Day of

Yes, it is 5:25am. Yes, I am up. Yes, I walked the dog. Yes, I am eating a bagel. And yes, I am ready to go!

The final hours...

I have been SO paranoid about getting sick. Honestly, its raining, people are sneezing around me. It's driving me nuts, Im like a crazy person. I actually tried to hold my breath for an entire metro stop, so as not to inhale the sneezes of someone near me. I also got poured on walking the last 3 blocks to the metro. So, yeah, I have 13 more hours to hang on to before I don't need to care.

I didn't do any runs yesterday, got some beers with Sujan and Steph. Nice ole time. Went to bed at 1am and managed an 845am wake up this morning. The real test will be this "so called" 10pm bedtime. That just sounds unheard of to me. But I will try.

The plan tomorrow is to wake up at 510am. Get showered, ready and dressed. Head out by 530 and pick John up at 540. We will then take the metro to the starting line and hopefully get there by 7ish for warmups, bag drop off and final what-have-yous.

It looks like the parents are gonna leave around 9am and head out to catch me at some place around my 17th mile. Then, everyone will move to the final spot for the finish. I still don't know the course, but I prefer to be surprised. Obviously, it's gonna be nice (perhaps not rainy) and I figure, better to not know what comes next and enjoy the unfolding drama of the run.

Not much else going on. Carboloading a bit. Lunch was Spaghetti Carbonara, tonight is chinese, pork w plum sauce on brown rice. Maybe some more Spaghetti before bed.

Bagel in the morning.

A bit nervous, but mainly about getting sick. I know its just silly, but the stakes are high enough to make me stress. BUT, next post will be the race wrapup!

See yall on the otherside...

Countdown time!

streaminSo, getting East has been a bit more laid back than anticipated. Few evening events, but the days have been spent at the house sans-car and without access to my own laptop (internet poker, streaming movies). Luckily I brought a few dvds.

TShirt arrived! So I have my official running gear locked and loaded!

Recently been doing the herculean task of shifting my sleep schedule back 10 hours in 5 days. Things are on track. I went to bed at 530am on Monday. Then 530 am(EASTERN TIME) on Tuesday, Wednesday was 3am, and yesterday I managed a fairly impressive 1:15am. All of this done with some calculated alarm clocking. I managed to limit my sleep just enough to get me tired earlier without totally depriving myself. Last night was the first 8 hour sleep in awhile and tonight I hope to be in bed before midnight. Jesus, a marathon can really mess a guys night plans up.

SUJAN AND STEPH! They are coming in today?! How awesome is that?! Sujan was manipulated into signing up for the same marathon, but fell prey to circumstance (and perhaps a bit of motivational issues, or perhaps not) could not train in time. He decided to come down anyway and cheer me on with his superawesome lady.

So now, there are rumors of upwards of a whole handful of supporters around. This is crazy, all my other races were done solo. I have sorta gotten used to getting up early, trekking out in the lonely morning, getting to some unfamiliar race, warming up, running, quietly passing the finish line, and then snagging bags of free energy drinks before driving home as my friends wake up.

This will clearly be a bit different. The details of getting to the race are still a bit sketchy. I think I will be doing a lot of walking at the early hours. Walking to my sisters house to meet up with John, then walking to the metro, then walking to the starting line. That I guess will be my warmup. Not sure how everyone plans on meeting up and spectating, but itll get figured out soon enough.

Yesterday, did my sorta final run. I took the dog out and we did a couple miles. Start and stop with Pushkin trying to find places to sniff and excuses not to run. She's a husky? You think shed be excited about a SHORT run. Nope, I dragged her the entire 15 minutes or so. I also sweated up a storm. The air here has managed to replace all the LA smog with water. Humidity. Not bad this time of year, but I was definitely pouring sweat after I stopped. Must make note to drink extra water.

Today I may do a mile. 10 minutes or so. Take Pushkin out. What have you. Also, I gotta go to Brookstone and buy those supernice earbuds for the race. Besides the basic oldschool headphones, these are the only ones that work. And they work, oh so well.

Aight, back to daytime tv. Perhaps throw in a little flick here. Biggest loser is downloading too...

Last longish run...$500!!!

So, today, after 3 days of sitting on my butt, I pulled one last "taper down" run. I figured I needed to do something that would turn my last three weeks into an official "taper" rather than a dead stop. Sure I have been doing a run every 2-3 days, but really that is quite a dramatic decline from even my standard week.

Thus, I hit the beach and did a nice run before hitting the East. Met up with Marina who said she was down for the 10 miles... heh, she lasted almost 3. But sure enough, Evan called me up while I was running (at a pace that easily allowed for phone conversation) and I headed over to his place from the beach and we did a nice run up North along the coast. It was a beautiful little loop with some hidden stairs that take you up and back towards the bluffs. The stairs were a bit fun (like 4 flights pretty straight up) and all in all, hit about 11.4 miles. Felt good, felt like I could definitely keep going without any problem. It was a nice reminder that I can still do this thing. The past week has been bad food, lots of sitting (editing, poker, movies) and just feeling gross - the lack of sleep all week didn't help either. So, good confidence booster.

