Author Archives: Scott D.
“MARATHON ADJACENT”
This run is brought to you by the numbers “2” & “3.”
Tomorrow morning I’ve got a long run to do. A very long run. 23-miles to be exact or about 88% of a marathon.
But this isn’t your ordinary 23-mile run. Rather, it’s a celebration.
Back in October, I started training for the 2014 Los Angeles Marathon with my running group Team to End AIDS (T2). For 5 months now we’ve been meeting up every Saturday (rain or shine) at Griffith Park to pound pavement together and raise money for APLA (AIDS Project Los Angeles). To date, our merry band of marathoners has raised over $130,000 to help those people in LA whose lives are impacted by HIV/AIDS.
And on Saturday we celebrate with our longest run of the season. Starting at 6am, we’ll spend the next 5 or so hours running through Griffith Park and along the streets of Burbank, Glendale and Toluca Lake.
THE “EX-FACTOR”…
Splitsville…population, you.
Valentine’s Day is this week, that wonderful day when we thank the special someone in our lives (and Hallmark, Godiva chocolates and florists nationwide make out like bandits). And for us avid runners, that means our appreciation for that significant other who supports our sport or pounds the pavement right alongside us.
Well, this year I’d like to give thanks to a forgotten group of people… or should I say those people we’d like to forget… the “exes.” These are those previously exceptional people whose appeal wore off over time to the point where we scratched our heads while wondering, “What the hell was I thinking.”
FAST FACT: “IN GOOD COMPANY”
Here’s my latest fast fact.*
Run on!
*NOTE: Statistics on this number vary from .1% up to 2% depending on the source.
CERTIFICATE OF PARTICIPATION…
Remember back in grade school when you’d receive a “certificate of participation” for finishing just about anything? Whether it was completing a science project, reading a certain number of books or just having good attendance, a certificate (featuring cool borders, formal sounding language and your name displayed in pretty text) made it seem “official.”
RUNNING NUGGET: SAVED FROM SWEAT…
A dab will do ya.
Famed football coach Lou Holtz was quoted as saying that “no one has ever drowned in sweat.” Although I think I’ve come close. You see when I exercise I’m a bit of a sweater… okay, calling me a bit of a sweater is like calling the shark from Jaws a “bit of a fish.”
After a race or a training run I look like I just jumped into a pool with my clothes on. My buddies have joked that sweat is “fat crying.” If that’s the case, when I run it seems like my fat is having a full-on nervous breakdown.
T-MINUS: 1 MONTH & COUNTING…
2010 LA Marathon- I survived.
Today’s date, February 9th, 2014, is exactly one month until the Los Angeles Marathon. In just 28 days I’ll be pounding the pavement with 25,000 other leggers on the “stadium to the sea” course.
And I’m a little nervous.
Last week I ran my 25th half marathon (Surf City) and posted my best race time ever. While 13.1 miles is certainly nothing to sneeze at, I feel confident in my abilities when it comes to completing the half marathon. At this point, I’m working on increasing my pace in the hopes of breaking the 2-hour mark sometime this year. The half marathon doesn’t scare me anymore like it did the first time I laced up my shoes.
Not so with the marathon.
WEAR IT AND BE GRATEFUL…
Last month I wrote about a tragic event, where Meg Cross Menzies was hit and killed by a drunk driver while she was on her morning training run.
It was something that rocked the running community. Out of extreme sorrow, however, came unity as runners everywhere (over 36,000) dedicated their runs to her memory…and they keep running. I don’t know how many miles they’ve tallied so far (well over 100,000) but the number keeps climbing. I hope it never stops.
In addition to the dedication of their miles, runners have also done their part to help Meg’s family by purchasing shirts in her memory.
Mine came last night and I’m honored to wear it.
For Meg… run on!
For Meg…
WARNING SIGNS OF A HAPPILY OBSESSED RUNNER…
WARNING SIGN #4348
“NAME THAT TUNE”
When you hear a brand new song, the first thought that goes through your mind isn’t “Hey, great melody” or “Cool lyrics.”
