LA Marathon Race Report

*Note* Race reports are usually written by the runners themselves. For obvious reasons, this one is written by the runner’s mom……who’s never run a race or written a race report…..I just write. Apologies in advance for the length.

Asia’s journey to the LA Marathon began in September, 2011, with an invitation from Train 4 Autism President, Ben Fesasaiga. Running another marathon was not in Asia’s plans, certainly not one 2,000 miles away. But after she decided to do it we began training plans. The training involved more than Asia running with her team on Tuesdays and Saturdays and the rest of the days on her home course. Her Coach, Kathleen Gina of the Running Fit 501 Running Group added extra miles each day, an additional mid-week long run, and back-to-back 10 mile runs on the weekends. By February she was running 60 miles a week. Those extra miles and extra days would have been impossible without the support of many current and former teammates. You all know who you are, and we thank you.

In January we began fundraising. We wanted to raise money both for Train 4 Autism and all they do, as well as the University of Michigan chapter of Best Buddies. I set up a fundraising page on Crowdrise, added a few pictures, and sent out the link in an email. Our original goal was $1,000, which I thought might be a stretch in these tough economic times. I was stunned when I needed to raise the goal to $1,500, then to $2,000! Now, at the end of the fundraising, thanks to the extraordinary generosity of family, friends who are like family and teammates, over $2,000 was raised. Add to that a charitable donation of $1,000 from Rockwell Collins, the parent company of my employer, Kaiser Optical Systems, Inc., and Asia’s fundraising total is $3,061. Once again, we thank you all.

Training done, fundraising done, time for the marathon! We left Michigan on Thursday, March 15, California bound. We were greeted in LA by weather reports that sounded like impending monsoons. Thursday was nice enough, Friday a little showery but nothing horrendous. Friday night we were welcomed warmly by the Train 4 Autism team at their pre-race carb-loading dinner. We had met Ben, Molly, and Shelly on previous visits to LA but the rest of the team we only knew by their Facebook pictures. What a treat to meet them and their families in person. The dinner was a potluck, and oh my, did we sample some amazing dishes…..the chicken enchiladas and chili with brown rice were Asia’s favorites. After dinner a slide show of the previous year’s events, heartwarming and inspiring words from Molly, Ben, Adam, Coach Nadine, and Lyndel and an award ceremony completed the evening. Molly presented Asia with the Reid Thompson Memorial Award, given each year by Brian and Kristen Thompson in honor of their son Reid, who died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 11. Looking around the room I was struck by the excitement, enthusiasm, and love shown by all of these individuals and families, all whose lives had been impacted in some way by autism; all who were running or supporting runners in the race on Sunday; all who were raising awareness of autism daily by living their lives and funds for autism research through this race. And this is but one chapter of Train 4 Autism. What an inspiring group of people! And it was clear that they all love Asia! We left Long Beach with the feeling of leaving many new friends. But not for long…we’d be seeing most of them again Sunday morning.

 

Saturday morning dawned gray and dripping. We had planned Asia’s last run before the marathon to be 1 mile on the Strand in Manhattan Beach, followed by breakfast at the Kettle Restaurant. With all three of us in rain gear, we set off for the Beach. By the time the mile was done and we arrived at the Kettle, the cleaning staff had to mop up the puddles we left on the floor. After breakfast we packed up to move to one of the host hotels in Santa Monica, which was less than ½ mile from the finish line of the race. After check-in we drove to Dodger Stadium to the Race Expo and packet pickup. The rain had picked up and brought the wind with it. Jerry, who had refused to wear anything but shorts because *we are in California, dammit!* was freezing. We picked up Asia’s race packet as well as one for Sam Felsenfeld, who had agreed from the beginning to run the race with Asia. (In a race with 25,000 participants, in a strange city, we didn’t want to risk losing her.) Next at the Expo was to pick up our Media Credentials, invaluable hang tags which would allow us access to parts of the race denied the general public (the Luxury Suite at Dodger Stadium, the Start Line, and most importantly, the Finish line.) We were able to get these because of our affiliation with Discover Milan News and Train 4 Autism.*Thanks, Dave and Ben!* After 1 hour in the cold and windy rain, we were pretty happy to be back in a heated car on our way back to the hotel. We wanted to follow a course which would allow us to see the runners on Sunday but the Saturday afternoon LA traffic worked against us, so we headed for the hotel, showers, and dinner at P.F. Chang’s. After dinner, organizing everything for Sunday morning….maps and directions, addresses in the GPS, laying out Asia’s race gear….took us up to bedtime at 8pm.

