Greetings blog followers! It’s been a minute since I posted. You see March is the busiest month I’ve had in a while. In fact, it is busier than April and May are going to be.

Obviously, I went to Vegas, partied it up and didn’t really sleep after what was a trying week for reasons my Vegas post explores.

The following weekend found me on a school trip to an Indian reservation in Northern Arizona. The trip was quick and very exciting. I’ve taken several classes in Federal Indian law and Tribal law. I had never been to a reservation before so that was an exciting experience. Before leaving there was a little bit of drama. My car battery died and Izzy the cat became rather ill. I rushed her to the vet where they hooked up a cat iv, injected her with a ton of stuff I can’t pronounce and did blood work. I was very scared and concerned at the time but she’s OK now. She gets to eat a fancy vet Rx diet which she loves. Girlfriend takes after her mother and loves the fancy.

Saturday I woke up early and took a professional responsibility exam I need to pass in order to practice law. It was an early morning and a long day. I also have a final exam in Federal Indian Law 2 this Thursday. So it’s been a busy few weeks. Running and working out has been on the back burner as well. I’m excited for things to get back to normal around here.

Thus, I was really glad that there was a fun event to look forward to on Sunday morning: Spectating the LA Marathon!

I knew that rain or shine I would be watching the marathon. The course runs two blocks from my apartment so I had no excuse. Plus, I love marathons and cheering so it was an easy decision to head down to the course early.

The weather was near perfect. Highs in the high 50’s, sun and clouds. No kidding, the night before it HAILED in LA. Well, it sounded like hail and I was too horrified by the noise to investigate further. I grabbed a coffee early and waited outside of Starbucks for people to start passing by.

Pretty soon the wheelchairs came cranking by.

Can you imagine doing that for 26.2 miles? I’ve run a marathon and I can’t imagine doing that for that long.

Before we knew it the lead elite women was passing us by!

The light is terrible in this photo and you can barely see her but she had a comfortable lead in front of everyone else including the men. LA does a “gender challenge”. That is, they start the women ahead of the men. Women’s marathon times are slightly slower than male times. The LA Marathon averages the time between when the men finish and when the women finish and then start the women that degree ahead with the idea that by the end it could really be anybodies game. Men win some years and women win others but YAY for the ladies for brining in a win. Fatuma left no one in her wake. We were stunned watching how big the lead was between her and the other runners. She almost hit a course record!

We had to wait a bit over 5 mins (which is a long time in elite marathon running I feel) before the elite men came though. I actually missed the lead man. He was running close to the left side of the road with a motorcade. I did catch the second place man, behind the biker.

Then the regular people started coming through and that’s when the real fun began! I was with my friend Chrissy who is a Boston Marathon cheering alum. We were prepared for the mass of runners. Things were pretty loose until the 4:00 marathon pacer passed us so we were able to call out many runners by name. Some looked like they were dying but many looked great and even were pumping up the crowd and yelling back at us.

I mostly stuck to yelling names but also yelled at people to tell them that they were headed to the downhill. One reason the LA Marathon is so appealing to me (besides being my adopted hometown) is the final three miles are along my usual running route. The way to the ocean is a slight decline, just enough to give runners that little something extra.

We also yelled names and cheered extra hard when we saw people run by in UCLA gear, encouraging on our fellow Bruins.

Several people had funny things written on their bibs, like “Forrest” (as in “Run Forrest Run” from Forrest Gump). Some had saying like “Run old man!” Those people were by far the most excited to hear us yelling their names. I also saw people in shirts of races I’ve run. I cheered extra hard when I saw them. I saw a guy in a Chicago marathon shirt and I yelled out “HEY CHICAGO!” and he winked and gave me thumbs up. It was fun!

More than anything, watching the marathon reignited my desire to run. Between everything I’ve had going on the past few weeks I’ve feel off running again. I’ve gotten some short and unsatisfying ones in but nothing long and not following my plan for the Pasadena 1/2 in May. Sunday reminded me how much I love to run. For me, watching was fun but I really wanted to get out on the course. I know I am going to run another marathon and I want it to be LA 2013. Time will tell and lots can happen in a year but that is my intention now.

Inspired by the marathon I went out for an easy 4.5 mile run. I held an easy 9:27 pace. It was great running in the footsteps of the marathoners and thinking over my goals. Like with the first marathon I ran, I know I can achieve them but no one is going to hand them to me. I need to put in work and I’m feeling energized and ready to get started again.

Also! There will be a delicious blog worthy recipe on LCC this week (I know it’s been a while). I made it last week and it has melted gouda cheese. What’s not to love about that?