? Well I had entered the Tinkerbell Half Marathon in Disneyland and it took place on Sunday 10th May. 

The race was an early one starting at 5:30am. The alarm went off at 3:30am and I showered and was ready to leave for race start at 4am. I didn’t actually feel too tired given the lack of sleep. I made my way through Downtown Disney (eating a bowl of porridge on the way) and dropped my bag off. The atmosphere at the race start area was good and the energy was pumping despite the early start. When I arrived the song playing was by the Spice Girls. Did they know I was coming?! 

Fellow runners were a mixture of civilians in ordinary running gear (like me) and those that had been completely Disneyfied and had transformed into various Disney Princess’ and mostly Tinkerbell. I spotted one male runner in a t-shirt with the slogan “Evil Fairy” which I was very jealous over.

We made our way to the start corals in the fairly pleasant temperature. The race was billed as a female focused half marathon meaning that there wasn’t as much testosterone in the start pens as I am used to. I was in start wave B since the A group was reserved exclusively for woman. I spoke to fellow runners who had all run other Disney events before. I can honestly say that the atmosphere was amongst the most friendly I have ever experienced. This truly was going to be a happy race in the happiest place on Earth. My only slight worry was when one competitor had asked me why I was running in the US. I explained about my challenge and this was the turn of LA. He apologized and said that he didn’t like to disappoint me but we weren’t actually in LA and that Disneyland is actually in the city of Orange County so this wouldn’t count. I humoured him whilst thinking to myself that in my eyes it count as a run in LA and for those who don’t agree I had already done a training run from West Hollywood into Beverly Hills (which incidentally I loved) so I had already covered an LA run if people decided not to accept this one.

Given my behavior (in terms of alcohol consumption and lack of sleep) the previous few days I wasn’t going to be aiming for a PB. After all; it was only 24 hours earlier that I had gotten home from the Hamburger Mary’s and West Hollywood drinking session so that clearly isn’t on par with my normal race preparation. So I was just ready to have fun on the run.

The ten second countdown then started. We were off. Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck (still on girl power theme of the event) waved us off as we crossed the line. The ladies in zone A had set off about 8-10 minutes before my group and since I was at the front of my group it meant it was pretty clear as we made our way along Disneyland Drive for the first mile.

I was keeping fairly good pace and there was only one runner in front of me. He was going very quickly so I had no intention of trying to catch him. As we passed mile 1 I had already caught up with the zone A group. As I was going passed lots of the woman were saying “here come the men, good job” which was secretly a bit of an ego boost.

We then entered the first of the two Disney parks and passed a few characters on the sidelines which was fun. We went through the familiar themed lands and soon enough were passing down Main Street USA and through the famous Disney castle. Even the most manly of men (including me) would struggle not to find that part of the run exciting.

As we carried on past miles 3 and 4 I noticed that I was actually catching up with the leading man. Soon I was then running next to him. I thought we would continue to run together but after a few minutes he started to fall behind. I carried on at my own pace passing miles 5 and 6 still overtaking the last few woman from the leading pack. As I reached mile 7 I was running on my own with no runners in sight ahead of me and as far as I could tell none behind me either. At this point we had left the actual Disney parks and were running on the surrounding streets which were (as all things American) huge wide boulevards. There were pockets of supporters which felt great to run past as it felt like my own personal fans. I high fived a lot of them as I went past to say thanks for being up so early and having the energy to cheer at 6am.

So I was running alone bar the official who was cycling next to me as I was the leader of the men’s race. As we passed each mile I could hear him radio in saying “lead male passing mile 8” and would quote the official clock time as I passed the marker. As this happened at miles 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 I really then wanted to finish in first place out of the men. I had said to myself at the start that I wasn’t interested in doing a good time but when you have lead a race for this long it would be devastating to lose out in the last few hundred meters. As I was nearing the end the man on the bike told me it was just around the corner and I was home. I pushed on through and the crowds were lined up either side of the last stretch of the race. The cheers were very welcomed. Just as I crossed the line I heard the commentator say that “Michael Long from London" coming home in first place out of the men” which was amazing to hear. I had finished in second place overall but first out of all the men. Not a bad feat out of 16,000 people in total. My finish time was 1 hour 21 minutes 27 seconds. So not a PB but I was really happy. Perhaps it was the fairy wings on my trainers that brought me home in second place?

So that's city number 19 done. I can't believe there are only 4 more cities to go. I am getting worried I won't know what to do with myself when this challenge is finished!

Race bling:

Finishers photo:

The main girl of the race:

It's all about the wings: