Los Angeles Angels 5k (18:48)

Before I begin: the Los Angeles Angels 5K is never a full 5k course. I believe it’s about a tenth of a mile short year after year. You lose GPS while running inside the stadium, so you never really know. This year, I had about 12 seconds of “zero movement” logged on my watch and another stretch at a 10–11 minute pace while it tried to find signal.

It wouldn’t be great for me to sit here and pretend I ran a 5K in 18:48…that’s doing myself a disservice and setting myself up for disappointment when I don’t run that fast again. Not to put a damper on the race, because it’s still fun but it is short. Anyway…

Before the Los Angeles Angels 5K:

Thanks to Juneteenth and taking Friday off, I had a nice, relaxing few days before the race. I also got to leave a lot earlier than I would if I were working. While Orange County and Anaheim are “only” a two-hour drive from my house without traffic, I never drive there without traffic…it can take over three hours, if not three and a half. So it was nice not to be getting there late. We even made a quick stop at the Reptile Zoo to hold some snakes.

I slept pretty well the night before, and we got to the Los Angeles Angels 5K start around 6:50 a.m. It gets really backed up if you arrive after 7, so I try to get there early. I did a 3-mile warm-up and lined up at the front. I’ve made the mistake of starting too far back at this race, and it turns into a cluster trying not to get run over.

Los Angeles Angels 5K Race:

The Los Angeles Angels 5K is never a full 5K. I always estimate it’s between 3.0 and 3.05 miles. Plus, it goes through Angels Stadium, so GPS becomes unreliable…so you really don’t know. This year, I decided to manually mark it and see what happened.

Immediately after the start, it was chaos. Since it’s a 3,000+ person 5K with more baseball fans than runners, many people don’t understand how to self-seed and line up too far forward. The first mile loops around the stadium with several turns…it’s not a fast course. I manually marked my watch at mile 1 and it said 5:39. I know that’s not right. I actually ran around a 6:09.

Surprisingly, I was in first place at that point, but I knew there were fast women in the race. One woman passed me just after mile 1 and never looked back. I knew I wasn’t catching her. The second mile takes you into the stadium, where you completely lose GPS. It’s a cool experience running through the stadium, but also challenging. It’s one giant turn, and my watch said I ran a “7:09” second mile. It also told me I wasn’t moving in one part and running a 10:40 pace in another. Another woman passed me in the stadium and I found myself in third but not too far behind second.

I hit the mile 2 marker at 5:43. My guess is I ran it in about 6:20, but who knows? The final mile takes you back around the parking lot and onto the warning track. I passed the second-place woman just before hitting the warning track. It’s mentally tough because once you leave the track, you can see the finish line from nearly a third of a mile away. I just focused on the finish and kept pushing. My watch recorded a 6:03 mile, which was a full mile from the last manual mark.

I crossed the finish line in 18:48, second woman overall.

Los Angeles Angels 5K Thoughts:

I have a love/hate relationship with the Los Angeles Angels 5K. I seem to run well here and it’s really fun, but I never quite know how well. Was it a 19:20 5K? 19:30? I genuinely believe I ran somewhere between 19:20–19:25, but we’ll never know. And honestly, sometimes it’s nice not to rely on your watch so much. Either way, I ran my fastest ever on this course and finished as the second woman…my highest place finish yet.

You can see Strava here and all race recaps here.

Questions for You:

Have you ever run a 5K in a stadium?

What’s your favorite 5K?