'The people playing music and cheering made me happy’, said Ukrainian Aleksandra Duliba, winner of the LA Marathon this year, who also said she was initially interested in running in Los Angeles because her favorite television show was ‘Californication’. She is cool. Indeed the music helped me a lot, even though I didn't stay very long in front of the bands along the way.
I don’t take my own music when I run a marathon, it’s simply too long, and it wears off my battery too fast. And I want to hear the entertainment, all along, especially the Randy Newman’s anthem ‘I Love LA’ at the start line, this is a tradition, and I suppose they could eventually replace it with a song with run in the title? Let’s see, the obvious one, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run'? too classic,… Velvet Underground’s ‘Run, Run, Run’? Too underground for sure… Snow Patrol’s ’Run’ or Arcade Fire’s ‘Keep the car running’? Too indie… No, the Randy Newman’s song is definitively perfect, I read that the video was filmed while driving along Western Avenue, from Downtown to the beach, so it perfectly fits with the Marathon route, as we effectively go from Downtown to the sea! Plus there is a carefree tone in this song that gives everyone hope and makes us forget about the pain to come.
There were a few good bands and many entertainers on the route, playing classic hits such as Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing’, and I remember thinking, wow this song is old, but still so good,… however, I didn’t care at all for the techno music that lots of radio booths were blasting as if they wanted to be heard for 26 miles. At one point, an Asian young woman on a stage sang an Adele song with lots of conviction, I mean she was shouting as loud as her.
Along the route, I met Jesus – not very musical I know, but he was too Jesus Christ Superstar for being unnoticed, and quite modern with that, as he was wearing these very fashionable toe shoes…, I also told him, come on Jeeez, I saw three people running barefoot, you should have shown the example! But he met with Michael Jackson later on (see picture above) and they seemed to have a deep conversation, so I just hope Jackson confessed all his crimes. Michael Jackson was not running (Jesus was, of course, he is a guy who knows about suffering), but he was a good supporter, and when I heard ‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’ coming from his boombox, I recovered some strength in my legs I had forgotten about.
Other noticeable dead kings, the Elvises! Every year, I see two or three guys running dressed like Elvis Presley, pompadour, sideburns, golden rockstar sunglasses and white jumpsuit, the whole picture, and carrying along a big boombox on wheels playing Presley classics. Thanks to people like these original characters, the Marathon is super fun and totally not boring.
And I forgot, it was Saint Patrick day too, so there were a lot of green outfits, a lot of pubs opened in Santa Monica playing loud Irish music, and I even drank a small glass of beer at mile 20 (I am not a drinker at all) which curiously gave me energy!
I am exhausted right now, my legs hurt, my feet are on fire, and I may not run for a few days, but it was all worth it, the whole city was blasting music from downtown to the sea, from these Japanese and Korean drummers beating at the same rhythm than my steps, to high school marching bands encouraging everyone at the start, the Marathon advertised 32 bands which gave us the sense to be part of a real community, a feeling sometimes forgotten in LA, this is such a big city. Unfortunately, I don’t think Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea was running it this year, I hadn't heard about him… so all my dreams to take a picture with him at the finish line vanished today!