L.A. Story

January 25, 2010

I took my sons, Preston (he’s 20) and Cooper (he’s 14) to the BCS National Championship game between the University of Texas and some other school a couple of weeks back.  As most folks know, the game was played in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

We had a blast.  We saw the big Hollywood sign on the hill, walked down Rodeo Drive, saw sights like Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.  We also went to a couple of events where there were lots of folks to see.

We got some decent pictures.   Here’s one:

Here’s another one:

And, of course, we went to the game.  Fun, even though it would have been nice to win the thing.

Another 1/2

Yesterday, I ran another half-marathon.  My goal and New Year’s Resolution is to run four half-marathons this year.  The next one will be on February 14th here in Austin.   I haven’t picked the two after that one, so there’s still time for me to come to my senses and decide that this is a dumb goal.

Yesterday’s race went well, considering a couple of factors.  One obvious thing working against it was that a half marathon, by definition, requires a person to run over 13 miles all at once.  So, saying “it went well” is really sort of relative and must be considered in context.

Another factor in Sunday’s particular event was that I flew to Tulsa and back on Saturday.  That sort of travel on the day before you run over 13 miles isn’t found in any training manual.  My guess is that’s because nobody thinks they should have to tell someone NOT to do something like that.

I think it’s the reason I didn’t win the race yesterday, though I did set a personal record.  I’m very pleased with that.

And I’m very pumped up and optimistic about the next one.

But inevitably, someone is going to ask me whether I’m going to shoot for a full marathon.  I’ve never run a full one and probably won’t.

My consideration of running 26.2 miles all at once raises the classic philosophical question of whether a glass is half-full or half-empty.  Some might see the glass half-empty and say that, given my physical characteristics, there’s no way I could run that far.  But I see the glass as half-full and know that I’m just too smart to try.

I don’t know Jack.

I’m looking forward to folks coming up to me over this next week and asking where I was when I met Jack Nicholson and had that picture taken.  I will immediately know they didn’t read this whole Wire.

He was at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.