I’m officially a race junkie. I actually had to talk myself out of signing up for a half marathon that’s taking place on May 5th because I’m already running a 10k on May 19th. The only other races I’m signed up for after that 10k are both half marathons in 2014, so I can wait until later this year to sign up for something sooner. I may have to work up a running allowance of some type—something like six 10Ks, three half marathons, and one or two marathons per year. We’ll see. (Those numbers are just off the top of my head; you can’t hold me to them.)
The pic here is of me crossing the finish line at the Hollywood Half Marathon, which took place on April 6th. It was a really good race experience for me; I finished in 2:13:08.9, which works out to a pace of about 10 minutes and 10 seconds per mile. I felt strong and energetic nearly all of the way through, with just a minor decline of energy around mile 7 or 8. All in all, it was a far better experience than I had at the LA Marathon.
Just after that race ended, I went on to mark an enormous life milestone: I purchased a condo. I first got started with the process of looking for a place around mid- to late-summer last year, put in my first few serious offers in late November/early December, and then finally got an offer accepted on the 30th of December. We went into escrow in early January and did not emerge until early April. It’s been a long and arduous process, but I’ve got a set of keys to show for it.
This past Friday was moving day, and some generous coworkers chipped in and paid for some movers to come drag my stuff from one place to another. The movers left around 9:30 pm on Friday night. At 10am on Saturday morning, I sat down in my first meeting of the LA Leggers Board of Directors, the nonprofit running club whose board I was elected to just before the LA Marathon. My term is 2 years, so it looks like I’m going to be buckling up and enjoying this ride on the runner-mobile for a little while.
As someone who is still relatively new to the running world, the events in Boston yesterday were quite shocking. However, I found the public responses—both on the ground and in social media—to be quite inspiring. Just in case there is anyone left in the world who hasn’t read this Patton Oswalt quote, here it is:
I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, ‘Well, I’ve had it with humanity.’ But I was wrong. I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.
But here’s what I DO know. If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out.
The vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.
So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.”
Indeed. We always will.