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2025 Los Angeles Marathon

  • Dr. Jason Braun, DC
  • Mar 19
  • 6 min read

Training:

Timeline. I signed up for the race 16 weeks out. I would have preferred 20 weeks to prepare. At the start, I precieved myself to be carrying an extra 25 pounds of aerobically -unproductive body weight and I felt relatively weak/detrained. The biggest motivations to do the race were that I had never done the LA Marathon and race day happened to fall on my 39th birthday. It had been 9 years since my last long training cycle and race (IM Vineman 2026).

As an experienced athlete, strength coach, and sports medicine Chiropractor, I find the biggest benefit to me looking for and following a training plan is to get the volume and intensity prescriptions done for me for the duration of the training cycle. I then use my education to make tweaks as necessary.

During the training cycle, I found 2 days a week of strength training and a few days a week of hot yoga to be particularly beneficial to keep the body limber, strong, and ready for running efforts. I was quite good with yoga frequency. Next training cycle, I will aim to be better hitting my gym session workout goals.

On cross training days, I got in some easy swims and virtual bike rides using a combination of Peloton and Zwift training workouts. cross-training (especially in lower impact activities) is crucial to maintain dynamic happiness in your joints while continuing to increase your cardiovascular fitness.


Gear

Shoe line up that worked for me*

* I had started long miles in worn out, unsupportive shoes. My research took me down a path of carbon plate racing shoes. I started putting in a lot long miles on those carbon plated shoes and I learned my lesson...Carbon shoes really are just for race day. You can practice with them in your faster tempo runs in the lead up to your race.

Everyday/Work shoes: Anything from the Lems lineup

Long slow miles: Altra Vanish Tempo (No Carbon plate)

Track and Treadmill speed work: Newton Men's Distance S13

Race Day shoes: New Balance Supercomp Elite V4

Lifting shoes for strength workouts: Either barefoot (safety first, please) or Nike Metcons

Training/Fitness tracker:

Garmin Enduro 3

Running clothing:

Training/Gym day: Ten Thousand liner shorts

Tempo day: Lululemon liner shorts

Racing Day: Janji trail half tights


Race day experience (General)

One of my training partners and I took LA Metro train to Union Station and then the free shuttle to the starting line at Dodger stadium. It was fast, easy, and safe. Avoid the traffic, go Metro!

I did slurge for the "starting line hospitality". The extra cost was worth it for the race-day bib pickup, no lines at the porta-potties (huge), heated tent with places to stretch, sit, and a spread of continental breakfast items.

The starting line was packed, felt a bit disorganized, but it really did not matter as your race course tracking bid does not kick in until you cross the starting line. If you are a faster runner, you may find you have to do more weaving through traffic in the beginning.

On course, the crowds were great. Lots of loud cheering almost the entire route. Many of the signs and costumes were great entertainment as well.

The aid stations were well-stocked and plentiful. All volunteers the whole day really brought their A-game, so thank you!

The course has some sneaky gradual up-hills and some timely, quad-mincing down-hill sections. It's also quite twisty and turny so the ankles will get a unique workout.

At mile 18, you pass the finish line on your way out for another 8 miles before you get to cross it... That's a mental challenge. At the final turn around, you are still 5Kish away from finishing and while it first seems like nothing... the rolling hills on the way back tests the legs one more time.

All of the runners were positive, encouraging, and motivating. If I was to find one complaint in the racing experience, it would be that a lot of runners were creating unsafe race course situations by being on their cell phones (mostly at the start of the race when everyone is bunched up)... And also that the race organizers could splurge for some supplementary cell phone towers at the finish line to accomodate 10s of thousands of people trying to cal each other after they finish.

Race day execution (Please forgive any technical jargon ahead)

Going into race day, I took the classic approach to a marathon by doing the "10-10-10 method". This method breaks the race into the first 10 miles, the second 10 miles, and finally the last 10K (6.2 miles).

In my training, I mostly used heart rate to monitor training intensity. As I got closer to race day, I began paying attention to the power metrics on my Garmin watch. In the final longer runs, I swapped out heart rate fields for power fields and I had a lot of success doing so. The rationale I used for this choice was: Power is an instantaneous measure of the amount of physical work you are putting out. I found this metric to be more objective than heart rate which is a delayed response and subject to many variables in your body.

I set my Garmin race workout as:

10 miles Power Zone 1- 2.75

10 miles Power Zone 2-3.0

6.2 miles No power metric... Just run a pace you are proud of. This worked best for me and my race day. Usually, you want this to be a HARD effort as you finish the race. Looking at my metrics after the race, my heart rate and race day goal pace were spot on for the first 20 miles. My training seemed to be a few long runs short of ideal, and that showed up in my inability to push the gas pedal for the last 10K:

10 miles @ 8:38 / mile

10 miles @ 8:35 / mile

6.2 miles @ 9:07 / mile

Average Heart rate 144 BPM.


Biggest take away from the race... If you want to race a marathon fast(-er than a jogging speed of 9-10 min/mile) you have to train fast. It was the first time I consciously chose to run that long of a racing distance with any semblance of "pace" and it is really intimidating to trust the training and let it fly.


Nutrition plan

In the week leading up to the race, I focused on a protein heavy breakfast, a card heavy lunch, and an easily digestible dinner.

When you sleep, your body will burn between 500-700 calories that you can use on race day. On race morning, the goal is the have full energy stores and an empty stomach. 4ish hours before your race, wake up and eat about 600 calories of your favorite, easily digestible and carbohydrate heavy, meal.

In the lead up to the race start, I carried with me a water bottle with an electrolyte powder mixed in from Hammer Nutrition.

5 mins before the race started, I took a GU packet. Every 45 mins after that, I took another GU packet to replenish available carbohyrdates for muscle energy.

On course, they were serving Electrolit brand sports drink and water. I walked for a short time at every drink station to make sure I got down 2 electrolyte drinks and one water.

If I started to feel crampy in my legs or "sloshy" in my stomach, I had a salt supplement from a company I like called Base Performance.


Recovery and the future

Since the race, my feet, ankles and hips have been quite tender to walk on. It is now day three, and I am back to feeling about 80%. I have been taking it easy, resting often, eating like an animal, stretching gently, and being on my feet all day at the office is helpful to keep the blood pumping.

Going forward, I intend to spend the next few weeks doing hot yoga, swimming workouts, indoor bike trainer workouts, and maybe some fast-paced hikes.

After about a month, I anticipate continuing my efforts to become a better long-distance runner.

While I am undecided on next A-level races... I am considering an early-year marathon in 2026 and potentially racing another Ironman distance triathlon in late 2026 (maybe IM Amsterdam).


Questions? Need help sorting out your goals or training? Drop me a note.


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