9.8 Miles

After pigging out all weekend in Las Vegas, I desperately needed to burn off some calories. Serendipity 3 was great, but with chicken and bacon waffles and a frozen hot chocolate in my system, I probably consumed enough fat and sugar to last me a week. I was thinking I'd be good for a run when I got back last night, but all I wanted to do when I did get home was to put on my pj's and watch a movie.

So tonight I went for a long run. 9.8 miles. I ran from my place and ran west on Wilshire, headed north on Fairfax, turned east at Melrose and south on La Brea before heading back to my place by running east on Fourth Street. Having not run since Thursday, I was well-rested and had a pretty good run. I felt good for most of the run save for a little tightness in my left hamstring and slightly rolling my ankle running down Fourth Street. I blame that on the darkness and the terrible condition of the street at Hauser. Luckily no harm done.

With about six weeks left until the marathon I really need to be stricter about my training. This week I'll hopefully run a couple more times culminating in a 16 miler this weekend.

52 Films in 52 Weeks: You Can't Take It With You

Sadly, I've already fallen behind on my mission of watching 52 Oscar movies in 52 weeks. I'd say I'm about three weeks behind. I actually watched "You Can't Take It With You" a couple of weeks ago but never got around to posting my thoughts on it. In short, it's an entertaining movie that hasn't aged well--it was enjoyable and had very charming performances from the entire cast. What I enjoyed most was seeing Lionel Barrymore in essentially the polar opposite role he took on in "It's a Wonderful Life." Here he doesn't care about money, and in the later film that's all he cares about--and both films had the same message: no man is failure who has friends.

"You Can't Take It With You" is too slight and trifling, but worst of all, it drags and just didn't seem to want to end. It could have taken a more sprightly pace. However, if anyone's interested in remaking a best picture winner today, they should start with this one. I think it can be updated easily and effectively.

It makes me wonder how this year's Oscar nominees will fare years from now. Speaking of Oscars, I've somehow managed the feat of having seen all ten best picture nominees, practically all of them in theaters by paying real dollars! "The Blind Side" was the only one I saw via a borrowed screener. I've also seen a couple of others via screener. "The Lovely Bones" was a sad failure. I haven't read the book, but it seemed that Peter Jackson was too faithful and reverential. The "in-between" sequences were just too much, and by film's end I was rolling my eyes. Very disappointing.

Tonight I watched "A Single Man." I quite liked it, if a bit over-stylized. Still, its a very evocative and effective story of a gay man mourning the death of his longtime partner. This is an impressive debut from Tom Ford, focused and assured. The big surprise is how well he plumbs the depths of sadness and sorrow beyond just a shallow depiction. I guess it was a bit unfair of me to expect that Tom Ford would be unable to fashion something as substantial as this. It's a stylish and stylized film, yes, but it also has emotional heft beneath the film's gorgeous visuals. The film does wallow in its poetic depiction of sorrow a little too much. The film wears grief like a plush robe and never takes it off even for a moment. It could have used a change in emotional wardrobe now and then.

The performances are terrific. Colin Firth embodies grief and heartbreak beautifully and it's always a delight to see Julianne Moore. Nicholas Hoult is weirdly beguiling as an aggressively seductive student. He doesn't seem to be seducing Firth's character as much as he is pouncing on him, but Hoult and Firth have some nice moments near the end upon which the film's climax crucially depends. Matthew Goode was the one that impressed me the most. In the role of the dead lover, Goode has a character that in most films like it would essentially be hollow and beatific, but in his few scenes, Goode imbues the character with beauty and warmth. The film's best scenes involve Goode. First as he and Firth lounge at home reading, and second, the flashback to their meeting--the film's best moment. In these scenes we come to fathom the depth of George's grief. He has not only lost a lover but also the source of life's bliss and, to quote W.H. Auden, nothing now can ever come to any good. "A Single Man" really struck a chord, not just as a gay man. I think its story of loss and grief is universal and one that anyone can empathize.

I'm still doing a terrible job of updating this blog. Suffice it to say, I've actually run more than my posts the last few weeks suggest, but it's also true that I really ought to be running more. Due to a turn of events, though, I probably will have more time for both running and blogging now, and as I've been doing a lot of thinking lately it will probably be good for me to do both. We shall wait and see how well I do.

52 Films in 52 Weeks: Casablanca

I frequent a pop culture discussion board and some of the participants have been doing a project called "52 Films in 52 Weeks" the last few years. The idea is to list 52 movies to watch during the year. Some list films they've been meaning to watch but never got around, some list films by decade or by year, some by director. I've never participated before, so this will be my first year. For my theme I am going with best picture winners I haven't seen or barely remember watching. That only took me to 45 movies, though, so I chose seven wild card movies, classic best picture nominees. I kicked off the series last night by watching Casablanca, which I owned. I picked it up at Virgin Records' clearance sale as it was about to shut down. I've had it for a year and just never got around to watching it.

