Going the Distance, Part 5  | Sports | Advocate.com

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Going the Distance, Part 5
After months of training for the Los Angeles marathon, Shawnn Slaughter crosses the finish line and realizes a new level of self-appreciation.
By Shawnn Slaughter
An Advocate.com exclusive posted April 26, 2008
Going the Distance, Part 5

After six months of training, the Los Angeles Marathon had finally arrived. I drove in from Las Vegas on Friday and checked into the historic Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. As I entered the hotel, the excitement of the race sent chills down my spine.

The next morning, I boarded a Metro train and headed for the Los Angeles Convention Center for the marathon expo. I met my pace group, and we picked up our bibs and the timing chips that track our time. After the expo, we all headed over Papa Cristo’s for a delicious Greek lunch.

The night before the marathon, the National AIDS Marathon had a pasta party at the hotel. AIDS Project Los Angeles asked me to give an interview to the local Fox station. I talked about how I had commuted from Las Vegas for the training and that being a 22-year survivor of HIV was one of the motivations for my running the marathon.

Sunday, the morning of the marathon, I met up with the rest of the AIDS marathoners at Pershing Square across from the Biltmore at 5:45 a.m. We took the Metro subway to the starting line in Universal City. The marathon started at 8:15 am., but with so many people ahead of us, it took our group almost 10 minutes to get to the start line from where we were standing, with Randy Newman’s "I Love LA" blaring out of the speakers.

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