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.

20 Miles

Having not run much the last three weeks, I worried about trying to do a 20 miler this weekend. My last long run was a 15 miler with Katie over a month ago. Can I manage 20 miles?

I did! I guess after four years of running, my body is used to it and would require a longer period of inactivity for it to fall apart. Not to say it wasn't tough, but then again running 20 miles is never easy. However, this ranks as one of my better 20 milers. I only fell apart the last couple of miles when I ran alone as FJ and Katie took a detour to extend their run. We were a half mile short of a full 20, so they kept going. I just wanted to finish.

My legs weren't as strong as I would like and it was tough for me to keep pace with FJ and Katie, but I managed. I still don't think I'm in any shape to set a personal best, but at least I know I will finish respectably.

It definitely helped that we ran the same 20 mile course Andy and I ran just before San Diego this year. We ran an out-and-back course from FJ's house to Elmer Smith--just under 10 miles point to point. We also managed to beat the hot weather by starting at 7:30 and there was the promise of donuts waiting at the finish. Mmm, donuts.

I neglected to start my chrono, but based on FJ's watch I finished at around 3 hours, 10 minutes, under a 10 minute pace!

Downtown to West Hollywood!

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Distance: 8.7 miles
Time: 1:29:12

On Sunday I backed out of a planned run with FJ. I was just too tired from an all-day outing with Sameer that included hiking in Eaton Canyon and biking through North Long Beach and valeting bikes in Hollywood in the evening. Needless to say, I woke up Sunday morning not feeling up to running fifteen miles. It was all for the best. I woke up in the morning with a headache and felt too nauseous to be of much use the rest of the day. I actually went back to sleep after eating breakfast and didn't get up until almost 3pm.

Despite having a good excuse not to run, I was annoyed to miss out on a long run, especially since the race is in a month and I haven't been running as much as I should. Therefore I told myself that I will run Monday and Tuesday. No excuses.

I almost didn't make it out of the house to run on Monday out of laziness, but I forced myself. And as often happens, I actually ran farther than I had intended because it felt good. I ran from my house and planned to run down 4th Street and turning around at Rossmore then up to Beverly and back home through Larchmont. Instead I extended it by turning at Highland instead, adding about a 1.5 miles to what should have been a five mile run. I finished in less than an hour, kind of tired, but glad that I got a good run in.

On Tuesday I committed myself to running from work in downtown to West Hollywood for the GLU meeting. Per Google Maps it was about an 8.7 mile run. I thought it would be farther, but Google does not lie--at least I hope it doesn't.

I packed as minimally as possible, but even that was an annoyance. Running with a bag on my back just bothered me even though it was extremely light, containing only a clean shirt for later and my phone. By the time I got to Vermont I took the bag off and ran with it in my hand.

As for my course, I took 7th Street from downtown all the way until it gets blocked by the Ambassador Hotel at Catalina. From there I headed north on Catalina and turned left on 6th. From 6th I ran until the sidewalk was useless, which turned out to be at Oxford. I arrived at Oxford and 6th 40 minutes into my run, so basically if I ran from work to home, I would probably arrive no more than ten minutes later than if I had driven. And I probably would have arrived home faster running than by bus.

I headed north on Oxford and took the same route as the previous night--4th Street but instead of turning at Highland, I turned on La Brea and headed north to Fountain and from Fountain to my old street, Martel. All this in an hour and a half. Not bad.

The start of the run was difficult, having to dodge pedestrians in downtown and inhaling massive amounts of auto and bus exhaust as I ran down major streets. 4th Street was very pleasant with great neighborhood scenery.

During the run, I nearly got clipped by at least two cars, dodged a lot of cars pulling out of driveways without watching for pedestrians. Most drivers can't fathom the fact that there are people who actually use the sidewalks in L.A. The worst was tripping on the uneven sidewalk, though. Thankfully I didn't fall down.

I considered running back home after GLU, but with a mile left in my run I knew it would be a tall order. I was exhausted!

While running over fifteen miles over two nights doesn't equate to running fifteen miles at one time, I'm still proud of it. I'm really not in great shape, and I'm going to misss another weekend since I'll be up in Santa Barbara this weekend. I doubt I can get my ass in gear to run when I'm supposed to be relaxing. However, I'm still holding out hope that I can get myself together in the last couple of weeks before I start tapering. Tapering? Heck, that's what I've been doing all this time!

Laundry Service

Gentleman's Lozenge Socks, originally uploaded by adamknits.