2am Sunday morning came wayyyyy earlier than I wanted. Because the host hotel didn’t provide coffee pots (what?) we couldn’t heat water to make oatmeal, so Asia ate cold rice with soy sauce and a banana. We left the room about 3:30 to meet Sam at his parking lot and all four headed for Dodger Stadium.

Train 4 Autism had a luxury box at Dodger Stadium to use as a meeting place, which offered the team coffee and pastries, water, a warm room to wait in before the race and, most important, bathrooms. We arrived with Sam, who had been the past president of the South Orange County chapter of T 4 A. Sam is the father of 3, Ben, Jack, and Ava. Jack has autism. Sam recently moved to Colorado and had flown back on Saturday just to run this race with Asia………well, and to help wind things up with his family for the move. Team members arrived over the next 2 hours, and the mood was relaxed and happy. Everyone had trained hard for this…….everyone was ready. When the time came to go down to the start line the runners donned garbage bags with holes cut for their heads to keep warm until the start of the race. We walked as far as the start line with Asia and Sam, took one last picture, gave them kisses and hugs and walked back to the car.

From this point I can only report from our perspective until Sam and Asia cross the finish line.

We drove to Mile 10. We had been notified earlier that Deena Kastor, Bronze medalist in the women’s marathon in the 2004 Olympics and American women’s marathon record holder, was going to interview Asia and Sam during the race. The plan was for her to jump in about Mile 10 with a cameraman on motorcycle riding next to them. We prepared Asia for this in advance as best we could. We got a text alert when Sam and Asia crossed the 10K timing mat and we waited….and waited…and waited. Thankfully Deena saw them and got her interview but we never did see them. When we got the text alert for the 20K we left to drive to the finish. They were keeping a nice, even pace of 9:05/mile.

The one good thing about our host hotel was valet parking. We didn’t have to find a parking space, just tossed our keys to the valet and headed for the finish line, constantly checking our phones for the next text alerts. We had no idea why, but by the 30K text alert we could tell that Asia was slowing down, now a 9:35/mile pace. We only hoped she wasn’t injured. We were joined at the finish line by my former boss, Jacques Habra, who lives in Santa Barbara. Our Media Credentials allowed us to get right beside the finish line clock. We got the text alert for 40K and had a better idea of when to expect them. Jerry, thanks again to the Media Credentials, climbed to the media bridge across Ocean Avenue to have a better view. I couldn’t even talk I was so nervous. And then I spotted her unique shirt…royal blue with white letters RUN ASIA RUN. We knew there was only one shirt on the race course like it! Asia and Sam crossed the finish line to our cheers and made their way to the side while Jerry captured video and Jacques snapped pictures. I could tell by the way she walked that her legs were very, very sore. The first words out of Sam’s mouth were, “You need to work on her in-race nutrition. She didn’t drink any Ultima, (electrolyte replenisher) on the course. Lots of water, so she wasn’t dehydrated, but no Ultima. She hit the wall.” I was stunned! Her team trains with Ultima at each practice and we bought the flavor they were serving at the race. In retrospect, the only reason I could come up with was Asia’s mile-wide independent streak, which sometimes works to her disadvantage. She simply chose not to drink the Ultima. But Sam was amazed that in spite of the pain she was in, she wouldn’t quit running. She toughed it out to the finish. Her time was 4:27:02. We were so proud of her! We made our way back through the crowd until time to part ways with Sam. We will always be grateful to him for running with Asia. Her participation in the race would not have been possible without him, and with him, her safety during the race was never in question.

Asia showered while we visited with Jacques and packed to move out of the host hotel and back to our favorite place in Manhattan Beach.

Dinner that night was from another favorite…….Wahoo’s Fish Tacos. Early dinner, early night to bed, sleep in (well, til 7am anyway, that’s sleeping in for us) Monday morning. Monday was a day of relative leisure. The weather dawned sunny, clear and warmer than any other day since we arrived. Asia spent hours in the hot tub while we read by the pool. When we called Asia’s Coach after the race, the first words out of Asia’s mouth, in spite of her painfully stiff legs, were, “How many miles tomorrow coach?” Kathleen told her to *walk* 2 miles with us. Yeah, right! Who did she think she was kidding? We left for the pier in Manhattan Beach and started to walk. Soon Asia was jogging.

We called her back and walked some more. Soon jogging, although stiffly, again. We did some stretches then more jogging. She just can’t *not run*. It’s as ingrained now as eating and breathing. Asia ran for Train 4 Autism; she ran for U of M Best Buddies. She ran because she was given a chance by Coach Steve Porter and the Milan Cross Country and Track program. She ran because of the support of past and current Running Fit 501 teammates. She ran because it’s who she is and it is her gift.