in other news

I was minding my own business, sitting on my bike at an intersection in Santa Monica waiting for the light to change when I heard a "Hey, brother!" from my left and turned to see a middle-aged black guy approaching. I did one of those raised eyebrows "you talking to me?" looks behind me but, no, he seemed to be talking to me. "Say, say, say..." he was calling as he walked straight up to me. He had long-ish greying hair, and was dressed in a style one might call eclectic - lots of interesting layers with a t-shirt that said something funny on it that I can't remember. He had one of those bluetooth things in his ear - the handy signifier of 'not crazy-on the phone' that you look for when you see someone walking along talking to themselves. But this guy wasn't talking to himself, he appeared to be talking directly to me. "Say!", he said when he got up next to me. "Who was that gal that, uhh, played June Carter, you know, with Joaquin Phoenix in, in that movie, you know?" Reese Witherspoon, I said, happy that I hadn't caved under the pressure. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! That's the one! Thanks, bro'!" And off he went, apparently satisfied.

In other news, I ran the entire length of the 22 mile Marvin Braude Bike Trail last Saturday. I started at the north end, thinking how nice it would be to enjoy a gentle tailwind for 3+ hours. However, Mother Nature, always the sadist, was gently blowing from the south that day, the only time I've ever seen that happen. It wasn't much; just enough to continually remind me how much I loathe the wind. I didn't let it slow me down much, though, and finished in 3:06:13, almost 3 minutes ahead of schedule. 3 minutes sounds like a lot but at that distance it's less than 10 seconds per mile. One thought I'm sure I'll keep in my head on race day will be the old adage: "that shit adds up".
























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