12 Miles and a Sexy Santa Suit!

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.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO MAKE ATAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION BEFORE THE END OF 2014.

Running 10 Miles in Fancy Los Angeles Neighborhoods

So it’s finally come to this. The Team to End AIDS runners are now entering double digit territory with this week’s run of 10 miles. The easy stuff is over, and now we get to the nitty gritty of marathon training.

As usual I was running (figuratively speaking) behind as I was slow to wake myself up at 6 am in the morning. It took watching part of the movie version of Julia Sweeney’s one-woman show God Said Ha to get me into gear, but of course I got caught up watching it on cable even though I have a copy of it on DVD. Regardless of the fact that I had the ability to watch this movie later, I was still hooked to what was going on as Sweeney’s brother suffered from lymphoma. 

Anyway, I remain thankful that the streets of Los Angeles remain largely empty in the morning as I sped my way up La Brea Avenue towards Griffith Park. It would be great if these streets were always this empty and free of traffic, but that of is just a pipe dream. This is Los Angeles after all; the land of the car horn symphony. Everybody is in a hurry to go everywhere and nowhere. 

It was great to be back in Griffith Park and running with a group of people as opposed to running by myself on a treadmill. I arrived just as Coach JC was starting the warm up exercises. All the head and feet rolling is great to do, but I always get a little discouraged when it comes to doing the high knees. It’s been ages since my knees reached up to the bottom of my hands, and it’s taken me a while to accept the fact that God did not make me into a flexible human being. 

Now today’s run came with a certain amount of worry for me. I was scheduled to interview Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook and the Spierig brothers about their latest movie Predestination at the SLS Hotel, and I needed to be there by 10:45 am. I kept working out the amount of time it would take me to run 10 miles in and, even though we were starting at 7 am, I realized that I would be cutting it really close. What’s worse, I planned to bring a change of clothes, some deodorant and my HD video camera with me so that I could drive straight to the SLS Hotel right after the run. I decided I didn’t need to do that, and I eventually realized that was a mistake. I am never all that patient when it comes to math.

This week’s run took us outside of Griffith Park and into Burbank and parts of Glendale where the houses are really pretty and enormous. At one point we ran by the Disney Imagineering Studios to find that a huge line had formed outside of it. We kept asking those who were there what they were waiting for, and it turned out they were waiting for the studios to open so they could go inside to buy the new collectable pins. I worked at Disneyland a while ago and I remember all about pin trading. Seeing all these people lined up there reminded me how popular that activity is. 

I also got a kick out of seeing one of the people who was waiting there holding an ALF doll in her hands. I used to have an ALF doll of my own until a pesky rat ended up decimating my entire stuffed animal collection. Anybody out there remember ALF?

Actually, the other thing I was reminded of was when I stood outside of the Virgin Megastore on Sunset Boulevard several years ago waiting with dozens of others for the midnight release of Madonna’s “Music” album. Some guy walking by asked what we were waiting for and a woman said, “Def Leppard tickets!”

We ran past that bakery again. The smell of yeast in the air is still intoxicating no matter what time of day it is. It filled me up so much that I didn’t even bother to look at those tasty advertisements hanging outside of the fast food restaurants we usually run past. Those ads always have me salivating even though I know the actual product won’t even compare to it.

This run had us going up what I call a deceptive hill. It’s when you’re running up a certain street and you don’t realize you’re going up a hill until it’s too late. Once you do realize that you’re running up a deceptive hill, you then come to see just how far up it extends and you wonder what the hell you have gotten yourself into. Sure you can turn around, but that’s really not an option when it comes to training for the Los Angeles Marathon. We need these hills.

We also got to run alongside some of the nice and expensive looking houses in Glendale. It’s always humbling to run by these homes which look like they are sitting on top of a plantation and being constantly reminded that you can’t possibly afford them. I came out to Los Angeles in the hopes of maybe moving into a place like that at some point. Well, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, but I can still dream, can’t I?

I constantly kept looking at my watch throughout the run, and I got increasingly nervous as the minutes kept ticking away from 9 am to 10 am. In my head I figured running 10 miles would take an hour and a half at best, but again I am not very patient with math. I kept wanting to finish faster and not just to say I was the first in the Lucky 13 pace group to cross the finish line. I needed to get to my Predestination interviews on time. 

The other runners started commenting that I was running too fast and they were right. As 10 am drew closer and closer, I had Rush’s song “Time Stand Still” playing through my head. 

“I turn my back to the wind

To catch my breath

Before I start off again.

Driven on without a moment to spend

To pass an evening with a drink and a friend.”

By the time I made it back to Griffith Park, it was already 10:10 am and this upcoming interview was threatening to become another I would miss out on. Still, it was great to be back in Los Angeles running with these fine people who I missed. Training for a marathon by yourself is not impossible, but it sure isn’t anywhere as fun as training with a group.

I managed to keep as much focus on my running stance as I could as I threatened to keep running while hunched forward, and I need to look out for that. I also need to make that speed walking stance where my arms are above my waist more of a regular habit. There was a bit of a burning sensation in my lower legs throughout, and that’s probably a reminder of how important it is to keep doing those maintenance runs during the week (for the record, I did do mine).

After I finished I quickly did some leg stretches and ate a couple of chocolate chip cookies that were left for us, and I jumped in my car and sped back to my apartment all the time hoping that a cop car would not pull me over for any reason let alone a justifiable one. From there I had one of the quickest showers ever known to man and then quickly put on jeans and my National Sarcasm Society t-shirt and raced over to the SLS Hotel. It turns out the interviews were all delayed a bit, so I did manage to talk with everyone and had a fun time. 

Looking at this training run and the interview I had with Ethan Hawke, I kept thinking about how minutes slip away so quickly as you get older and of how events become memories far too soon. Once again, Rush’s “Time Stand Still” comes to mind.

“(Time stand still)

I'm not looking back

But I want to look around me now

(Time stand still)

See more of the people and the places that surround me now

Time Stands still

Freeze this moment a little bit longer

Make each sensation a little bit stronger

Experience slips away

Experience slips away.”

FUNDRAISING UPDATE: Thanks to my good friend from Baltimore, Maryland, Ed Mahoney, I have reached my fundraising goal for the 2015 LA Marathon and AIDS Project Los Angeles. His very generous donation has put my total at $1,061. But while I have reached my goal, I still encourage you all to make a donation to this organization as they continue to do great work for those who struggle with this disease. Plus, with the year coming to a close, time is running out to get that always welcome tax deduction when you donate to a non-profit group.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO AIDS PROJECT LOS ANGELES.