NOVEMBER RUNNING

With just one month left in the calendar year, I have log quite a few miles. I came oh so close to running a 100 mile run for the first time since July.

Total Miles Run - 93.19 (according to mapmyrun)
Days of Running - 14
Longest Run - 13 miles
Approx. calories burned - 12,021
Year to date miles - 1151.11 miles

SKID ROW THANKSGIVING

Before leaving South Bend I was asked on numerous occasions what I was looking forward to the most about living in L.A. The obvious answers came to mind – the weather, the Dodgers, Mosaic and the general beauty of living in southern California. However, one of the things that I was really looking to was helping along Skid Row during the Thanksgiving holiday.

This Saturday I arrived bright and early at 5:45 a.m. between 5th and 6th street along San Pedro Ave. to help transform an entire block of a city street. It was absolutely awesome to go from nothing to a whole lot of “something” in less than two hours. Tables, chairs, tents, kids games, etc. was all ready to go.

Somewhere around 9:15 a.m. I began making cherry flavored popcorn in the “carnival area” before being moved two stands down to the sno-cone area. I have never seen so much shaved ice in my entire life!

There were so many cool sights and sounds that I took in but what I remember most of all were all the smiles. I can honestly say I didn’t see one person having a bad experience. Now how to make that happen all 365 days of the year is the challenge but for at least one day it was good. You got to start somewhere, right?

Personally the day represented one of those turning point moments in life. While many of my autumn Saturdays have been filled with Notre Dame football for the past few years, a new chapter of sorts has thankfully begun. I miss being a part of Notre Dame football. That experience was something I will never forget. But to lose one thing and to gain this opportunity is extraordinary.

I am already looking forward to next Thanksgiving (not to mention all the other serving opportunities ahead of me). Saturday provided an opportunity to make new unforgettable memories but more importantly impact those who needed a smile probably more than anyone else.

THE FRAY

A few weeks ago I began to wonder what happened to The Fray - you know that band that made it big with songs "How to Save a Life" and "Over My Head." Well, last night they reemerged on the American Music Awards with a new song. YEAH!!



Issac Slade on "You Found Me" - here.

THRIFTY LIVING

On more than one occasions I have been called one of the following: thrifty, frugle, cost conscience, cheap, etc., etc.

So, with that being said, here's my advice on watching were you pennies are being spent and how to cut a few costs:

* Use Coupons
* The $.99 store (I love this place)
* Stop daily spending at Starbucks and brew at home
* If you can, walk instead of drive
* Get rid of your land phone line unless you absolutely need it
* Discount movie theaters (same movie, cheaper price)
* Look at your closest before shopping and ask “do I need more clothes?”
* Eat-in
* Don’t always buy the brand name product
* Use Cash to Buy (credit is a last resort option)

… and most importantly – Keep A Grounded Perspective On Everything!

SPRINGSTEEN'S NEW ALBUM

And what will you be doing on Jan. 27, 2009? How about going to purchase the new Bruce Springsteen album. Hopefully another whirlwind tour to follow!

"Working on a Dream" song listing:

1. Outlaw Pete
2. My Lucky Day
3. Working on a Dream
4. Queen of the Supermarket
5. What Love Can Do
6. This Life
7. Good Eye
8. Tomorrow Never Knows
9. Life Itself
10. Kingdom of Days
11. Surprise, Surprise
12. The Last Carnival

Bonus tracks:
The Wrestler
A Night with the Jersey Devil

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES

This video was on the local news on Monday evening. Talk about intense!

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

While I still get excited to see Marion Chalmers three-pointer swish through the hoop with 2.1 second left in regulation during the national title game in April, it is probably time to really look to see what the 2008-2009 season will bring.

The best part of college basketball season is that it just gets better as the season goes along. The stress of being fan doesn’t go away, the excited of a conference win last for a brief moment because in two or three days you have to do it all over again.

Then March happens and everything that is right in the world of sports commences in the greatest tournament played in America.

