05.11.2009 - 10.3 Miles

I let my inherent laziness have the best of me yesterday by opting to sleep in until 11 am instead of running. Feeling guilty, I punished myself today by getting up at 6am to go for a 10.3 mile run. The route map can be found here. I basically ran from my front door to Wilshire to La Cienega. I headed north on La Cienega and turned east on Beverly. La Cienega and Beverly marked the 5 mile mark. From there, I took the usual route back home by turning south on Larchmont, east on 4th, then back on Western to Oxford. I completed the route in about 1:32, which was faster than I expected. I wasn't feeling all that great in the beginning, nor did I feel all that great the rest of the run. It just goes to show you never know. I didn't take any scheduled walk breaks apart from stop lights, which were fewer than expected.

I'm not going to make a habit of running early on weekday mornings, but it's not a bad way to start the day.

One Ragnar-ly 24 Hour Relay

Almost five years into my running "career," the thrill and excitement of a race has diminished. There really is nothing to match your first marathon in terms of joy and pain. Not to say that I don't enjoy running races now, but just that it no longer has the cachet it once had.

However, this past weekend I participated in a race that reminded me of the crazy entertainment value running can have. Ten brave souls from different orbits of my running circle participated in the first ever Ragnar Relay Los Angeles, a 178 mile relay from Santa Barbara to Dana Point. A great time was had by all. Not only that, but we also wound up doing well. Our team, Relay Relay Ridiculously Good Looking, finished 19th out of 105 teams and finished third in the "Open-Mixed" division. We crossed the finish line in 20 hours, 22 minutes.

Unfortunately the race wasn't exactly 178 miles. At the last minute seven legs had to be cancelled because of permit issues. It didn't affect my legs, but the runners in Van 1 had to reshuffle. It didn't detract from our enjoyment, though.

I was runner #7, the first runner in the second van. I actually had the ideal legs. My first two legs were the longest of the whole group until the last six legs. I ran 7.7 miles for the first and 7 miles for the second. Then for my last leg I ran a quick 2.8 miles along the Huntington Beach bike path. Basically I got to finish easy. Andy and Katie weren't so lucky. Andy had to run a hard 10.2 miles in Huntington Beach for his last leg and Katie had the unenviable task of running uphill for over 8 miles along the 133 highway leading to Laguna Beach in the middle of the day. They both rocked it, though.

As for me, I did better than I thought. I ran my legs fairly fast considering I hadn't jump started my training until three weeks before. I ran the first two legs at a surprising 8 minute pace. I thought I'd be lucky to run a 9 minute pace for both. The last leg was accomplished at a respectable 7:10/mile pace, which is comparable to my previous 5K paces--and this was done after having already run 14.7 miles in the last day and barely getting any sleep.

I had a terrific time riding down south, cheering friends on and checking out the gorgeous ocean views. We couldn't have asked for better weather too. I was on such a high the whole weekend. When I finally got home on Saturday night I crashed and slept for almost 12 hours. I'm already looking forward to doing this race in the future.

Adventures in Metroland

Civic Center Metro Station ..., originally uploaded by Simon Shek.

I've been riding Metro regularly for almost a year now. I moved to Koreatown in June and started taking Metro to work and other places then. In that time I've ridden all hours of the day--early, midday, night, late night--and nothing exciting happened. I'd hop in the train or bus and sit quietly until I got to my destination. Every ride had been uneventful, save for the smelly homeless person or the self-talker.

Then there was today.

Wednesday usually means trivia night, but tonight I skipped trivia and took Metro to Pasadena to have dinner at Houston's with the family. I squeezed myself into a Union Station-bound train and took a spot in the aisle towards one end of the car. No sooner had the train started towards Civic Center when I heard a familiar, retching sound followed by a splash. The space that quickly opened up in the crowded train and the gasps confirmed the disgusting event. A passenger had thrown up. It was easy to spot the culprit as he stood there alone, pale-faced by the door, wiping his mouth with his sleeves. As anyone who has thrown up can attest, you don't just vomit once. Sure enough, more vomit from the poor guy. Everywhere you looked was a disgusted face. Some passengers covered their nose and mouth with the books they were reading, and others declared that they were getting off.