I'm out of socks. I haven't done laundry in almost three weeks and I've exhausted my supply. I would prefer not to resort to the hole-y socks, so either I recycle some used socks or I do laundry soon. I can always just buy some socks at one of the shops on Broadway I pass by on my way to and from the subway, too, but in a few days I will also run out of underwear.

My Favorite Weekend

Having not read the paper version of the L.A. Times in months, I'm not sure if they are still running the "My Favorite Weekend" column on Thursdays. Who knows what changes Sam Zell has wreaked on the paper. But if it still is, my weekend should qualify for it. Even more impressive is the fact that it actually happened and wasn't just an imaginary weekend from some B-level celebrity. And even more impressive than that, it was relatively affordable. No over-priced sushi for me.

Saturday started with Sameer and me riding Metro to South Pasadena and from the Mission station we rode our bikes to San Gabriel for dim sum at New Capital. It was a great morning for riding--overcast and cool--and the streets were still lightly trafficked, even notoriously gridlocked Garfield.

We arrived on time for our 10:30 dim sum date with the GLU fellas. Being rather indifferent to dim sum in general, I can happily report that I thoroughly enjoyed my meal on Saturday. I gorged myself on everything--even chicken feet. I left the table thoroughly full. Afterwards Sameer was on a mission to cap off the meal with some dan taat, which weren't able to get at New Capital. No problem. We just went downstairs to a Chinese bakery and ordered three different kinds. The Portuguese-style was the best.

By the time Sameer and I hopped back on our bikes it had started to sprinkle lightly, but not bad enough to prevent us from going to our next destination: Galco's in Highland Park.

Oh, Galco's! I've been wanting to visit for a while now, and now that I have I will definitely come back over and over again. I don't even drink soda! Since I hadn't had my daily cup of coffee yet, I bought an espresso coffee cola, which basically tasted like iced coffee with some carbonation. I also bought a root beer, a dandelion and burdock soda, cream soda, and a pear soda. They are all chilling in my refrigerator.

Post-Galco's we biked back to South Pasadena to drop by FJ's house. He finally got to meet Sameer and we talked for a bit before we cycled back to the Gold Line station.

After a quick clean up, we hopped back on Metro and headed down to Long Beach on a mission to eat Cambodian food and maybe watch a movie, time permitting. Time didn't permit for the movie, but we did have some tasty Cambodian cuisine. The restaurant we were going to check out turned out to be closed for a wedding reception. We were told there was another restaurant a couple of blocks down. Sure enough that restaurant also was hosting a wedding reception. We went inside a market and asked the proprietors if they knew of any other restaurants. They scoffed at first, but the older lady did point us to a couple of restaurants in the other direction of Anaheim Street. Just four blocks down, we settled on New Paradise.

Without going into much detail, dinner was good and we were treated to some line dancing by other diners and musical performances. Afterwards, we got some after dinner coffee at the Library. After a long day, I got back home at 11:30 in time to catch "Saturday Night Live."

Sunday was slower-paced but still fun. I got up early and went for a 10 mile run with Katie. Great weather and we made great time, finishing the run in 1hr, 34 min. I went to hang out with my family before my parents left for the Philippines this Wednesday. This entailed more eating. We love shabu shabu, which became my only meal for the day. I ate so much, that there really wasn't room for anything else.

To close out the weekend, I went to see Liz Phair perform Exile in Guyville at the Troubadour with FJ and his friend Dave. Good, solid show. Liz didn't do much with the songs, no reinvention, but it was fine. She sounded great, too, which was a relief.

So, there you go. My favorite weekend: lots of eating, a concert, running, cycling and great company. What more could a guy want?

09.21.2008: 15.3 Miles

Distance: 15.3 miles
Time: 2:29

It's no big miracle that FJ and I survived today's run. Between the two of us we either fell or rolled our ankles five times. It's been a few hours since and I'm glad I'm not too sore at all. I guess FJ and I just weren't used to the terrain beyond the Elmer Smith bridge. I slipped while crossing a small creek and rolled my right ankle as we approached another creek on the way back. FJ rolled his ankle a couple of times too. Thankfully none of our mishaps were too serious.

Apart from that, it was a good run. I really didn't feel like doing 15 miles at the beginning, but by the time we were wrapping it up we both felt strong enough to do another three miles. We both whined with about a mile and a half left but ultimately finished strong.