With a lot of things--movies, books, albums--that have stellar reputations, approaching them can be a bit of a disappointment. Catcher in the Rye, for example, just couldn't match the breathless adoration people had for it. It probably didn't help that I read it after college, way past the ideal age for the novel to matter. Casablanca is an undisputed classic. As Roger Ebert says, no one has said one critical thing about it. It's a film even those who hate black and white movies fall in love with. Frankly, he's right.

Casablanca lives up to its reputation. The dialogue crackles, the performances are perfect, and the story captivates. It's unabashedly romantic but moreso because it's more complex, suggesting that love isn't just about getting the girl in the end, that sometimes letting her go is an even more truer expression of love. The film's love triangle between Humphrey Bogart's Rick, Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa, and Paul Henreid's Victor works because it is not uneven. Where most film love triangles are of the scalene variety, Casablanca's is refreshingly equilateral. Victor is a noble and worthy combatant for Ilsa's heart. The film tilts in favor of Rick and Ilsa on the passion meter, but it also wisely avoids painting Victor as unworthy of Ilsa's affection. If anything, we might wonder if Ilsa is worthy of Victor's love. Isn't it also interesting that the film seems to advocate for polyamory? The film does not judge Ilsa at all and justifies her love for two men at the same time. When was the last time you saw a movie that depicted polyamory as valid?

Watching Casablanca was a great way to kick off the series. I doubt, though, that they will all be as good. In fact I'm dreading quite a few of them. I've heard nothing good about Cecil B. DeMille's Greatest Show on Earth. One down, 51 more to go. Imagine, if all goes well, in a year I can say that I've seen almost all the best picture winners (I may miss some due to availability).

2009: The Year in Running

2009 wasn't the most eventful year in running for me, but it was still enjoyable. I think it was the year when running became a hobby and not so much a focused exercise. In a way I began to take running for granted. My workouts became less frequent and I was easily persuaded to skip runs, which sadly manifested into an expanded waistline. Part of the problem was that I didn't renew my gym membership. When I used to go to the gym I would go right after work. I'd do weights and run. Now I go home straightaway, which makes it so easy to get lazy. There's something about being at home that makes me just want to slink into a chair and not move. It may be home, sweet home, but to me it's also the place you go to get fat.

In 2009 I only ran one marathon: the Inaugural Seattle Rock n' Roll Marathon in June. In terms of training for the race, it was one of my least trained marathons. Still I managed to run my second fastest marathon at 3:53:24, but then again I fainted an hour after the race too. Not so good. To put things in perspective, I ran my fastest marathon, a 3:49 effort at San Diego, in May 2007. It has been over two years. I really ought to be improving every year, but instead I'm at a plateau. I'm glad I haven't gotten too slow and running sub four hour marathons is certainly a good showing, but I should be pushing to improve. Other than the marathon in Seattle I also ran a half marathon in Las Vegas last month, but that wasn't much of an effort. I treated it like a training run and wound up running just over two hours--the slowest half marathon I've ever run at over two hours. I've never run a half marathon more than two hours!

The only other run worth noting was the Ragnar relay. I don't know my splits exactly, but our team rocked and finished third in our division. But more importantly it was a blast. We're planning to do it again this April.

For 2010 the only race on the docket so far is the new (and improved?) Los Angeles Marathon. I'm hoping to finish under 3:45 for this race but so far my training has been haphazard. Fortunately the race isn't until late March, so I have some time to put in some quality running. I have to start now, though. I'll consider doing another race in the fall. Maybe I'll submit my name to NYC or Portland. There's also the Inaugural Los Angeles Rock n' Roll Half Marathon in October. Maybe I can finally post a sub-1:40 half marathon at that race.

So, here's to a good running year in 2010. 2009 wasn't bad, but I was definitely disappointed in my self for not putting in more of an effort. Gotta stop being lazy about running from now on. I'll start on that tomorrow.

Raul is Running Again

Time for a reboot. After four months of silence I'm hoping to get back in the swing of blogging again. And so I announce that I have signed up for the 2010 Los Angeles Marathon and managed to get almost all my running buddies to register as well. The course will certainly be the most scenic yet and it might be easier too with a downhill finish, but still there are inclines in the middle of the course. They don't call it Beverly HILLS for nothing.

Training "officially" started with a 6 mile run this past Sunday. This Saturday I'll be walking 13.5 miles along Adams and Washington Boulevards as part of the Great L.A. Walk. Even with that scheduled I still plan to run 8 miles this Sunday. We'll see how I feel, though. If it's anything like last year's Walk then I'll be mighty sore.

Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon Splits

Who knows when I'll have a chance to post a full race report about the Inaugural Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon? The race turned out a little better than I expected as I posted my second best marathon time, beating my 2007 Los Angeles Marathon time by about a minute. My chip time was 3:53:24. I hadn't trained very well for this race, but I did get in a substantial amount of miles, including a 20 miler three weeks before the race. The quality of my workouts probably left a lot to be desired.