Hitting the road back to East tomorrow in about 5 hours. Should probably get to bed. I have a couple little short short runs this week. But really, its all about flipping my sleep schedule almost exactly 12 hours and not getting sick.

Also - Donor UPGRADE!

We have some more pledged from a previous donor bringing our tally to an official

$500!!!

Wow. Amazing work guys! Let's see if we can't pentuple that by Sunday (ha!).

How's this for a nice headline

From CNN's front page:

3 Detroit marathon runners die

Posted: 02:44 PM ET

(CNN) — Three runners died Sunday during the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon in Detroit, Michigan, police told CNN.

All three deaths occurred between 9 and 9:20 a.m. ET, Second Deputy Chief John Roach said.

A man in his 60s fell and hit his head, Roach said. The cause of the fall was unknown. The man was transported to Detroit Receiving Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Two other men, aged 36 and 26, also collapsed during the race and were pronounced dead at the hospital, Roach said.

All three collapsed near the end of the race, he said.

The weather at the time was overcast, Roach said, with temperatures in the low 40s.

–CNN's Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/18/3-detroit-marathon-runners-die/

Fun times.

UKELILLI ON TOUR!!!

Ukelilli is coming home to start her East Coast Tour! Thursday, October 29th at 8pm, She'll be playing at Madam's Organ, an awesome blues club with tasty soul food in Adam's Morgan. Come and bring folks!

There's a $4 cover. Mention you're there to see Ukelilli! Don't know where Madam's Organ is? Check out this handy google maps link.

Wanna know MORE about Madam's Organ? Click here to go to their website.

Also

*Wednesday, November 4th at 8:30pm She'll be playing at 169 Bar (It was featured in the Flight of the Conchords, need I say more?) Come and bring folks!

$10 to get in. Mention you're there to see Ukelilli! (All proceeds will go directly to her plane ticket to England for the Ukelear Meltdown uke fest!)

Don't know where 169 Bar is? Check out this handy google maps link.

Wanna know MORE about 169 Bar? Click here to go to their website.

If you miss me there OR if you just can't get enough...

*Thursday, Novmber 5th at 8pm She'll be playing at Pianos, in the Upstairs Lounge

Free, and tell them you're there to see Ukelilli! Check out this map to find it, or click here to go to their website.

Where have I been?

So, where have I been these days? All in the family. Ukelilli's illustrious better half, John Ott, has been undertaking a serious challenge of a TWO WEEK FILM! A feature film shot and edited in TWO WEEKS. A lot of us have been donating our time and efforts to help him out and that is where I have been.

To get updates and watch the ENTIRE FILM! Which is FINISHED and actually really hilarious!

Go to:

www.makingthemovie.info

or

www.tastesfunny.net

Fer reals. Definitely worth the 65 minutes of your time (think, an episode of network TV!... plus 20 min)

So yeah, as the resident night-owl, I have been doing mostly editing work. Coming in Wed-Fri midnight-noon on somedays. Now completely nocturnal. Not been sleeping much either, cause it decided to get RIDICULOUSLY hot during the days.

But who is a running MANIAC? So, on Wednesday, I hit the late night gym up for a nice run after another day off. I have been doing the day on, day off thing but I wanted to get at least a couple back to back days in there. Just so I don't lose what I have. What a tough week for that.

So at the gym, and maybe it was the 4 hours of sleep the night before, but at 11pm on the treadmill, I just was exhausted. Muscles were rockin, but clearly my energy was not. So I ended early (I am no martyr) and logged a 30min run. about 5 miles.

Then after not getting more than 5 hours the next day. I show up at Jott's for editing with the plan of being there for a screening and then a gym before bed. Ha! 1am rolls around and we finally catch a break. Lots to do in the Avid rooms. So, he goes home to change, and I suit up and do a 1am run around Burbank on a Thursday night. It was a beautiful night, cool, calm, quiet. Running past the studios all dark with just the nightwatchmen. Leaping to touch lowhanging flags in front of closed stationary shops and running past the other night owls sitting at redlights on deserted Burbank thoroughfairs. Got back at 2am and did a solid 50 minutes at a nice clip. Avg 7m30sec mile throughout.

The book says to cut back the miles, but not the routine, so I have been making sure to do my full fast runs each time I go out (unless I wimp out on the treadmill at 30 min). Not to compromise on my runs, just cut down on weekly miles and the long runs. So, thats what im doin. Today, still not a full night sleep, but takin a day off. I will pull a 12 miler on Sunday then basically call it quits on the long runs. Maybe 9-10 miles a couple days later, but prolly not.

Dinner tonight of PORK BELLY!!!! Best. Meat. Ever.

Flying home soon to start prepping for the big race. I have my Ukelilli Limited Edition (1) Custom Marathon Shirt in the mail at home waiting for the big race!