Until the Sun Went Down Over Santa Monica Blvd.

I don't usually like a good beer buzz early in the morning, but I definitely longed for alcohol soon after completing the Great L.A. Walk yesterday. I ran a marathon last Sunday, and I can honestly say my legs and feet were more sore from walking yesterday than it was running 26.2 miles a week earlier. What can you expect from being on your feet for nine hours?

But it was all worth it. I had a blast! Our merry band of walkers fell behind early on and never caught up the big group. It was my fault as I led them on an excursion to find Carroll Avenue so I can show off the great houses there. Unfortunately we got a little turned around and my friends got cranky at the hilly sidetrip we took. But we had a blast the rest of the way. We took yummy pit stops at Cafe Tropical in Silver Lake, Sasoun Bakery in Little Armenia, and Fulfilled Pastries in Beverly Hills, which made up for our run-of-the-mill lunch at the French Market Place.

Last year I did the Pico Walk on my own and stuck mostly with the main pack. But this year, as part of a group, including Sameer, who I met at last year's walk, I had a whole different experience. We may have been the last group to arrive, but we surely had an amazing experience. I can't wait to do it again next year.

A sampling of photos from the Walk. More on Flickr.

Victorious!

No, I didn't win the marathon this weekend--I finished in 4 hours, 2 minutes--but our trivia team, Pochi Pochi, won a massive victory last night. We scored 124 out of 130 possible points--and we were down one team member. Sameer came in for the last round and helped us with the final bonus question: What country was the first republic in Africa? The answer: my favorite African country, Liberia! We were fortunate with questions that we immediately knew the answers for, but with victories in three of the last four weeks, we are on quite a roll (asterisk still firmly in place for the first victory in which the leading team stopped answering questions paving the way for us to win). We are officially a dominant team.

As for the marathon, I will hopefully have pictures and a longer report posted later this evening.