1) North Carolina
2) UConn
3) Texas
4) Michigan State
5) Purdue
6) Louisville
7) UCLA
8) Duke
9) Memphis
10) Oklahoma

If North Carolina is healthy there probably isn’t a team that can beat them when they are playing their best. However, with that being said, there are a lot of talented teams that could definitely knock them off come tournament time.

Sleeper Teams – Saint Mary’s, Davidson (if you consider them a sleeper), Xavier, Sienna, Mercer

UNFORTUNATE NEWS

I have had just over 24 hours to digest, think about and ponder what happened on Sunday morning. There are still no words to describe how I feel. Forget that even, because I’m not even sure how I feel let alone trying to describe anything. The anticipation of Sunday mornings 13.1 mile run through Pasadena was at a fever pitch of excitement until I got to the race line and there were just a few dozen people there at 6:15 a.m. There should have been thousands of people.

As I am sure most of you have heard by now southern California has been hit pretty hard by wildfires. The fires aren’t “directly” effecting Pasadena since they are about 25-30 miles away. However, because of the fires the air quality became worse than normal and the powers that be cancelled the race.

Pasadena Star-News Story - Here.

Google Map of Fires -- here.

Personally the most frustrating thing is that some of you donated money to the Union Station Homeless center to encourage our team to run hard and help promote their efforts to end homelessness. Will that money still go the center? Absolutely! I am so grateful that you decided to support them with a donation. It just feels kind of empty that we weren’t able to go out and “work” for that donation on race day. The Union Station actually found a sponsor and gave each of the 40 team member a nice race day running shirt for all of us to wear race day. I wanted to continue to educate people on homelessness throughout race day.

So here’s what I did … I had already been awake for nearly two hours when I found out the race was cancelled so in my nice new racing shirt I ran 13 miles through Pasadena from 6:30 a.m. to just after 8:00 a.m. Certainly it was not even close to the same feeling of actually running a race but I was ready to run so I ran. Like I said, I still don’t know how to feel. I’m trying to keep all of this in perspective. This is just something I have never experienced before and hope I never have to again.

Feel free to let me know any thoughts, concerns, idea or whatever you may have! Once again, I can not thank you enough for all the encouragement! You are awesome and amazing people!!

BLUE LIKE JAZZ = MOVIE

If you have read the book (and if you haven't, you should), then it is time to watch the movie:

Blue Like Jazz

L.A. MARATHON

The L.A. Marathon has been a love/hate deal for me. This relationship has been going on for a year now. I am not quitting on the 26.2 miles through the City of Angels but I am just weighing my options at this point. Our relationship is struggling right now.
Here’s the timeline of our relationship:

* About this time last year I was thinking of making the L.A. Marathon my first go around at 26.2 miles. However, I was offered a coaching position at Saint Mary’s and decided to pursue that instead of the L.A. Marathon. Looking back on it, that was the right decision to make and having the Bayshore Marathon as my first experience is perfectly fine with me.

* So I move to L.A. and the 2009 marathon is scheduled for March 1. No problem. The training schedule is put into some early motion.

* The marathon is moved up two weeks to Feb. 16. OK, not a great thing but the training schedule I am on for the Pasadena half-marathon actually fits quite nicely into training for a full marathon on Presidents Day. Not thrilled about it but it’s workable.

* Then on Tuesday morning I see this headline in the L.A. Times – “L.A. Marathon changes race date again - to Memorial Day” … Umm, are you kidding me? By no mean do I consider myself a running expert but Memorial Day in L.A. is hot and humid. Marathons are run in the cool of the morning in the low 50’s or 60’s. Anything more than that and you have a recipe for bad things. The response of this move is pretty much outrage in the L.A. running community.

The thing with running the L.A. Marathon is that it already isn’t a spectacular big city marathon. It really falls short of what Chicago, New York and Boston do. In fact, it’s not even close. After thinking about my relationships with the L.A. Marathon I have broke off our casual relationship till another time so I can see others. My focus now is on the Big Sur Marathon in April. Doesn’t this picture make you want to run? (Go to the website, you'd want to run this thing too!)

