From Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica beach, on March 18, 2018 I ran my 1st L.A. Marathon without training. The distance for the L.A. Marathon is 26.2 miles, passing neighborhoods such as Echo Park, Chinatown, Downtown L.A., Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, and Santa Monica.

Running 26.2 miles is a task not many people are willing to complete, especially if they did not train or if it is their 1st time running a marathon. I ran my 1st marathon without training because I signed up for it a month before and was too busy studying for finals weeks before the race.

Now the next question you may be asking yourself is "Why did this girl sign up for the marathon a month before and not train? Why would she do that?" I choose to run my 1st marathon without training because running the L.A. Marathon has been on my bucket list for years. Before the 2018 L.A. Marathon, I used to fear running the 26.2-mile distance from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica. My flat feet, my bunion, my weak knees, and my asthma condition also held me back from running the L.A. Marathon before 2018.

Another reason I decided to run the marathon this year is because I am at a point in my life where I want to live my life to the fullest by checking off things I want to do on my bucket list. My life motto right now is saying yes to new things and new adventures to life.

After I received my confirmation email to run the marathon, I felt excited that I was going to check off one of the most important things I had on my bucket list. The next day my excitement towards running the marathon wore off. All I thought about in February were my finals until I found myself thinking about the race every now and then during the week of the marathon.

Saturday night was nerve-wracking. I did not sleep at all because not only did I had to wake up at 4 am to get to Dodger Stadium, but I was freaking out that not only was I running my 1st marathon without training, but I had a final essay to turn in the next day which I had not finished. Throughout the whole night I was debating with myself whether I should run the marathon, but what motivated me to get up and do it was the fact that I ran the L.A. Marathon in 2016 but only 13.1 miles and received a medal for it. I felt like a cheater when I crossed the finish line because although I was involved in a charity relay race where my role was to run the last half of the marathon, I felt that I did not deserve that medal and planned to redeem myself for it.

Running those 26.2 miles on the day of the marathon was one of the most difficult physical activities I have done in my life since of course, I did not train. I remember being dehydrated, sweaty, crusted with salt on my skin, and my feet and hips were aching throughout the last 10 miles of the race. Despite suffering throughout the whole marathon, I completed it in 7 hours, a good time for an asthmatic 1st-time marathon runner. After checking off running the 2018 L.A. Marathon off my list, I can state that I plan to run the 2019 L.A. Marathon next year.