I received this e-mail today from my good friend Barry who lives in the most perfect location in Los Angeles for running, the corner of 4th and San Vicente in Santa Monica. He’s a block away from the legendary Santa Monica stairs (although I’ve never been able to get him to use them for training), and 4 blocks away from Ocean Ave and the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean with the Santa Monica pier to his left and Malibu to his right.
It’s where I grew up running and aside from the Bay and Coastal trail routes in San Francisco, there’s no place better.
Hi Adam,
I hope you and Cindy had a nice trip to Ohio; I was in Denver Thursday and Friday, got to see a little bit of snow. I’m following the Hal Higdon Intermediate I training routine for my February 1st Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach. So far, “knock on wood” I have been able to do the Saturday/Sunday back to back runs that have always eluded me in the past; and so far it’s been smooth and fairly easy. I’m trying oh so hard not to hurt my left hamstring again, so far, so good!
This morning I ran down San Vicente to Ocean; to the Pier, down the ramp to the bike path, north up to Topanga State beach, back past the pier again by about ¾ mile, and back up the ramp, and up Ocean to Georgia and 4th. Exactly 17 J Next week they have the schedule with the same 8 mile Saturday run, and then 18 on Sunday. In two weeks he lowers the distance to 13, and I would like to find a half marathon somewhere to run, that would be fun to be in a real race.
Talk to you soon.
Barry
Barry has forgotten more about running than most runners will ever learn. Now ordinarily that phrase is used to compliment how knowledgeable a person is, but in Barry’s case, it’s a testament to how little he actually remembers. You’d think after 25 years of hanging around me, he’d be a walking endurance thesaurus, spouting off lactate threshold, gastric emptying and functional steady state as part of his everyday vernacular. Instead, he’ll frequently e-mail or call me and say things like, hey, I just met Bill Rogers who says if I do speed intervals once a week, I’ll get faster, to which I usually roll my eyes, because we’ve obviously had this discussion multiple times. While Barry is older in years than me, I’ve become the running dad to which it is almost understood he will immediately tune out. Even when I was coaching a thousand runner each weekend in Los Angeles, to Barry, I was just plain old Adam, the guy who would call him up to go for a run around UCLA or a quick bite of dinner at Kay & Daves in Pacific Palisades.
That’s why I particularly love that he is finally embracing back to back running days on the weekend during his training. And although I’m not sure he’s embraced the purpose for each of these runs yet, just the mere fact that he is running back to back like this is incredibly encouraging as we know it will yield tremendous results come marathon day when he allows himself a full taper.
If you run into Barry on the streets or along the bike path in Santa Monica give him a wave, will ya? He’s probably wearing a visor, those original v-split short running shorts and a blue Nike technical t-shirt, but you won’t need those to know who he is. He’ll be the guy explaining all of the nuances of running or of the running location that he is currently in. There has never been a more big-hearted and good natured person who truly epitomizes the warmth of the running community. Since he is my oldest running friend and one of my best friends to boot, I’d consider it a personal favor if you gave him a wave and a smile as you run by.
