The Nike After Dark Half Marathon finally took place in Los Angeles. We ran from SoFi Stadium to the loop back at Westfield Culver City for the 13.1 miles! Initially, the Nike After Dark Half Marathon was intended to be a women-only race featuring a unique nighttime experience. These races also took place in other major cities, including London, Seoul, Mumbai, Shanghai, Mexico City, and more.
Training for the Half Marathon
It’s essential that you prepare yourself for the half marathon (13.1 miles) appropriately, as it’s no joke. 90% of the effort is mental, ensuring that you don’t give up and keep pushing yourself to the finish line. The other 10% is physical. There are training plans, including endurance runs, that you can practice to gauge your mile splits. Nutrition is also important; keeping your energy levels up, eating enough carbohydrates before the race, and not skipping meals. Everyone is different, so consult with your nutritionist about what works for you.
This is how I prepped for the Nike After Dark Half Marathon:
- Long Term: Joined a run club last year and got used to running 5k’s on the streets. Barry’s Bootcamp 2-3 times per week.
- Short Term: Doubled Logan’s Barry’s Bootcamp classes for four weeks. First class focused on doing floor and tread; second class focused on double treadmills nonstop (followed Logan’s cadence) for strength and endurance.
- Diet: My breakfast consisted of shrimp dumplings or xiao long bao’s just to get me started because I’m not a fan of most breakfast foods (haven’t had eggs in a very long time). By the time lunch and dinner hit, I’m eating beef or chicken with rice, as non-processed as possible.
My goal was to complete the half-marathon within 2 hours and 10 minutes. I ended up finishing at 2 hours and 14 minutes. I stopped at EVERY water station and where my run club was posted for pictures. Honestly, for all of the effort I did, I am so happy with my results! I did it! I have the potential for sub-2 hours (see below).
PS. It was I who drank the mini bottle of Hennessy before the race. Girlie pop was popping off, and look at my first mile time! That’s WITH the henny. Imagine without it?
The Nike After Dark Experience
For $100-$150, the half marathon was QUITE the experience. Nike set up numerous activities leading up to the actual race. If you took advantage of everything, power to you. Leading up to the race, the Nike Run Club app has programs to prep you for the endurance run.
Two days before, Nike set up the Expotique to allow runners to pick up their bibs at The Grove, which included various lounges, Nike at The Grove, Nordstrom at The Grove, Shake Out Runs, Accessories Station, and more. Don’t expect a ton of freebies, just basic snack packs, canned drinks, and tea.
The race meet-up was at SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams. Parking was thankfully free. The experience included bag-check, start corrals, and a post-race concert by Doechii.
Nike made a point to enforce a 15-minute per mile pace, where runners who exceeded that speed would have their race shortened to 9 miles, rather than the full 13.1 miles, to accommodate the Doechii concert.
The True Experience
I’m always transparent about my experiences through my blog. That includes disclosure of underwhelming experiences. We’ll get into it:
- Purchasing the Tickets: Nike initially advertised this as a women’s-only race. They ended up opening the race to men as well, probably due to low ticket sales. The ticket sales were chaotic as well because it was initially $150. Nike had their influencers give out $50 discount code weeks after the initial opening; which was not fair for those who signed up early. Nike made the race sound like it was a “lottery system” as not everyone would be chosen, creating hype for people to buy in early.
- Customer Support: My friend ended up not being able to attend the race due to a travel conflict. In other races, such as the Lululemon Run with the Roses, we could transfer bibs out through the website.
- Bib Pick Up: The Nike store at The Grove is HUGE – but The Grove is the worst location to drive thousands of people to pick up the bib. Getting to The Grove itself is a nightmare, given its location, and the parking structure was chaotic. There is only one way in and out of the parking structure, causing a backup to find parking and to leave the structure. Have fun with that $10 parking just to pick up a race bib. Moreso, I was told to go to the 1st floor, only to find out I had to go to the 8th floor of the parking structure. Nike could have planned better by featuring a pop-up shop at a more accessible location than an already popular destination.
- Arriving at Race Day: There was so much chaos at SoFi Stadium on race day. That area was so congested just because it’s Inglewood – there was also WWE’s Money in the Bank event taking place at the same time. The instructions for the bag check weren’t the clearest, and the lines were atrocious (over 75 mins). You’re better off leaving your bag in your car and bringing your race gear with you. If you needed to use the restroom, you would have to leave the stadium security, and wait in a long line for the portable potties. That’s another 30 minutes – the accommodations were not made for the 20,000 or so runners. If you had to get your bag, you’d have to go through security again.
- The Race Corrals: You’re assigned a corral based on your expected finished time. The race was initially scheduled to start at 6:30 PM, but Nike had to push it back to 6:45 PM. The person who sang the national anthem missed several words, and the waves were a bit slow to start. People were beginning as late as 7:30 PM. The Doechii concert starts at 9:30 PM, so if your expected finish time is 3 hours, you’d miss the concert altogether. The race being shortened doesn’t welcome the entire half-marathon experience.
- Finishing the Race: When racers finished, we got to pick up a Nike medal, Honey Stinger energy snacks, and Gatorade water. It was a bit underwhelming, and there weren’t instructions about going back to the stadium to pick up complimentary Nike slides. I went straight to the parking lot to go home. Racers who parked in the structure were stuck for almost an hour before getting to the exit booth.
Despite all of the added stress to the race, I loved the energy that the ladies brought – when we come together, wonderful things CAN happen. It was amazing seeing the ladies who came out and ran the half marathon together. We ran that 13.1 miles. Yes, we did!!!
The Race Medal
The race medal is unique, designed by an all-women team that featured the Nike swoosh pendant and a shoelace-inspired chain. I couldn’t see the instructions in the darn, so I tied the end, rather than using one of the ends’ closures against the pendant. Okay, that was actually genius.
It’s no Tiffany’s, but I can buy my own Tiffany’s.
The Running Apps
Everyone knows I am a huge proponent of the Oura ring. The Oura ring did a phenomenal job of tracking my half-marathon statistics, including the map, pace, and heart rate. It is so much more comfortable than wearing an Apple Watch. Best of all, the style adds to your overall looks, and you can still wear a Patek watch if you’d like.
The best part is that the Oura ring can have an API integration with Strava, so you don’t have to choose. I love the social aspect of Strava, showing who you ran the route with, your PR paces, and such. The biggest difference is the pacing split times.
You still have to pay a subscription fee for both apps if you’re looking for the full features, which I do for the Oura ring. Strava is cool, but only if you’re seriously into running consistently.
The Nike After Dark Half Marathon was fun while the run took place, but I’m eager to see how the venue improves in future events!