This is my life now: A weekend with Nike in LA

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get tapped on the shoulder by Nike Australia to head over to LA and check out a 10k race called ‘Go LA!’, an event celebrating the Epic React running shoe and timed to coincide with Earth Day.

LA is a long way from Melbourne, Australia, so it seemed like a good idea to pack out the calendar with some other cool events, and Nike certainly delivered. Here’s a recap of how it all went down.

Disclosure time: I didn’t actually leave the US for the whole month of April. After racing The Speed Project, I headed east to cover the Boston Marathon, and then felt the sand between my toes at the idyllic Santa Monica Beach.

There, I filled my days by running with Nils Arend, hanging out with Koreatown Run Club, and producing this piece on LA runner Hakim.

When the Nike team came to town the day before the event, it was an opportunity to have the experience that competition winners from all over Australia were having. First, we were treated to a shake-out run with Raul Arcos, Coach for Nike Run Club LA. We hit the beach, went under the famous Santa Monica Pier, and rolled up to the race-pack collection point.

It was here I realised we were in for something cool. You see, when it’s your event you can do whatever you like. Personally I’m tired of doing standard fun runs and mass-participation events that don’t feel in any way connected to the runner. So when I was directed to show I.D. to gain a 21+ wristband some 22 hours before the event, I was curious. Why did I need a wristband for an all-ages running event?

Fast forward to the next morning and the bus to the start line. I learned along the way that not only would I be joining 10,000 other people running on a freeway, but that I might get the chance to speak to 1984 Olympic Hero Joan Benoit Samuelson afterwards.

The race itself was...kinda strange. Running along a stretch of freeway is a funny experience. On one hand it’s flat and fast, but on the other it’s almost silent. It was however nice to have some respite from the usual mass participation formula of bad dance music being played on course.

Rounding the final corner and coming down the last hundred metres to the finish, it was humbling to see Joan Benoit-Samuelson already across the line and not even sweating (context - Joan is 60).

This is where things get cool. After a pretty cruisy 10k, I wasn’t really in need of the various bars or fruit that were being handed out at the finish. What I wasn’t about to turn down were the free earphones from Beats. Without doubt the best post-race gift I’ve received.

Still wearing my 21+ wristband, it was time to check out the all important post-race hydration options.

Back to my earlier point about being able to do whatever you like when you own the event, the good folk at Nike really delivered on this one. Even though the starters gun went off at 7:30 on a Sunday morning, at the end of the race we were able to roll straight up to the hydration station and collect our two beers that were included in the entry fee (which I believe was $50 USD). Back to that later though.

I got my sit down with Joan Benoit Samuelson, and it was everything I hoped it would be. The week before, I had the chance to spend time with Kathrine Switzer, another pioneer in women’s marathoning, so I was excited to speak with the woman who made history 34 years earlier by winning the 1984 Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles.

Before we got heavy into the 10k event we had just run, I spoke with Joan about her 2:21:21 in Chicago in 1985, a mark that took some 18 years to beat, and asked if she was surprised that some of her times were still so competitive 30+ years later.

“I never looked at marathon courses before I ran them, because what I don’t know can’t hurt me. That race in Chicago was the one time I regretted not looking at the course.

That race was all about winning, it was full of great runners, it wasn’t about the time. But then all of a sudden here comes the finish line and I still had something in reserve. I was surprised ‘we’re here?!’. I don’t know if I could have gone under 2:20, but I could have gone under 2:21”.

These days, she’s still running everything from 3000m to the marathon, and shows no signs of slowing down.

“To still be in the sport at the age of 60 and still be setting goals for myself and be as passionate about the sport as I was 30 years ago I think is great.

In ‘84 I ran along the freeway by myself, today I got to experience it with 10,000 other people, on Earth Day, in an event that is carbon neutral. That’s the sort of thing that gets me inspired and excited about running”.

Next up, I spotted Bowerman Track Club athlete, USA XC National Champ, and Olympian Emily Infeld. We ran a story on a Bowerman altitude camp back in January, so I was eager to go and ‘catch up’ with one of TEMPO’s favourite athletes and see how she enjoyed the event.

“It’s so exciting to see so many people here! I love the out and back course, getting to see people as you’re running the other way, everyone is having so much fun! My boyfriend and couple of his friends came and ran and they had a great time as well”.

These days, any event is really only as good as its afterparty, and in this case that duty fell to the guys at Koreatown Run Club, who didn't let anyone down.

What started out as a quiet gathering gathered a lot of momentum; you could say we negative splitted that one with a big finish.

It was cool to see a bunch of different cultures collide and witness people from different crews come together for a celebration of running.

(Also - shout out to the Uber driver for passing the AUX cord on a 60 minute trip to the party)

Monday is supposed to be the start of the working week, but thankfully for us there was some extended recovery.

I woke up to a text from Lydia O'Donnell with the offer of a 2 hour trail run, so I quickly jumped up and hit decline.

I did however wake myself up with an hour long jog along the coast before we jumped into a recovery session on the beach with Nike Training Club.

After a fairly standard Monday evening at an LA Dodgers game (I got fro-yo IN a Dodgers helmet), Tuesday called for a track session with Nike Run Club LA Coach, Blue Benadum. Blue is also a co-creator of The Speed Project.

The track workout we did is one he's done every Tuesday for the last 4 years, and consists of 100m efforts with 100m recovery, times 10 (his 'real' athletes do 20 reps).

That wraps a solid 4 days with Nike.

As I sat on the plane on my flight home I looked back on these 4 days and thought ‘you know what, I think this should be my life now’. Flying around the world to run on a freeway they close down for you, do a recovery session on Santa Monica Beach, and then get put through a track workout?

Yeah, I can live with that.