A New World Record

For me that is. I ran 10 miles today which is the farthest I've ever run. My last long run was 9 miles. The time was pathetic so I won't embarrass myself. I also goofed. I started at 9:30am and it was already about 78 degrees and by the time I finished it was 85 so I was sweating my arse off. I also didn't mix any electrolyte drink into my water bottle because I didn't have any so as I was leaving I poured about a teaspoon of table salt into my bottle and shook it up. I got the idea after reading a post on Kevin's 5ksandcabernets blog about eating salt packets during long runs. I don't know if it worked or not, but thanks anyway Kevin! There's a great path that runs along the San Gabriel River (it's a concrete aquaduct just like the L.A. River) along the 605 freeway all the way down to the ocean and there are several parks along the way so the scenery wasn't too bad. As you get to the end of the aquaduct it dumps into an ocean inlet. This is important because from there on and back it smells like the ass end of a dead rhinoceros or as my dad is fond of saying, the south end of a northbound horse. Along the way there's also the opportunity to chat with the local bums living under the underpasses. Colorful to be sure. The last mile was pretty rough as my stride became a shuffle, but overall a great experience. On the way home I chuged a bottle of G* and then fixed myself 3 fish tacos and a Michelob Ultra. Sweet. Hey, I work hard to take care of this girlish figure.

*For those of you too unhip to be in the know, "G" is the re-branding Gatorade gave itself. Twitter has take over our vocabulary. Lame. Peace out, G.

I think I'm turning Japanese

So twice a year I travel to Japan for my network to shoot a show we call Ninja Warrior. It's basically a HUGE obstacle course (4 of them actually) that 100 people run through. Only about 5 or less make it to obstacle course #2. Anyway, it's a week of long shoot days capped off by what usually turns out to be an 18 hour Ninja Warrior day. The trip is crazy and exhausting and long, but fun nonetheless. You can walk into a small watering hole and run into a bunch of people that want to talk to you all night because you're not Japanese. For me, it's the best part of coming here. The people rock! Lots of eating and drinking. The upside is that it's sushi so it's not terribly fattening. The downside is that I'm bouncing from one hotel to the next and it looks like I'll only get one maybe two days to actually run this week. I'll need it by then for sure. It's a 12 hour flight here and then I'll be flying two more times "in country" and then take a bullet train to Tokyo all in the span of five days before the event. Not much time to myself. Knowing all this, I wasn't about to leave without hitting the pavement one last time.

I had a long run yesterday, but before I hit it, I did a lot of yard work on Saturday that strained my back and then Kristen and I built an island for the middle of our kitchen on Sunday so when I hit the strand in Long Beach afterwards my lower back was aching the entire time. I did the run on pace and it felt good, but when I woke up the next day my lower back was killing me. Not an auspicious way to start off a week of running around with a 30 pound camera on my shoulder. Anyway, I seem to be okay for now. More updates to come.