On the Streets I Ran (or My Second Adventure Running the Los Angeles Marathon)

My Los Angeles Marathon Medals 2014 and 2015

 The Cat
Around 3:00 AM the Saturday before the Los Angeles Marathon,  I was awakened by the sound of my cat barfing. No, I did NOT want to get up to clean because it would wake me up. But I also did not want to accidentally walk in slime when I stumbled out of bed in the morning. So I grumbled and cleaned it up. Then tried to get back to sleep.

It did not work.

In fact, the cat had been sick since Friday afternoon. So, it was clear to me that she needed a visit to the vet. 

Since I was staying two nights in a hotel for the marathon, it increased a little stress. I had to drive the cat to Costa Mesa, in Orange County, and then drive straight  to LA to pick up my bib and marathon packet. Unfortunately, the added responsibility led to poor packing. That's my excuse anyway.

I took the cat to Newport Harbor Animal Hospital, where they ran tests and took x-rays of the cat's stomach. They decided to keep her over night as I would not be able to pick her up in the evening and Roland was at a water polo tournament with my son, Oliver.

The Hotel
After getting my racing packet,  I made my way to the Omni Hotel to meet up with Stephanie since she was there to cheer me on and to hang out with me.

When I came to the registration counter to check in, the clerk could not find my name in the hotel registration. Palms began to sweat a little.

"Mam, we don't have you registered. Is there any way you registered under a different name? How did you register?" Palms began to sweat a bit more.

I replied, "I booked the hotel on the LA Marathon website months ago."

"Well, you aren't listed."

We tried checking under various lists, names, etc. When there was nothing, I remembered that last year, all the hotels were booked solid. Visions of sidling up next to a homeless person sleeping on the sidewalk on skid row and getting very little to no sleep haunted my anxious mind. I considered the possibility of driving all the way back to Orange County (30+ miles south) and having to wake up at 2 AM in order to be ready and to be able to park in the very crowded Dodger Stadium. 

In any event, the hope of the chance of getting much needed sleep before the marathon, was dwindling.

I started crying. Not weeping loudly, but the stress really got to me. Luckily Stephanie arrived and the supervisor assured me that they would find a room for us for two nights. Mind you, amid all of this a drunk guy had passed out by the elevator and paramedics were called. Just not what I had envisioned for myself the night before the marathon.

The Running Bra
After we checked in many deep breaths, we got cleaned up, took an Uber cab to LA Live and had a delicious Mexican meal. 

Upon our return to the hotel, I decided to lay all my clothes out so that I was ready in the morning. 

It was then that I discovered that I had forgotten my running bra. If you are a woman you understand the importance and you also understand that using your everyday bra just isn't going to be good enough. I considered driving to Orange County to get it. I considered asking Roland to drive from the OC to deliver it. I panicked, I paced. I stressed yet again.

It was 9 PM. That means nothing was open-except Target. 

This was when Stephanie sprang into action. She left the hotel room. "I'll be right back," she said.

5 minutes later she returned and said,." We are going to Target. I've arranged for the courtesy car to take us to the nearest Target."

Done. I might add that Stephanie also arranged for my oatmeal breakfast to be delivered extra early so I could eat before setting off for Dodger Stadium.

26.2 Miles
I slept as soundly as anyone could who has been training for 30 weeks, and who was only just able to decrease their stress level from a 10 to a 5 within the span of 5 hours. 

When I put my contact lenses in, I realized that they were extremely cloudy. I tried cleaning them as best I could but it was useless. I had forgotten to pack extra lenses and my glasses. So I knew I'd just have to deal with the foggy lenses for the duration of the marathon.

So I ran. And I ran. And I ran. I listened to my favorite radio show, Breakfast with the Smiths for two hours. In exactly 6 hours I was at the finish line reaping the rewards of having worked so hard for something. Roland was there. Stephanie was there. I had a medal and probably one of the best feelings of accomplishment. Ever.

The Contact Lenses
The next morning I rose early to leave downtown LA in order to take Oliver to school as it was Monday, but I had the day off to recover. When I put my foggy lenses into my eyes, one of them had torn making it utterly useless to me.

My only option was to drive with one contact lens. 

It was still dark and for part of the time I had to drive with one eye closed. Turning from the 101 freeway to the 5 freeway, I realized it was a mistake. I was tempted to get off the freeway in Boyle Heights because I was convinced I was going to die on the freeway in a fiery ball of metal. But once I was on the 5, I was driving straight so I drove in the far right lane behind slow trucks and cars for 30 miles. I never appreciated the slow cars so much. 

I parked the car and ran upstairs to the front door. 

"Hi Mom! Congratulations!"

And I won.

The Table is Rumbling . . .