Instead, you think to yourself, “Would I want this on my running mix”?
Run on!
Play that funky music.
FAST FACTS: MARATHON VS. THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY
So, here’s a new feature, I’m adding to Tripping The Kenyans… the “Fast Fact.”
These are little tidbits and trivia about all things running.
Run on!
Marathon vs. Cheesecake Factory
RUNNING NUGGET: THE FORBIDDEN SHIRT
Hope you’ve got the right shirt on.
This past Sunday almost 20,000 runners tore it up along Pacific Coast Highway as they ran the Surf City Half & Full Marathon. And I couldn’t help but notice as I motored along with my running brothers and sisters that literally thousands of them were committing a huge fashion faux pas.
They were wearing the 2014 Surf City Marathon tech shirts given to them for the race.
That’s a no-no!
Now, the Surf City shirts were pretty sweet this year… yellow for the guys and pink for the ladies. That said, those are the only two shirts in the world that should NOT have been worn during the race.
You may think I’m crazy and wondering “Why shouldn’t someone wear the shirt given to them specifically for that race?”
Because.
RACE REVIEW: SURF CITY HALF MARATHON (2/2/14)
Surf Bling!
It’s Super Bowl Sunday football fans and you know what that means… yup, time to race. As part of another annual tradition, The Surf City Marathon and Half Marathon kicked off another chapter of their seaside scramble. And unlike the blowout “big game” between Seattle and Denver yesterday, the Surf City Marathon and Half Marathon was an exciting time from start to finish. Around 18,000 runners (2332 Marathon finishers/ 15447 Half Marathon finishers) lined up yesterday along PCH at Sunrise in preparation for the race and to gain a 2,000 calorie deficit before heading off to their respective SB parties. Let the game begin…
Read the rest of this entry
THE SURF CITY EXPERIENCE: “POST MORTEM”
I came, I saw, I surfed.
The race is run and the day is done.
Surf City was the site of my very first half marathon back in ‘09 and today’s race was my 25th half marathon overall. It seemed fitting that I ran my silver anniversary race back where it all began.
I had a good run, going out with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. One of my goals is always to run a “negative split” (second half faster than my first half). It turned out that both halves ended up being equal. I think I was slowed a little bit in the second half by the headwinds that kicked up in the last five miles and a bunching of runners near the end. I also went out of the starting gate a wee too fast, burning up my energy a little too rapidly early on and thus preventing me from quickening my pace in the last few miles.
Still, a great race and a helluva lot of fun. Can’t wait to run it again in 2015.
CHIP TIME: 2:06:33 (New PR)
PACE: 9:40 min/mile
PLACE: 4761 out of 15,447
And now it is time to sleep.
Good night… and run on!
THE SURF CITY EXPERIENCE: “THE MORNING”
Cowabunga!
Race morning. Up at 3:30am.
Number of runners for The Surf City Half Marathon and Full Marathon: Approximately 20,000
Temperature at the start: Approximately 46 degrees
First Song on My Running Mix: “I Can’t Stop Loving You”- Van Halen
Let’s do this.
Run on!
THE SURF CITY EXPERIENCE: “THE CALM BEFORE…”
The night before the race.
Always a fun (and OCD filled) time for me as I check, double check and triple check my stuff in preparation for tomorrow. I sit at the desk, look over the course and plan my race strategy.
Sit & Think
Of course it’s always a little different being on the road and tonight I’m lounging out at the Double Tree Club Hotel. I live close enough to Surf City (about 50 miles away) that I could have driven down in the morning (early early in the morning, mind you).
But given the parking/traffic headache (20,000 people cramming into this oceanside town) coupled with the 405 freeway being shut down overnight in Orange County (detour, anyone), I decided to pony up for a room, get an extra hour of sleep and use the hotel shuttle to get me to and form the start line. All good.
Tripping The Kenyans 