Local runners get ready to compete in the Los Angeles Marathon Sunday
CITYWIDE No amount of training can prepare a seasoned marathoner for the last six miles of the race, at least that’s the case for Joshua Johnson.
Though he has trained for 10 weeks for the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday, Johnson knows that he is going to hit another mental and physical wall once he crosses mile 20 of the 26.2 mile course across the city.
“I’m never prepared mentally,” Johnson said on Friday. “No matter how much I train, I can’t seem to simulate between miles 20 and 26.”
By the time mile 20 rolls around, Johnson’s adrenaline is long gone. He’s out of energy, his body starts to ache, and he begins to feel as though he’s suffering from the flu.
The goals he had set for the past three months all of a sudden don’t matter anymore.
“The wear on you mentally is something you don’t anticipate,” the Santa Monica resident said. “By mile 20, I don’t care about the goals anymore. It just becomes about getting through the race for me.”
The event on Sunday will be Johnson’s second consecutive LA Marathon and fourth marathon overall. He ran his first marathon in Los Angeles last year and has gone onto to compete in the San Diego and Long Beach marathons.
Johnson, the guitarist and singer for the indie rock band Solare, is one of several Santa Monica residents who have ran in marathons across the country and spend months training for a one day event.
Johnson is undergoing a 10 week program where he runs 10 miles per day up and down the boardwalk. After the marathon is over, he takes about two months off before preparing for his next mission.
Marathons provide a balance in Johnson’s life. It’s a hobby that counters the darkness of being in a rock band, he said.
“It’s a great counterpoint to going out and playing shows,” he said.
Overweight as a child, Jonathan Vakneen of Santa Monica used running as a way to lose weight. He ran his first marathon — the LA Marathon — in 1991 and soon after began helping other hopefuls train for marathons.
“It’s like you have all of Los Angeles becoming your coach, your guru, your cheerleader,”
“It’s your community of cheerleaders. It’s almost like you want to cheer back at those people.” — Vakneen said
As a coach,he helps people overcome the mental and physical challenges that have prevented them from running in a marathon. He asks his clients about their wishes and dreams and encourages them to use running as a means to fulfill those wishes and dreams.
Preparing for a marathon can take as little as six months, depending on the client, Vakneen said. In the beginning, Vakneen will enter his client’s kitchen and do a refrigerator sweep, cleaning out all the unhealthy items and changing his client’s dietary habits. His method is about changing his client’s mindset and lifestyle to show them that running a marathon is very possible, it just entails a little bit of change.
Running has taken Vakneen across the world, having participated in marathons in Austria, Israel, Florida, Hawaii, Chicago and Utah.
And of course, Vakneen has ran in practically every single LA Marathon since 1991 and plans to continue that tradition on Sunday.
“Marathon running is an equal playing field,” Vakneen said on Friday. “You have all races, creeds and colors showing up. It’s an opportunity for all of God’s children to play.”
For the marathon guru, there’s nothing like running through the streets of Los Angeles and seeing the entire city come together, especially in a city that has a history of racial and socioeconomic conflict.
It’s the same tingly feeling that Yesenia Ayala-Marks got when she ran in her first Los Angeles marathon in 2005.
This year, Ayala-Marks will be running in her second Los Angeles Marathon and her sixth overall. Marathon running has taken her to San Diego, Boston, Las Vegas, and Portland, Ore.
It was a victim of the 2003 Farmers’ Market crash who inspired Ayala-Marks to consider marathon running. A member of the YMCA in Downtown Santa Monica, the self-proclaimed “gym rat” was often seen running on a treadmill until the Farmers’ Market victim, who used to run in marathons, suggested Ayala-Marks go for a run outside. Why not go out and enjoy the sun, she asked.
And so she did. After purchasing a book on marathons, Ayala-Marks decided to try her first marathon in 2005, the LA Marathon.
She started running five times a week, doing short runs during the middle of the week and longer trips on the weekends. Her training ground was all of Santa Monica.
Her training regimen worked as she placed 96th among women runners in the 2005 LA Marathon. Two years later, she feels even more prepared than she did in the first marathon.
The most difficult stretch of the marathon is the areas where there are no crowds cheering on the runners, Ayala- Marks said.
“I will never carry a radio with me because I want to hear people cheering me on,” she said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 3, 2007. Read the original PDF.