 

Bobby the Cat

 Life has been interestingly boring-if that is at all possible. As ever, I find myself in the role of what the modern era has termed the "Super Mom." Amazingly, I recall having a conversation with Roland just before I found out I was pregnant with Oliver in which we lamented the fact that we were admittedly too selfish to have children. Therefore, we thought a perfect family included us and a few furry friends. Ha ha. Fate is hilarious, isn't it? Here I sit writing this with a few furry friends and three children.

 

Yes, the joke is on me.

 

Then, of course, as we age, so do our parents. As our parents age, our responsabilities to them increase. Well, perhaps some of that depends on your relationship with your parents.

 

Morrissey seems to have a great relationship with his mum. As most Morrissey fans know, he actually postponed part of his U.S. tour to be with his mum as she recovered from something she was hospitalized for. Like many who love Moz, I was sad that I did not get to see him when I thought I would, but I still get to see him perform and at least he is good enough to understand that some things are more important than money and fame.

 

On the other hand, from what I have read, Morrissey is not as close to his dad. And in this, I have something in common with dear Morrissey. In fact, there are probably many who have a similar kind of relationship with their fathers.

 

That's all well and good when you and your parents are younger. But what happens when they age and its just no use holding a grudge? How far should your loyalties go to a shitty parent?

 

This is a question I am faced with on a daily basis:

 

I was never close to my dad. He was a raging alcoholic and because of his drinking and smoking when he was younger, he developed mouth, throat and lymphatic cancer many years ago. I was living in Dublin, Ireland when we found out he had a 30% chance of surviving and because of that and because job prospects were pretty dismal in 1990, I left Ireland and came back home to California.

 

He survived, but lost the ability to eat properly. Because of all the radiation and the chemo he lost the ability to swallow. Therefore, he eats through a tube. He has had many surgeries and skin grafts so he does not even look anything like he used to.

 

Now, he has trouble walking-he shuffles and he lives on his own in a trailer park for elderly people with a cat named Bobby (see picture above).

 

Bobby has recently had a slew of health problems and I helped my dad out by paying for some of Bobby's treatment. But now my dad has gotten into debt in order to pay for Bobby's vet bills.

 

I don't want to bore you with all the details of how much driving around I do for my dad or the fact that he never calls except when he wants something. But, I guess if you are going to go into debt, let it be to keep your animal companions alive. It would have been cheaper for him to put Bobby down, but he saw the unfairness in that.

 

I did not mean to write so much about my situation, but let me just question about how much is too much or too little to give an old person when they have sucked as a parent? How much do you forgive so that you can go on with your own life with no regrets?

 Watching them thrash around in their old age is like watching animals hanging from a meat hook in an abittoir. There is no joy or satisfaction in that.

 

I had hoped to have written something more uplifting after not having written in so long, but perhaps it gives you some insight as to part of the reason I have not written.

 

Ah well, it makes me look forward to seeing Morrissey in Chicago and LA even more.

 

 







Our Next Journey Begins

Jealousy in the eyes of the one who stayed behind

Overwhelmed
 I am feeling kind of overwhemlmed. The five of us leave tomorrow for the UK. A twelve hour plane journey awaits us and there is still so much to do before 2 PM tomorrow when we leave for LAX. I won't bore you with my To Do list, but let's just say that I like to come home to a clean house and we will  be gone for a month.

Today is Father's Day as well. That just adds to the overwhelming feeling. The pressure of gift giving combined with getting ready to travel can add to the anxiety.

Bonnie the Cat
I am also kind of concerned for Bonnie the Cat. She is going to miss us. Some people think that cats are easy because you can do things like go on long trips and they are easily cared for. Its true. You can easily feed and water a cat, but they too get lonely. Just like a dog, cats sense your impending trip as they sniff luggage and suspiciously peer behind stacks of clothes and shoes.

Bonnie further concerns me because she has not taken to her new automatic self-cleaning kitty box. We thought it would be more appealing for someone to look after her if they did not have to clean a cat box out every single day. I think it has kind of worked. My sisters and mom are going to take care of Bonnie.Its great someone will be there to feed her but she will get lonely.

Dad
Another thing on my mind is that my dad is not well. He has had a rough year with medical problems and he has been in the hospital since he had some problems with a pacemaker. I was going to visit him this week but he knew he would not be feeling well so he suggested that we get together when we get back from our trip.

Violin
I felt badly today because I forgot to take Oliver to his violin lesson with his awesome teacher, Miguel. We had rescheduled the lesson and I told everyone to remind me but everyone forgot. I remembered at 4:23 and his lesson was at 4. I just hate to miss appointments. No lessons for a month and a half as Miguel is going to the Philippines for vacation. Oliver has to take his violin to the UK to practice!

Yuck
Needless to say, I feel pretty yucky.  Roland thinks its just pre-holiday sludge. Maybe it is. I am sure it is. I like to get everything right and nothing that concerns me has any certainty.

Now, as I have purged myself in this confessional blog, I feel much better suddenly.Overwhelmingness, be damned! How can I not have a great time with three excited kids who can't wait to have adventures?