Well, the
weather in Griffith Park was a little cooler than last week, but winter still
seems a bit shy about coming out in Southern California. We should be feeling
relatively frozen by now as we are approaching the middle of November, but some
of us are still getting away with wearing shorts during the week. Perhaps by
next week we will start living the lives of ice cubes for once. Everybody in
the news keeps talking about the polar vortex, so the chilly weather has got to
be around the corner.
This week’s
Team to End AIDS run comes one day after National Pickle Day. Darn! I should
have celebrated by buying a jar of Claussen pickles from my local Ralphs
Supermarket. Then again, they probably weren’t on sale as is usually the case.
But being that the Bolivars had made their annual trek from West Covina to
deliver us a wealth of snacks including those highly addictive peanut butter
and pickle covered Ritz crackers, many of us were going to have a celebration
even if it was a day late.
I made it to
Griffith Park at a little later than usual as I allowed myself to get caught up
in watching To Live and Die in L.A.
on cable. Just be happy that I didn’t wait for that car chase on the wrong side
of the freeway because then I would have been really late. When I arrived, Coach JC was there doing something
different for his morning speech: he had us doing a group warm up. There was
the rolling of the head, the shaking out of our legs and we also rolled our
feet both clockwise and counterclockwise. Then there were the high knees which
almost always has me falling over. I can never get my knees to touch my hands
because God decided I had no right to be that flexible. Still, the warm up
helped.
Coach JC
announced to us with a wicked smile on his face that this run would have us
running up our first hill in this training season. This announcement was met
with a couple of audible groans, but many others applauded the news because
they were either up for the challenge or they just knew that this had to happen
at some point. Coach JC once again reminded us that the Los Angeles Marathon is
as flat as the planet Earth, which is to say not at all. Even though it has us
running down to the beach in Santa Monica, there are some hills for us to
ascend along the way. After we finish the LA Marathon next March, we will all
be thankful that we ran up any hills during training. To all of you who are
running your first marathon ever, please trust me on this.
Coach JC
would later refer to this particular hill as “Mt. Elfi” and “Mt. F.U.,” and
both descriptions proved to be very appropriate (especially the second one).
Today’s run
kept us inside Griffith Park for a change as we kept traveling down Zoo Road
and past the Gene Autry Museum. After all these years in Los Angeles, I still
have yet to visit that museum. What’s wrong with me?
On this run,
I found myself getting stuck in my own head to where I ran a bit faster than my
pace should allow. Life has thrown me a number of curveballs in the last few
years, and I still find myself trying to climb over them in the hopes of
becoming completely self-sufficient once again. It has not been easy to put it
mildly.
When it came
to conversations I had with my fellow runners, I got to tell Drea that I
interviewed Tommy Lee Jones this past week for his movie The Homesman. In some ways,
interviewing him and getting him to chuckle a little felt like a bigger victory
than any marathon I’ve ever ran because he’s a notoriously intimidating and difficult
interviewee. The realization of that made this 6 mile run seem easier than it
usually is. Of course, I may just be exaggerating.
When we did
get to the hill, I finally came to realize how ridiculously fast I was running.
Usually I’m on pace, but I guess I got lost in my own thoughts more often than
I usually do. By the time I started ascending the hill, I was already out of
breath and reduced to speed walking my way up. Now usually at this point I have
Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” or Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” going
through my head, but this time I had Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far
Away” playing at a reasonable volume in my own head. This probably has to do
with the fact that I got the “Houses of the Holy” remastered deluxe edition
this past week on CD, and the music still sounds as sweet as ever.
“Hey lady--you got the love I need
Maybe more than enough.
Oh Darling... walk a while with me
You've got so much...
Many have I loved - Many times been
bitten
Many times I've gazed along the open
road.”
When I look
at these lyrics, I’m reminded of how timeless Led Zeppelin’s music is, and also
of how these lyrics have little to do with running or training for a marathon.
Because the word “hills” was in the song title, it just had to pop in my head.
Go figure. Still, it made more sense than hearing The Beatles’ “Fool on the
Hill” in my head because that song has too slow a tempo for me to run to.
On our voyage
through the hilly areas of Griffith Park, we came across Robin Russell who once
again was pounding away at his drums. That’s right, after all these years I
finally learned his name, and it’s always nice to put a name to a face. The
beat he was drumming to was the same one I saw him drumming from a distance
during the 2009 LA Marathon, a couple of years before I ran my first. It’s that
beat of his that gets me through the tougher parts of a long run. Keep on drumming Robin!
Despite my
challenges running (or speed-walking) up that hill, I managed to keep up with
my pace group. I even had a nice conversation with Floyd who kept wondering
when those endorphins were going to kick in. That’s the great thing about
running; it’s a great way to get high, and it’s a lot less expensive than the
hard stuff. Robin Williams said it best, “It only costs you a pair of fucking
shoes!” I started reciting Williams’ take on marathon running to Floyd, and we
both had a lot of laughs over it.
And as
always, the Bolivars were on hand with a ton of snacks, facial tissue, red
vines, sour gummy worms and of course those delectable peanut butter and pickle
covered Ritz crackers. These crackers are the kind Coach JC loves to death (no
not really, he hates pickles). I ended up overdosing more than I usually do to
the point where I expect someone to yell at me, “STOP HOGGING ALL THE CRACKERS
BEN!!!” Not to worry, there’s more than enough to go around.
On the way
down the hill, I kept myself in check to make sure I didn’t go at warp speed.
It’s always tempting to let yourself go and race down the hill, but that’s how
injuries happen. Plus, Scotty from Star
Trek will be yelling at you and saying, “You can’t do it Captain! You don’t
have the power!”
To keep my
mind from wandering, I kept checking on my running form throughout. I made
mental notes to keep my chest open so that I could get more oxygen and to not
allow myself to slouch forward. Doing that certainly keeps me alert, and I
refer to it as meditating while running. I don’t care what the naysayers say,
such a thing is humanly possible.
So that
concludes week five of 2015 LA Marathon training. Regardless of what I have
just written about this hill, we’re still going through the easy stuff. I know
it freaks people out that I just implied running 6 miles is easy, but for us
marathon veterans it’s nothing. Next week our mileage will again increase and
we will face new challenges that will include, but are not limited to, watching
out for cars and bikes coming at us from the opposite direction. We need stay
closer to the side of the road next Saturday.
FUNDRAISING UPDATE: I have to date
raised $711 for AIDS Project Los Angeles, and that puts me at 71% towards my
fundraising goal of $1,000. The progress we have made so far is astonishing as
I usually find myself struggling at this point in training. Let’s keep it going
and get those tax deductible donations taken care of before the year is out!
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