The pace looks to have been pretty even. I wish I had managed a negative split, but it looks like I slowed down slightly in the second half. It was a beautiful course but also a tough one. Rolling hills. All in all, though, it was quite a race. I'd definitely consider doing this again if only to have another opportunity to visit Seattle.

06.11.2009 - 10 Miles (Running to Father's Office)

Since I was unlikely to get a long run in this weekend, I opted to run 10 miles tonight. To reward myself for my effort, a pot of gold in the form of burger and fries was in store for me at the finish. I mapped out a 10 mile route that started from my front door and ended at Father's Office in Culver City. I took Wilshire to La Brea to Beverly to La Cienega to Third to Fairfax to Venice. It turned out to be an easy route since more than half of it was downhill. I didn't set my chrono, but by my estimate I ran it in about an hour and a half.

Father's Office was crowded but there was no line to get in. The Laker game was on, so it was quite loud, but the game soon ended and things calmed down. Kevin met me at the restaurant. We're both Father's Office virgins, so we didn't realize that the table situation there is every-person-for-him-and-herself. The place was packed, but there were some tables that could accommodate more people, so we just had to step out of our comfort zone and deign to share a table with strangers.

The burger was pretty good. It's a sweet-tasting, juicy burger. The meat flavor isn't quite there. When I eat a burger I want to taste meat, but this one had a more subtle flavor. I liked the bun they used, which looked more like a roll. Even better were the sweet potato fries. All in all quite rewarding after a good run.

06.07.2009 - 21 Miles

What a difference a week makes. Last week's 18 miler was tough, but in comparison this weekend's 20 miler felt almost easy. I encountered no problems except for an annoying coughing jag in the early miles. By the time I got up to Devil's Gate Dam, though, it felt like I was just starting. I decided to run past Elmer for 10 minutes, which probably meant I went farther than a mile. Weather was great, too. I couldn't have asked for a better run. At the finish I felt like I could go a couple miles longer, but I didn't.

So far this week I've run twice, a 5.75 mile, door-to-door run, and a 5.5 mile run to the GLU meeting last night. Both weren't great runs. Last night was particularly troublesome with my coughing and the sidewalks really do a number on my shins. My legs are more sore now than they were after running 20.

05.30.2009: 18.2 Miles

I met up with Rob to run 18 miles since we're both running Seattle. I had a bout of the cold a couple of days before, so I was worried about congestion and having not run all week. Still I forged ahead and the running actually seemed to improve my breathing. I still had a few coughing jags but nothing too bad.

The run, though, turned out to be a slog. Both Rob and I struggled. I started cramping with about two miles left but we still managed to finish in three hours. I can't blame the weather since it was perfect--overcast and cool. My lack of running and the illness probably didn't help, but I also didn't think they were major factors. It was just one of those days. I'm hoping the 20 miler will be better. The weather will be just like last weekend. I'm still trying to work out the phlegm and such that seems to take forever to clear but it shouldn't be a problem on Saturday.

05.16.2009 - 14+ Miles

It's amazing how quickly things deteriorate when you're running. One minute you're feeling great, thinking you can keep running forever, then the next you just want to fold up and die in a corner. Somewhere around the eleventh mile with Sonia my will to run quickly depleted. I still finished but I sure didn't like it.

FJ and Yoshi joined us for the first six miles. We ran up the northside to JPL and back. We took a short pit stop back at Lot K to chat with Kiley and to say farewell to FJ. Sonia and I continued on and I felt great all the way to the end of the southside by the 110 freeway. Running along the golf course my legs began to feel tired, but that's a normal by-product of running. It also wasn't incredibly hot, so I figured we'd complete the run with little to no problems. As we headed back along the arroyo I began to feel sluggish. I could have used a Clif Shot then, but I didn't bring one with me. The walk breaks couldn't come soon enough. I hesitated whining about wanting to take a walk break since I was running with Sonia, who is one badass runner. Thankfully she brought up the topic as I was just mulling it in my head. She too was tired. All of a sudden it seemed as if the temperature skyrocketed and all the exhaustion I had been keeping at bay for the last 10 miles all came at once. We still maintained a good pace but I focused on my breathing, trying to control it by taking deep breaths and exhaling slowly and completely. It helped but the heat was still getting to me. I thought we could manage without another walk break, but when the watch beeped with about 3/4 of a mile left I gladly took one last walk break. I was feeling light-headed and I was just worried that if I didn't take the walk break I'd faint or shit myself. When we finished I was glad I didn't have to take another step. I was relieved.

Mainly I think when the haze burned off and we were exposed to the sun, our energy was sapped by the heat. I should have packed a Clif Shot and hydrated a little more. With about three weeks left before I taper, I need to do at least 16 miles this coming weekend, 18 the folllowing weekend, and then 20 on the first weekend of June. I also need to run more regularly during the week. Also, watch the eating.