Hopefully this week I can get in more runs. I ran twice last week and the goal this week is three weeknight runs. These runs will be important in case I'm not able to run this coming weekend. I'm helping my parents move and this may prevent me from running.

With about two months before the San Antonio Rock N' Roll Marathon, I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'm not in the shape I want to be yet, but I'm at least off my ass and running.

Getting Older All the Time

On Monday I turned 32, which--to me--sounds old. 32. It's no longer the cusp--I'm well in to my 30's, but ask any thirtysomething and they'll tell you they don't feel their age. What is 32 supposed to feel like anyway?

Instead of getting older I seem mired in immaturity. I'm not settled down, although I am seeing someone great at the moment. No marriage any time soon, nor kids. Not for a long time.

Much of the reason I don't feel 32 is that I'm far from settled into a career. I'm still making a pittance compared to what bankers my age (at least until Monday) are making. I live in a studio apartment and I'm continuously counting pennies. I suppose I'm not alone in this boat, but when I was younger, I always thought 30 was an age where everything has been figured out and life was just a matter of getting up every day. Thankfully that's not the case. I get up and wonder what new adventure awaits me. There's something disappointing about not figuring everything out by now, but at the same time the possibilities and opportunities that open up are thrilling. Eventually I'll feel like an old man. Heck, I'm already being treated like one. I cringe whenever anyone calls me "sir," but I'm also delighted that some people out there don't realize I'm 32. Most think I'm younger. Yay!

As for my celebration this year, it was low-key. The date just snuck up on me, and I couldn't come up with something fun to do that was also easy to plan. I hate planning big events, so I settled on a casual soul food dinner at Larkin's in Eagle Rock. I had a great time and enjoyed the company and the food. I hope everyone did too.

I am also happy to say that my 33rd year is off to a great start.

Raul Hasn't Been Running

Raul has been a lazy runner the last few weeks. I did run the San Francisco Half Marathon but with very minimal training, and I have been running with FJ, Andy and Katie on the weekends. This past weekend we ran 7 on Saturday and another 6 on Sunday, but even then my lack of training was evident. Those short runs wore me out. At the end of the Sunday run, Katie still had plenty of energy and I could barely keep up with her at the finish. In any event, I was hoping I would jump start my training this week. So far I've been unsuccessful.

In November I will be running a full marathon in San Antonio. I've been underperforming all year. No personal bests this year. I don't know what the conditions in San Antonio will be, but I am going to shoot for a 3:45. To do so, I will need to start putting in more miles and pushing my pace. With about 2.5 months left, I may have enough time to do so. I figure Mondays and Thursdays are good nights for running. I can probably squeeze in a short run either on Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully cooler weather will soon be upon us so I can't use the heat as an excuse. Knowing me, though, I'd likely use cold weather as an excuse too.

I, herefore, commit myself to training for the Inaugural San Antonio Rock N' Roll Marathon!

Race Report: 08.03.2008 - San Francisco Half Marathon

Distance: 13.1 miles
Time: 1:59:54
Pace: 9:09/mile
Place: 1578/6697
Men: 1067/2994
30-39: 395/1091

This marks my slowest half marathon ever. I figured I would have a hard time trying to run a personal best considering the lack of quality training, so I decided to take it easy and enjoy the run. I paced myself at around 9 minutes per mile. I brought my camera along to document the run, so I stopped often to snap a picture of the view, mostly the Golden Gate Bridge. I got some great shots but it made for a slow run.

The first half of the marathon traces a similar route as the Nike Women's Marathon. We started at the Embarcadero on Mission and ran along it up to the Presidio. It's a demanding course, lots of hills, and when on the bridge, strong wind gusts. Overall it was a fun run. The worst part was when I finished. I did not pack properly and neglected to pack a sweater. All I had was a thin windbreaker which was not enough to keep off the cold while I waited for Audrey to finish. Audrey finished in three hours, but with the staggered start, I was actually waiting for almost two hours. It gets cold, and I was hungry.

San Francisco is definitely a great place to run. I'm not enthused by the 5:30AM start time, but I suppose it's good that you finish early and can nap the rest of the day. I would consider doing the race again, maybe even the full.

In any event, here are samples of the pictures I snapped during the run. For the rest, check out my Flickr.


4 in the morning. Getting ready for the race.


Embarcadero before the start.


Approaching the Bridge.


View of runners on the Bridge from the vista point on the Marin County side.


Running on the Bridge.


Enjoying the view after the run.