I understand that being in close proximity to vomit isn't desirable, but do people really need to make the poor guy feel even worse? It's easy for me to act all high and mighty when I wasn't the one whose shoes got splattered with vomit juice, but I felt bad for the guy. I doubt he wanted to throw up in a crowded, shaky train. It just happened. When we finally made it to Union Station I asked the guy if he was OK. He just shook his head and ducked out of the train.

On the ride back home after dinner, I became fascinated by one of my fellow passengers. The guy was dressed like he had just come from a round of golf. He read the sports section with the aid of a pair of broken glasses, missing one of the temples, which he had to hold up to his eyes to use. What made it more interesting was that they were women's glasses. When he tilted his head I saw the glasses were embellished with florets at the corner.

I was studying the guy when something caught my eye in the car in front of us. A woman was pressing the emergency button over and over again. An African-American man moves towards her and a guy in a red soccer polo jumps in between them. The woman keeps frantically pressing the emergency call button and the two men appear to be struggling. The guy in the red keeps pushing the other guy away, away from the woman. It looked like they were grasping each other's hands and were engaged in a wrestling match. The guy gets away from the guy in the red and lunges towards the frightened woman, who backs towards the middle of the car. The guy in the red keeps pushing. As we're approaching Wilshire/Vermont the African-American passenger goes through the doors that lead to our car. I got scared. What was going to happen? The guy in the soccer polo follows him and yells something about a guy in a gray sweater and that the police had been called. When they made it to our car I noticed that the African-American guy had a cut on his forehead. When the doors opened at Wilshire/Vermont, the guy with the cut exits, followed by the guy in the soccer polo who continued to yell something about the police. I'm not sure if the guy got that cut during the altercation or if he had that when he boarded. He looked strung out, so it's possible that he wasn't completely there.

After a while I couldn't hear them. The doors closed and we headed towards Wilshire/Normandie.

Vomit and violence. Don't it make you want to go Metro?

Oscar Predictions

It's an hour until the show. I just wanted to get my predictions on the record.

MOTION PICTURE:
Slumdog Millionaire, Christian Colson

DIRECTING:
Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
WALL-E, Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon & Pete Docter

LEAD ACTOR:
Sean Penn in Milk

LEAD ACTRESS:
Kate Winslet in The Reader

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona

ANIMATED FEATURE:
WALL-E, Andrew Stanton

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Man on Wire, James Marsh & Simon Chinn

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
The Class, France

ART DIRECTION:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Donald Graham Burt & Victor J. Zolfo

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Slumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod Mantle

COSTUME DESIGN:
The Duchess, Michael O’Connor

FILM EDITING:
Slumdog Millionaire, Chris Dickens

MAKEUP:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Greg Cannom

ORIGINAL SCORE:
WALL-E, Thomas Newman

ORIGINAL SONG
"Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman & Gulzar

SOUND EDITING:
Slumdog Millionaire, Glenn Freemantle & Tom Sayers

SOUND MIXING:
WALL-E, Tom Myers, Michael Semanick & Ben Burtt

VISUAL EFFECTS:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton & Craig Barron

ANIMATED SHORT:
“Presto”, Doug Sweetland

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
“The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306”, Adam Pertofsky & Margaret Hyde

LIVE ACTION SHORT:
“Manon on the Asphalt”, Elizabeth Marre & Olivier Pont

First Post of 2009

We're into the second month of 2009 and I'm finally posting my first entry for the year. And what finally prompted me to post?

KCRW--or rather the winners of the daily giveaways. For the most part I enjoy hearing the phone call between Matt Holzman and the winner, but lately I've found it aggravating. It seems like all the winners I've heard during this pledge drive are first time subscribers. They're giving for the first time and winning a laptop right off the bat! I've been giving for five years now and haven't won. What am I doing wrong? Now I know what Kate Winslet must feel like.

My membership won't expire until August, so I'm holding off until then to give. I better win something, Matt Holzman, or I'll stop renewing.

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!

View Larger Map

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.