{"id":326,"date":"2016-01-26T10:23:42","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T15:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=326"},"modified":"2016-01-26T22:15:04","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T03:15:04","slug":"the-waiting-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=326","title":{"rendered":"The Waiting Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Currently I’m sitting at LAX Terminal 1 waiting for a flight. \u00a0I got here early as I was checking two huge bags and wanted to avoid traffic driving down. \u00a0So instead of sitting in my car trying to navigate the city streets, I’m sitting in a Southwest Airlines faux rich Corinthian leather chair. \u00a0I say this because the Los Angeles traffic has really taken a toll on my psyche of late. \u00a0And that’s brought to mind my second marathon I ever did.<\/p>\n

In\u00a02004, I ran my first marathon. \u00a0It was at the inaugural event in Salt Lake City, UT. \u00a0I picked that race for two reasons — I liked that it was the city’s inaugural event just as it would be my first race. \u00a0And it fit my schedule, \u00a0I had decided as some weird New Year’s resolution to start training properly for a marathon on January 1st and the Non-Runner’s Marathon Guide<\/a> I bought on Amazon said it should take four months to train for the race. \u00a0Salt Lake City’s event was at the end of April.<\/p>\n

I finished the race and thought that was that. \u00a0But my brother expressed a desire to run a marathon and I thought it would be fun to train with him. \u00a0So we settled on our then adoptive hometown of Los Angeles, CA.<\/p>\n

And here’s where the traffic discussion intersects with the stray thoughts of memory that consumes the waking daydreams of the itinerant nomadic air traveler. \u00a0Because it was during this race that as Steve and I ran the streets of LA that I realized both how deceptively sprawling and easily navigable Los Angeles could be … At least on foot.<\/p>\n

\"2005<\/a><\/p>\n

I can still recall the dawning of that realization as we pounded the pavement and ran from Downtown LA out toward Santa Monica and back. \u00a0This was the “old” course before they rejiggered it with their now quite popular Stadium to the Sea course that starts at Dodgers Stadium and ends near the famed Santa Monica pier. \u00a0The “new” course better highlights the city and its landmarks.<\/p>\n

But as a then pseudo-local, I kinda loved the “old” course. It was a street race, taking runners along routes that I had sat stuck in my car for literally hours on end. \u00a0And for the first time ever I realized certain streets connected in ways nearer than I’d imagined. \u00a0It was also the first time that I realized I could run to certain areas faster than I could drive. \u00a0That’s how bad traffic can be in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

In the eleven years since that race with my brother, I’ve rarely forgotten that feeling. \u00a0And that realization of freedom, of navigating the world on foot at times faster than by machine, hasn’t been limited to the TMZ, which only recently I found out means “Thirty Mile Zone.” This 30 mile circle demarcates\u00a0the shooting locations around Los Angeles that the studios aren’t required to pay crew travel costs.<\/p>\n

Just the other day, Steve and I were headed down to Costa Mesa, CA, to see If\/Then, a musical written by a guy Steve knows. \u00a0We were stuck in traffic and crawling. \u00a0And at some point, unprompted by me and seemingly out of the blue, Steve asked me if I could run to the theater faster than we were driving. \u00a0Only the did I notice we were passing signage saying we were\u00a026 miles from\u00a0Costa Mesa. \u00a0I admitted I couldn’t run there and be on time for the curtain rising. \u00a0But as the mileage slowly decreased and the clock ticked ever forward, I have to admit there did reach a point where I could have run there and made it in time for the show. \u00a0Space, time, and distance are all altered concepts after running. \u00a0Boundaries and limitations shift and bend, like light passing through a prism.<\/p>\n

The prose is getting ever more pretentious; I’ve been sitting here too long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Currently I’m sitting at LAX Terminal 1 waiting for a flight. \u00a0I got here early as I was checking two huge bags and wanted to avoid traffic driving down. \u00a0So instead of sitting in my car trying to navigate the city streets, I’m sitting in a Southwest Airlines faux rich Corinthian leather chair. \u00a0I say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[120,64,84,124,122,119,123,125,121],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-angeles","tag-brother","tag-city","tag-lake","tag-lax","tag-los","tag-salt","tag-steven","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}