Excitement grows for the Asics LA Marathon 2013 at The Grove...

Yesterday I was bemoaning the fact that this year as Honda wasn't title sponsor of the L.A. Marathon, there were no cars printed all over with participants names at the Expo.

Here's hoping I look this fresh at the Finish Line in Santa Monica tomorrow

Imagine my delight to discover that the new title sponsor, Asics, was building up more marathon excitement at The Grove shopping centre today.

Obviously great news for them as they get extra exposure with all those weekend shoppers, but I wish they'd have replicated the fun at the L.A. Marathon Expo at the Convention Center too, especially the photo wall mural made up of all the runners names which is always a great way to celebrate your participation.

If you like this wall, be sure to check out last year's printed Honda cars at the L.A. Marathon Expo.

There I am

I managed to find my own name amongst the 20,000+ runners and spotted a lot of my teammates from T2: Team to end AIDS too.

The great news they announced at our carb-load dinner last night was that our combined fundraising efforts have raised over $166,000 to date and there's still time to DONATE to help AIDS Project L.A. who I'm running for.

As you can see they adapted the name wall mural from Asics current advertising campaign for the marathon this year, like this billboard along the route on Sunset Boulevard (which I'll be running past in less than 24 hours).

Now that all that excitement is over, it's time to start relaxing and resting up for the big race. Those 26.2 miles are not going to run themselves...