For as long as I have lived in L.A., I have been involved with the L.A. marathon in some way or another. For years I cursed it because all it did was cause traffic headaches downtown. However this year was a little different. On my way to work I was dropped off at Alameda and Olvera st. because of the detours and found myself just outside the official route.
I started making my way south on Los Angeles street, passing by the federal buildings until I finally hit the marathon route on Los Angeles and Third st. The route I took was through little Tokyo because the sidewalks are more even and I was on my skateboard.
As I made my way to the route, I could hear the banging of drums like it was a war march, which turned out it was Taiko drums being played for runners. Even though I was just standing around, drinking water from the cups being handed out to runners I felt like I was running the marathon. The music and people with signs encouraging friends and family to continue on, pushing through the pain really motivates you. Of course I wasn't actually going to start running, but I was close and skated with runners along the route. It's really an indescribable feeling to hear the sound of the drums, people chanting and the whole energy of the marathon. As I was skating by I took pictures with my cell phone's camera. It was heartwarming to see families walking in parts of town that usually don't get much foot traffic.
Oddly enough some people chanted and waved to me as I passed by on my board. Although I kinda felt out of place as everyone else was running and sweating while I'm just cruising by, passing by all the runners on the sidewalk. The guy who won the marathon, Laban Moiben did it in 2:13:50. He's from Kenya. Odilion Cuahutle did an awesome job representing Mexico in 6 place with a time of 2:16:44.
All in all it was a great experience even if it was just a short glimpse. I did come up with the idea to petition the marathon organizers to let me do it on my board officially next year. It's really not so different than a bike so why not ?