So to the L.A. Marathon it really is your fault. I wanted to make this relationship work as quickly as possible but you made things very difficult. However, I’d like to remain casual friends until we complete our relationship at the finish line.

GOING FOR GROCERIES

Going to the grocery store is usually a nice and relaxing experience for me. Get the food I need and maybe get something new, wait in line for a few minutes then out the door I go.

On Monday evening I definitely experienced a new kind of grocery shopping experience … This group of four people (probably late-teens, very early 20’s) were kind of loud and excited that Obama won the election. Really no problem whatsoever until they decided to smash a soup can about five feet from me. Why did they do this? I have no idea.

I actually took the time to ask and try to figure out what they were thinking. However, you cannot reason with people who have no ability to reason. So one of the individuals takes out a bull horn (yes, a bull horn!) and announces that a clean-up in aisle 10 was needed. It was at this particular moment, I decided they were either on drugs or drunk. They had way too much “odd stuff” going on to be more than just annoying and awkward.

This is where the story get most exciting. Apparently their loud antics annoyed someone while they were waiting in the check-out line. All of a sudden there is a call for security and two guys are shouting at each other about “I’m south L.A. and you don’t treat me like that”

Then you know how guys to fighting, right? There was no physical fighting but rather just a lot of yelling. Typical “guy” stuff. The rent-a-cop security did nothing but fortunately one of the guys waiting in line calmed one of the people down and after 30 seconds the excitement was over. It was interesting to watch mostly because no one decided to pull a gun and knife. THAT, would have been very bad.

Just another trip to get some groceries was over.

ONE WEEK LEFT

(Original posting - here)

... The final stretch is here!

This morning at Mosaic they announced the Pasadena Marathon/Half-Marathon will cause some traffic problem for the gathering next Sunday. I must admit that I was kind of excited to think of the extra traffic that 8,000+ runners will cause!

I was thinking about the race and how I am going to "attack" the course. Certainly I won't win the thing. I may not even place in the top 100 (although I think I could, and maybe should, do that). However regardless of how I do the funds will be raised for the center which is great but I feel like I owe them my best effort. It would be a big dis-service to give anything less than my best.

1 CORINTHIANS 9:26-27 (the message) "I don't know about you, but I'm running hard for the finish line. I'm giving it everything I've got. No sloppy living for me! I'm staying alert and in top condition. I'm not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself. "

It's pretty cool to read how Eugene Peterson translates that passage that is quoted over and over again. To not give a 100% effort is such a cheaters way of living and, quite frankly, I hold myself to higher standard of living.

So far the Union Station team has raised just over $3,000 and here's what that does for the organization:
* Provide 20 hours of child care so parents can look for worko
* Provide 14 people with one week of meals (3 nutritious meals per day)
* Provide 5 people with a month of case management serviceso
* Provide 4 families with bedding and toiletries at our Family Center

Next Saturday evening the team is getting together for our carbo load dinner and I'm excited to meet some of the other runners I haven't met yet and here some of there stories.

Thanks for reading to the end of the note!! This is the last few days to give on the website so if you want to give please do so very soon ... TAKE CARE!

NEED TO BREATE

Just heard this band for the first time today. They are definately worth listening to for a few moments - here.

BONO @ WOMEN'S CONFERENCE

I haven't posted a good Bono moment in quite sometime so here's a new one from the California Women's Conference a few weeks ago. The best part is when he quotes Warren Buffett. Good thoughts ...

BURN AFTER READING

This was one odd and obscure movie.

I was expecting something rather funny that would make me laugh through out the film but what I got was a whole lot of nothing. About half-way through the film I realized that I was watching a Cohen brothers film and a light clicked on in my head. I forgot how often times their movies can take-on a darker and cynical view of life. I wanted to laugh and enjoy the film more than I did but just couldn’t.

However there is one real redeeming quality about the film. It is a great commentary on the U.S. Intelligence Agency. In fact, it is border line brilliant it is just too bad that the movie has such an awkward and weird way of expressing that commentary.

At best, this movie is a DVD rental.

ELECTION DAY = FREE STUFF

Here's a sampling of what some companies are offering for free on election day -

USA TODAY