with mia away for a few days, i got right down to business and watched me some ben-hur. mia questions my questionable leisure-time activities, which include running as far as possible and watching 3+ hour epics starring charlton heston as the toughest jew ever.

mia is jewish. mia doesn’t watch jewish epics with me (though is ben-hur a jewish epic? it does have some jesus, but that plot seemed ancillary to me). i am not jewish though i a) am circumcised and b) make the meanest batch of vegan latkes this side of williamsburg (the jewish part, not the hipster part, fuck the hipster part).

i tell her that i watch jewish epics so that i can understand what her people have been through, and if it takes charlton heston to show me that they’ve been through a lot, then awesome. unfortunately, i don’t think she’ll reciprocate by watching clash of the titans because she’s an anti-greekite.

dude, that ben-hur chariot scene was ill. i paid for the whole seat but i only needed the edge. i think i didn’t like charlton heston until i became a gun nut. now i like him. and guns.

i had a cold last week because i ran pretty hard in the city of angels half marathon without sleeping enough and then traveling in many aeroplanes. racing always knocks down my immune system. it’s just how it goes. i was nearly recovered on saturday but then didn’t rest enough on either weekend day and i lost my voice. poof gone. no more voice.

initially, i was pretty bummed and then i realized that i really like not talking. people who know me would probably be surprised because normally you can’t shut me up unless you hurt my feelings. turns out we were all wrong. so now, no talking.

coincidentally, i was looking for a silent-fasting-retreat-thing two weeks ago, only i couldn’t find one that wasn’t religious in any direction. or that doesn’t cost a billion dollars. i’m sorry what would i be paying for? hanging out with people and not talking to them and then not eating with them? i can hole up in my own house with a juicer for that.

anyway, for the immediate future, no more talking. and i’m sure that i’ll get used to mia calling me marcel marceau (rip) when i’m trying to communicate to her what i think we should eat for dinner.

my attempt to do my own very special los angeles triathlon (shooting, surfing, running) was thwarted by an incredible mud-slide-inducing storm on friday which supposedly turned the ocean into a toilet, so i substituted surfing with massive overeating at every turn.

my baby brother had never been shooting before, so after a little forced gun-safety reading, we headed down to the los angeles gun club. the kid can shoot, i tell you what. he’s a natural. we were shooting a 9mm sig and then a .45 cal kimber, which we went to after these two dudes walked in hauling a smith and wesson 500, which is about as about as long as my thigh and twice as heavy. (btw, check out the picture of it being fired at night.)

then on sunday, i ran the city of angels half marathon with jen, patrick, john, kevin, and eileen (who i ran as last year in vegas). it went well. i set a pr with 1:28:47 (6:47 min/mile). i really love the half marathon. it’s over early, i have a ton of energy when i’m finished, and then i get to do more massive overeating (i forget how good the produce is in southern california and how amazing the veggie restaurants are).

i wound up way back at the start for some reason and spent the first seven miles picking my way through people who went off too fast (which feels awesome, though i tend to feel sad for them). then i found a guy who was just about at my pace and i sat on his heels for the next six miles before he completely dusted me at the finish. i have never been so thoroughly beaten in a sprint for the line. i congratulated him after the race. he did the same. i like runners.

takeaways:
+ i forgot that los angeles could be so hilly.
+ i maybe left a little out there on the course, since i was so bouncy at the finish.
+ i am getting old. my heartrate only saw 190 bpm during the sprint and it was really sore.
+ with a little more speedwork, i think that i am capable of running a 1:25 on the right course.