I made it
back to Los Angeles after an extended holiday vacation in the Bay Area with my
family, and I made it just in time for the longest Team to End AIDS run yet –
15 miles. The day before had me driving all the way from Northern California
which took longer to accomplish as a traffic accident cause traffic to slow
down on the Grapevine. I ended up stopping at a Jack In The Box restaurant to
have dinner, and I had a Chicken Club Sandwich on sourdough, some curly fries
and an orange Fanta. It’s probably not the best meal you want to chow down on
before a long run, but when you’re on the road your options in terms of eating can
be somewhat limited. Either that or I was looking for an excuse to have some
fast food.
After being
subdued by reruns of the Batman TV show
on IFC, I got out of my apartment and drove to Griffith Park. Today’s run was
special because it was in memory of the late Scott Boliver, a man who coached
many of us to successful marathon completions time and time again. Scott passed
away on January 3, 2013 after battling two different types of cancer that he
did in fact beat. I guess the various treatments he underwent took a heavier toll
on his body than we realized. Hearing of his passing two years ago was
absolutely devastating, and we still bemoan how he was taken away from us far
too soon.
As a result,
an invitation was sent out to veteran Team to End AIDS runners to join us in a
run in memory of Scott. This allowed me to catch up with Jessica, Annette and Virginia,
my fellow “13 The Sequel” pace group friends who I have missed these past few
months. Right now they are running with a group known as the Pasadena Pacers,
and Jessica said she has been running only 5 or 6 miles a week as she has been
suffering from “runner’s knees.” As for my own knees, they gave up trying to
reason with me a while ago, and they have created a song that’s a knock-off of “Thanks
for the Memories” which they have entitled “Thank You for the Cartilage.”
The
temperature in Northern California went down to 30 degrees some nights, and I
figured it would be slightly warmer when I got back to Los Angeles. If it was
warmer, it was only slightly so and I prepared for the frigid weather
accordingly. On top of dressing in layers, I also put my gloves on. I’ve been
in very cold weather before where my hands became so numb that I couldn’t feel
them. I don’t want to experience that ever again if I can help it.
I have
misplaced the running watch my parents gave me last Christmas, and my Ironman
watch, the same one that is now without a strap, just died on me. However, one
of my Christmas gifts this year was a new cellphone, or more specifically an Android
phone. Compared to my prehistoric iPhone, this one has up to date technology
which meant I now had a phone that could successfully download Runkeeper. That’s
right, I have finally caught up with the 21st century!
The run got
off to a rough start as I was trying to figure out how to use Runkeeper. I had
created a workout on it that had the 3:1 pace, but getting to the specific
place where I could start it got a little complicated. In the end I just
started it on a regular workout which meant I had to rely on someone else’s
watch going beep, beep, beep when the time came. But once again, not everyone
was on the same page.
There was
another problem too; none of the Lucky 13 runners had a map at the start. We
ended up missing a couple of turns, but some were able to figure that out
before our 15 mile run became a full marathon by accident.
For me, this
run turned out to be more of a struggle than I anticipated. If Runkeeper was
correct, I was running faster than I should have been, and I found myself
getting winded rather quickly. This was probably the result of me getting
hammered on New Year’s Eve by myself as I rung in 2015 by catching up on
articles I needed to finish. I also got to enjoy a lot of red wine throughout the
week when I should have spent a lot more time hydrating. I did bring along some
energy gel blocks, but they only did so much for me.
When it came
to running up that deceptive hill on Sonora, I found myself doing more speed
walking than running. To be honest, I didn’t have any breakfast beforehand as I
figured I still needed to run off that Jack In The Box value meal. While it may
be low in price, it’s ridiculously high in calories which I hoped to dropkick
on this 15 mile run. Did I succeed in doing so? God I hope so!
The Bolivers
were on hand, and I don’t just mean Scott’s parents. The rest of the family was
there as well to pay tribute to him as they know this is where he’d want them
to be. One of his daughters is now a senior in high school and is hoping that
the rest of the year goes by quickly. We assured her that it will and that
everything after it will go by even faster. This led one woman to respond, “And
then you’ll wake up and your 50!”
This is the
fifth time I have trained for the Los Angeles Marathon, but I came out of this
run feeling a lot more battered than usual. I have a lot to be proud of, but my
body got really sore in the process. In retrospect I should have seen this
coming, but I figured I had this whole running thing figured out. Boy was I
wrong! What’s wrong with me anyway?!
I do have to
thank my fellow pace group runners for keeping an eye on me as I was the last
one to cross the finish line, and by then I was limping. I had just enough
energy to take the “15 Mile Award” certificate Coach JC was handing out to us.
From there we stretched our sore legs out while partaking in a banquet of chocolate
milk, bagels with cream cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and mini chocolate
chip cookies. This is typically my day for pigging out, but I need to focus on
losing weight before the day of the marathon arrives. It’s far too easy to pig
out over the holidays, and now we have a lot of flab to rid ourselves of.
To be honest,
I came out of this run disappointed in myself. While I did run 15 miles and
burned hundreds of calories, I felt that I dropped the ball in some ways. I
should have spent more time hydrating myself with water and Gatorade during the
week. Instead I partied hard even though I didn’t bother going to a New Year’s
Eve party.
Floyd said
we should all be proud of what we accomplished and that everybody did a
fantastic job. I’m glad he said that, and I would have loved to feel the way he
did after this run. I don’t know, maybe I’m at war with myself and beating
myself up for no good reason. Running should be ridding me of bad vibes as well
as calories. Oh well, at least I know what I need to work on.
It was great
seeing Jessica, Annette and Virginia again. They ended up only running 5 miles
as that was all the alums were expected to run. I tried to goad them into running
the full 15, figuring that they would consume one too many peanut butter and
pickle covered Ritz crackers at the Boliver rest stop. But anyway, they’re not
training for the marathon this time around.
As I walked
back to my car, I took the time to look at the tree that was planted in memory
of Scott. It continues to grow tall, and it remains a wonderful sight to see. I
look forward to seeing it grow even bigger as time goes by.
When I got
back to my apartment, I did take an ice bath as I really needed one. At the
supermarket I found some bags of Halloween party ice where the cubes were green
and orange, and that made the bath all the more entertaining. It’s good thing
nobody saw me take this bath because, once the ice cubes melted, it looked like
I peed in the tub.
We miss you
Scott.
Did you get all those tax deductible
donations taken care of before the end of 2014? Good for you. Now you can get a
head start on them by donating to AIDS Project Los Angeles, a non-profit group
that has done so much for those afflicted with this disease. You want to donate
just $5 or $10? That’s perfectly fine because a little money can still go a
long way.
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