Los Angeles 5K Run

2011 was not a good year for Los Angeles marathoners.  Torrential downpour met them at every single mile – all 26.2 miles!  I did not do the marathon this year, which might have been a blessing because I can’t imagine running six hours in the rain.  However, I did do the rain-free 5K (3.1 miles) portion one day earlier on Saturday.  Sam and I joined up with friends of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) at Dodgers Stadium and ran the Los Angeles 5K Run.  APALC was one of the official charities of the Los Angeles Marathon and the money raised by Team APALC went toward supporting this awesome organization.

The Asian Pacific American Legal Center was founded in 1983 by a one-of-kind, visionary man named Stewart Kwoh.  At the time, there were very few organizations providing direct services to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, so Stewart started his own organization with broad community support.  Not only was providing legal services one of its primary focuses, APALC knew that to be truly effective it must include policy advocacy as one of its strategy areas.   APALC also knew that to further achieve social justice it must take on cases that would have a broad impact on the community.  Under the leadership of Stewart and the legendary Julie Su, APALC fought countless battles and stood up for the rights of low-wage workers, consumers and the vulnerable immigrant community.  Eventually, APALC started conducting leadership development as a way to encourage and train youth and parents into becoming leaders, understanding that civic engagement is one of the powerful tools to advancing justice.

There were about 25 of us on Team APALC, which included staff, volunteers, local Asian bar association members, supporters and friends.  Some were experienced runners, some were novices, but we were all unified by our matching turquoise T-shirts.  Aside from running in the Komen Race for the Cure a couple weeks ago, Sam and I had never participated in a large-scale running event like this.  It was quite exciting.

Sam and I had one major goal: to beat our Komen time.  We felt pretty good in the morning and it helped that it was not as hot as it was on the day of the Komen race.  The course was different, even though both races started at Dodgers Stadium.  The Komen course snaked around the giant Dodgers Stadium parking lot, which wasn’t as visually stimulating.  The Los Angeles 5K Run, however, took runners outside the stadium into the surrounding woodsy Elysian Park area.  For a 5K course, it was quite scenic.  There was also one major difference between the two courses, the Komen course had one hill almost right off the start, but the Los Angeles 5K course had not one, not two, but THREE hills.  Of course, we did not know that before we started so we were not expecting the extra climbing.  Still, we conquered the course and completed our run.  We came in at 34:43 (Sam) and 34:45 (me), which was slightly better than our Komen time, so we were happy.  The Los Angeles Marathon Web site actually breaks down stats for each runner.  I learned that I placed 959th overall, 567th of the male runners and 73rd of male runners in my division (age group 35-39).