and you may ask yourself, well... how did I get here?

I started running almost exactly one year ago today. I remember that first one - it was cold, dark, and drizzling. I made it to my turnaround point a whopping mile and a half out, paused for a good two minutes while my heartrate slowly backed off the redline and fought to catch my breath, then slogged the return mile and a half, soaked with sweat and rain, exhausted. I've literally come a long way since then having logged some 469 miles since I started keeping track in late August.

Despite the usual complaining tone of my previous running-related blog entries what I remember most about the last 12 months of training is not the pain and the hellish wind or the eventual realization that running is at least a 75% mental effort but rather the beautiful things I saw along the way. It's hard to imagine a more picturesque place to run than the bike path along Santa Monica beach and beyond. Whether it's raining and desolate, blazing with the midday sun, displaying another jaw-dropping sunset, or giving me a shadow to chase with a big full moon, the beach is a magical place. I'll never get tired of it and I'll never take it for granted.

Here it is, January 13th, and we're currently enjoying probably the best weather we'll get all year long. There's a light breeze, the sky is crystal clear, and it's 81 degrees out. My last run was 8 miles on Sunday this past weekend. I started out as the sun neared the horizon and as it sunk lower, more and more people stopped in their tracks along the bikepath, transfixed by the blue luminescence of the sea and the sky and the slow fade to orange as the great ball of the sun finally touched the ocean. Then, as if by some silent signal, everyone turned around to watch the full moon, the largest one of 2009, creep skyward over Santa Monica, enormous and cool and white, the perfect balance to the blazing sun that had just disappeared. I ran on, glad I had made the decision to run this marathon and thankful I live in such a beautiful place.

For those of you interested in following my progress this Sunday there are a couple of ways to do so. Apparently the marathon website will have a map of the course on which I'll be represented by a little red dot. Another option is to click here to get text message updates as to my whereabouts during the race. If you're only interested in the money shot, the marathon website can direct you to a video of me crossing the finish line, hopefully in running mode and not on my hands and knees. I'm registered as Stu Royalty and my bib number is 3925.

At this point I'd like to say thank you to those who have been so supportive of me this last year. Thank you for listening while I droned on about the minutia regarding energy gels or my shoe laces or some other mind-numbing topic. Thank you for encouraging me when I was convinced it just wasn't going to happen. And Dad, thank you for inspiring me yet again.






















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