The weather
gets colder, but we Team to End AIDS runners are still more than willing to
show up at Griffith Park at a ridiculously early hour Saturday mornings. This
week had us running 12 miles with the promise of no hills, but as Spock said
there are always possibilities.
I had
trouble getting to sleep the night before, but I still managed to haul my ass
out of bed at around 6:15 a.m. which in retrospect was amazing. This week’s
movie which was showing on cable and delayed my departure from my bachelor pad
was S.W.A.T., the movie version of
the TV show starring Colin Farrell, Samuel L. Jackson, L.L. Cool J and Michelle
Rodriguez.
I was especially excited about this movie as it was directed by
Clark Johnson, the man who played Meldrick Lewis on one of my all-time favorite
TV shows Homicide: Life on the Street. The
show may not have gotten great ratings during its run, but those involved with
it continue to make their presence known in any and every medium out there.
So yes, I
was a little late getting to Griffith Park, but I arrived just in time to see
Coach JC unveil his beautiful Mrs. Santa Claus dress which looked just fabulous
on him. Coach JC offered to wear this sexy looking dress (Mr. Santa Claus can
only dream of looking this good) if all Team to End AIDS runners managed to
raise $60,000 by the end of the week. Suffice to say we succeeded in making
that a reality, and here we were marveling at our coach and taking pictures of
him with our iPhones and cameras for posterity. It was especially brave of him
to wear it for reasons I’m sure you’d understand… IT WAS BLOODY COLD OUTSIDE
AND THE DRESS DIDN’T HAVE MUCH FABRIC TO WARM HIM UP! HIS SKIN WAS EXPOSED FOR
PETE’S SAKE!!!
During his
speech to us, Coach JC reminded everyone of how hard concrete can be on our
feet. This is why you see us running on the streets instead of the sidewalks
because the asphalt is much better to run on, and that’s what we all will be
running on when the day of the marathon arrives. Of course, there are always
police officers on our tails ordering us to get our asses back on the sidewalk,
but we can jump back onto the asphalt once they’re out of sight.
This run
once again took us outside of Griffith Park, and we took the usual route over
the freeway and into Burbank and then Glendale. As we ran past a park, we all
were all treated to the grisly image of a dead skunk on the side of the road.
He (or she) looked like they didn’t know what hit them. Perhaps the skunk was
there to remind us to look both ways when we cross the street. Surely none of
us want to end up (or smell anything) like him!
On this run
the big conversation we all had was over Sony Pictures’ decision to not release
The Interview in movie theaters. We
were all in agreement that they should have just released it as this set a very
dangerous precedent, but we also had to remind ourselves that Sony made the
decision after numerous theater chains announced that they wouldn’t screen it
due to terror threats made. In short, they didn’t want to be held liable for
anything that happened at their establishments. It is true what they say: money
is the corrupter. Hopefully Sony will change their mind and release The Interview on Christmas Day like they
originally planned to.
The biggest
obstacle we encountered this time around was staying on pace. Just when I
thought we all started our timers at the same time, it soon turned out that we
didn’t. Some decided to pause their timers upon arriving at the rest stops, and
that threw us off to where we kept starting and restarting our watches on a
regular basis. I ended up losing count of how many times I restarted my watch
as it seemed to be increasingly impossible to be on the same page with
everybody else. The fact that we were able to figure out our pace before we
crossed the finish line was nothing short of a miracle.
At one point
we reached that familiar street which was divided into two sides of traffic and
had a bike and walking path down the middle which stretched for miles. I’ve ran
down this road before, and there’s something about running in what seems like
the middle of the road that feels both defiant and freeing. Damn the traffic!
Damn the bicyclists coming in front and behind me! Nothing’s going to stop me
now… except of course for the occasional street crossings and stop signs.
It was at
this point that the hit song by The Pretenders, “Middle of the Road,” started
to play inside my head. I’m pretty sure the title of the song isn’t meant to be
taken literally, but that didn’t matter to me in the slightest.
Actually,
many ended up running on the streets instead of the middle road as, once again,
the asphalt is much kinder to the feet. While I knew the middle road was made
of concrete, I was still compelled to run on it regardless. But after a bit I
decided it might be better to run on the street even as the roads got
increasingly narrow to where we had to run in a single file run. Of course, I
later found myself getting back onto the middle road just because I was drawn
to it or something stupid like that. It also got me to meet up with Coach JC
who drove ahead of us to check in and make sure we were doing okay. JC, still
wearing his beautiful Mrs. Santa Claus dress, ended up saying to me, “I am not
looking forward to your next blog.”
One of the
sites I came across on this run was a speed limit sign that indicated the speed
you were going at. My brother loves to race through them to see if they will
overload and send sparks flying. As we approached it, it read 15 miles an hour.
For a moment I thought it was measuring the speed we were running at, but it
turns out there were a number of bicycles behind that were coming up a lot
sooner than we realized. As we ran past it, I was hoping it show us going at
breakneck speed. Then again, we have been constantly reminded that our marathon
training has not been about speed but instead endurance.
We made it
back to Griffith Park in one piece, and the most frightening thing of all was
that we made it look like running 12 miles was not that hard. What’s wrong with
us anyway?
We should
also take the time to congratulate those who completed those first time
marathon runners as this run marked the farthest they have run in one day to
date. Way to go y’all!
This is our last
run before Christmas and many of us were getting ready to leave town to spend
it with our families. As we departed, we all wished one another a Merry
Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah or Chanukah if you prefer to spell it that way. Since
there were a number of holidays coming our way in the next few weeks, I made
sure to wish my fellow runners a Happy Kwanza and a Happy Boxing Day to make
sure everyone was covered. We’ve got to be equal folks.
I’ll be out
of town next week for the 5 mile run, but I will make sure to run it when next
Saturday comes. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a ridiculously Happy
New Year. Be safe.
FUNDRAISING UPDATE: For those of you
tuning into this blog for the first time, I am training for the 2015 Los
Angeles Marathon in support of AIDS Project Los Angeles. They are a non-profit
organization that has spent years helping those afflicted by this disease we
have yet to eradicate. I encourage you to donate to this organization, and
together we can put an end to AIDS for once and for all.
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