Why Is the Last Mile the Hardest Mile?

Me after completing my 3rd LA Marathon

So I'm sitting in a Starbuck's across the street from El Modena High School writing this to you. Amid sweaty high school kids after school who come here because they have no better place to go. Somewhere to be with their increasingly important friends talking and studying after being dismissed from their sports practices.

All the while I'm wondering why the hell I ALWAYS drag my feet in writing this blog. I love writing it. Yet, I always put it off. Maybe I just feel more and more overwhelmed every time that a lot of time passes because I feel like I need to share all those other things. 

In reality. I don't.

But I would be remiss in not mentioning that I was fortunate enough to see Morrissey in both Los Angeles at the Galen Center on New Year's Eve as well as shortly after that in Las Vegas on January 2nd at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. Both shows were amazing and I was able to go with both friends and family to these two shows. 

Family at Hoover Dam while in Las Vegas

Many were theorizing that Las Vegas might be Morrissey's last show, but he, of course, has been working to finalize some more shows in other parts of the globe.

Moz Las Vegas

Meanwhile, I had been training rather hard for my third Los Angeles Marathon which was scheduled for Valentine's Day. 

I struggled through two of my longer runs. I was fighting a cold during my eighteen mile run and it was raining. I pulled a muscle on mile two of my twenty mile run and ran the rest of the eighteen miles with a pulled muscle. Yes, I felt pretty bad ass, but I was also pretty stupid because that pulled muscle led to another injury.

It led to a shin splint on my left leg-probably from overcompensating for the other injured leg. In a word, I was a bit of a mess. I had two weeks to recover from these injuries before the marathon.

It just simply was not enough time.

I iced it, massaged it, prayed upon it, and even considered voodoo but didn't go quite that far. The only realistic maneuver was to stop running until the day of the race and do whatever I could when I had to run.

So when it was time to run. I ran. And it felt a little uncomfortable. I won't bore you with describing the pain of shin splints. But chances are you have had them yourself or else know someone who has. So it will be no surprise that it hurt and it will be no surprise that with every mile the pain got slightly more intense.

I had wisely packed some ibuprofen and Tylenol to take as needed for my marathon. I told myself to wait until mile seven. But when I opened my pack, I could not find any meds. I realized then that when I had put everything in my gear bag while I was warming up before the race, I had also put in my water bottle and it leaked all over the bag. My pills were either decomposed or decomposing gels. I desperately licked up what was left of them in hopes that it would sustain me until the end. 

Sadly, I also didn't have any music because my phone charger decided to stop working the night before. I had 20% battery power at the start of the race. So I turned off my phone and ate up whatever music, entertainment and distraction I could until I was desperate. It gave me about an hour of Breakfast with the Smiths. 

At mile seventeen I decided to get ice at the medical tent. Mind you, I had been considering what to do up until this point. I was not sure if I was going to make it to the end. But it WAS mile seventeen. And that was a big investment. When the medical volunteer asked the runners there if we wanted the shuttle to the finish line, a few people said yes, but the young woman sitting next to me icing her leg, said, "No. I'm going to finish. Aren't you?" 

"Yes," I said, "Yes. I'm going to finish!"

So, I walked the rest. Ideally, it would have been nice to run to mile twenty at least. But the pain was bad and I wanted to finish. The only way to finish was to walk. Not very quickly either.

It took me nearly eight hours. But, I finished and I am proud of that. 

Roland and Oliver walked with me my last quarter mile. 

And  I got my medal. Finally.

The Edges Are No Longer Parallel: Part 2

Stephanie, Me, Angie, and Johnny in line at LA Sports Arena (photo by Angela Reyes)

"Is your name Dickie?" I asked the bald man loudly as Krysteen Young belted out a song with her new band at The Observatory in Santa Ana.

The man clearly did not hear me correctly or else he only hear PART of my question as his eyes irritatingly scanned me from head to toe.

"Fuck off!" He said as he stormed away holding two pints of beer.

I looked over to Stephanie who was standing on a booth chair and leaning against a wall. Not phased, I said, "Not him." shrugged, and climbed in the space next to Stephanie.

Both Stephanie and I are fans of Dickie Felton, the author of two books focused on Morrissey fans and fandom. His first book, The Day I Met Morrissey, contains fan's personal encounters with Morrissey and his second book, Morrissey International Airport is Dickie's own account of concerts he traveled to attend and the Morrissey fans he met on his journeys. 

I met Dickie through Twitter and I had arranged concert tickets for him and his traveling buddy, Matt. So, of course, I was thrilled at the chance to meet him, but unfortunately, we didn't meet him at The Observatory show. No wireless and it was crowded. Seriously, I am sure a few fire codes were broken at The Observatory show. Intimate, but if you had any reservations about being in crowds, the pit was not the place for you. 

Stephanie and I avoided it in exchange for comfy seating.

Fortunately, we had plans to meet up with Dickie and Matt at our favorite Morrissey-related pub, The Cat and Fiddle on the following Friday, the day before the LA Sports Arena show. We arranged to meet up with Vanessa (another Breakfast Champion), Jamie, Euan, and Conor.

Stephanie and I had dinner in West Hollywood before we were supposed to meet up with everyone and dinner took slightly longer than we had anticipated. We were worried that Dickie and the guys would have already had a few drinks and moved on. We didn't want to miss our chance of meeting them. I sent Dickie the message: "Are you wasted yet?" 

I mean, that's REALLY the question I wanted the answer to, isn't it?

Luckily they were not wasted yet and I  finally was able to meet Dickie. Our first conversation, surprisingly, was little to do with Morrissey and more to do with running. You know I run. Dickie not only writes books but he also runs half marathons quite frequently. "New Slang" by The Shins came on and we began to talk about that moment when you are running somewhere beautiful and the right song comes on and tears come to your eyes. Not really tears of sadness or happiness but a release. It's like the release of just knowing you are alive-something like that. So, that was our connection. I think that song will forever remind me of Dickie. Strange, because it isn't a Morrissey song.

Later Amy and Abby Battis (Breakfast Champions from Boston) arrived and joined us. Jose Maldonado, the DJ for Breakfast with The Smiths came by and had a beer or two. I think for the Battis sisters and for Jose, it was nice to meet someone whose voice you only heard and now they could place a face and a persona with the voice.

Stephanie and I said we would leave for the OC by eleven but we didn't leave the pub until 1:30 AM. This was because it was one of those nights when everything just clicks. You joke around and have another drink and the conversations just flow. It was like that.

The thing I recall as we were leaving was overhearing Jose and Matt discuss their quiffs. I heard Jose say, "When I go swimming, it stays in place." 

Tomorrow: LA Sports Arena with Tom Jones and the Moz Disco.

26.2 Miles of Morrissey

My medal from the Los Angeles Marathon (yes, I finished)

I am very proud to say that I completed the Los Angeles Marathon on March 9, 2014. I know I didn't even share on this blog that I was going to attempt the marathon, but after completing the Long Beach Half Marathon, back in October, I figured I was half way to a full marathon and it seemed a great challenge to undertake.

About five weeks into the training, however, I tore two muscles in my right leg and was out of training for five weeks. 

It was possibly the worst five weeks I've endured. Not because of the pain. It was NOT being able to run. You see, I've actually turned into a runner. I'm hooked. Seeing people run or hearing people talk about running was like being the only one not getting tickets to a Morrissey show but hearing all about it. Sheer misery. 

But I healed and with a lot of determination, I made it across the finish line. 

26.2 miles are a lot of miles to cover all on your feet. And people have asked me what it is I think about during the long run. I decided to compose this post into miles of thought-mostly to do with Morrissey since so much has happened over the time I have been training, recovering and neglecting this blog.
 

The start

Miles 1-2
Some people think that the "last mile is the hardest mile" but for me, its the first two. I guess its because I'm getting used the the whole idea of running a long distance. I'm kind of getting my breathing down still. 

Since his Autobiography, and the announcement that Morrissey was making a new album in France, I had been hoping that a tour would soon follow. My hopes became a reality. A full US tour was announced including a date in Los Angeles with none other than TOM JONES opening!

My shirt and number

Miles 3-4
I think miles 3-4 was when I needed to use the restroom and the line was crazy long. I mean, not to be too detailed, but if you HAVE to do anything other than pee, you haven't prepared yourself well. Seriously, what did those people have for breakfast? I waited nearly ten precious minutes for the restroom. I found myself wanting to yell,"What the hell are you doing in there?" but I didn't really want the answer.

Miles 5-6
During this portion of the run, I was thinking about how I was feeling mentally. I felt pretty good. At this point I was well into the run. I stopped at every watering stop and drank even if I wasn't thirsty and I walked a little as I drank. Because of the injury, I had to think about how I was feeling physically too.

On February 14, I was generously nominated for Teacher of the Year by my English Department. It was nice of them. Happy Valentine's Day to me.

Teacher of the Year (Me)

Miles 7-8
I was still feeling pretty good at eight miles. I was listening to my favorite radio show, Breakfast with the Smiths. I also kept getting tweets from Breakfast Champions encouraging me for the marathon.


One night in February, I went to a venue in Fullerton to see a Cure tribute band called The Curse and before they went on one of my teen idols, Richard Blade, was spinning records. I was able to say hi and get my picture with him. I also met, strangely enough, some "old timers" around my age who attended my high school back in the 80's. We had a great chat and it was fun to talk about how important Richard Blade and KROQ (a Los Angeles area radio station) were to us at the time.

Miles 9-10
I don't know how I'm feeling at 9-10 miles. I just keep going and get lost in the songs I'm listening to and what is happening around me. On the LA course, each neighborhood has something different and its full of character. You encounter mariachis, Chinese drums, disco dancing, for example. Plus, people are cheering for you and encouraging you so its easy to keep going.

My son, Miguel, has become quite a wrestler. We were very proud that he won league champion for his weight class in junior varsity. He certainly works very hard and deserves all his success. On my run, I thought about a lot about how much both our "foster" boys have changed over the last few years. Miguel would probably not want me to tell you this, but he was a chubby insecure boy when he first came to our home, and now he has so much more confidence and LOVES his sport-wrestling. No longer chubby, he has turned it to muscle and core strength.

Miles 11-12
I was just starting to get tired at this point. I wasn't  aching yet and I had consumed, at least 6 packets of Gu (sports "food"). I'm sure I also had to use the restroom again, which just adds more time because of the wait. However, the course is less crowded by this time so its a shorter wait.

Back in January, I went to see The Sweet and Tender Hooligans-my favorite and THE BEST Morrissey/Smiths cover band again. Several times. I went with Roland and I also went with my friend Madeline. Its ALWAYS fun. Can't help it. House of Blues was a venue in Anaheim that sold out and it was crazy. The other shows were smaller venues that sold out but they were certainly less crazy than Anaheim House of Blues.

Miles 13-14 
You have to become like Forrest Gump at miles 13-14. Just run. I felt good knowing I was half way there, but its also the realization that what I just did (half marathon), I had to do again. Only this time I was more tired.


Listening to music, its exciting that Morrissey has had a few re-releases of previous albums, Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I. Vauxhall and I includes some bonus live recordings and Your Arsenal is remastered and the CD includes a bonus DVD. 

Miles 15-16
At this point I have sweat, it had dried, and I had sweat again. Not pretty. I actually wore make up when I ran this marathon. I figured, "What the heck? I may as well look better than if I never wore ANY make up." But the make up is gone. All that remains on my skin is the salty dried up sweat and I dare not think of my stench. But really, I didn't care. 

I love the name of Morrissey's new album World Peace is None of Your Business. That's just the title of the album and it gets your attention. We don't even know the names of the songs on it! Can't wait!!!

Miles 17-18
I run at such a slow pace, that my breathing at this point was not a problem. But my feet and ankles were hurting. During training, the most I ran was 18 miles so I wanted to go further just to prove to myself that I could do it. Mentally, I was feeling good about making it to 18, but I had to turn off my iphone because batteries were running low. It makes running lonelier for me because music is my constant companion. This means I could hear the cheering more and it kind of made me laugh when someone said, "You're almost there!" I mean, sure, I was closer than I was to finishing at mile one, but I still had to run 8 more miles. Ha ha!

So, I was able to purchase tickets to two Morrissey shows. One in Los Angeles at the Sports Arena with Tom Jones, the second at The Observatory in Santa Ana-which is in Orange County, or more affectionately known as The Orange Curtain. I paid a fortune for the Observatory since I bought them through Stub Hub. I'm bitter so I won't go into that now. Maybe later.

Miles 19-26.2
Despite aches and tiredness, which was all over my body, I kept running. Mile 22 was rough because I had passed my goal of 20 miles and I wanted to carry on but I just wasn't sure that if I kept running, I would make it. I wanted SOMETHING left in me to keep going so that I could cross that finish line. Every time I passed a person with a hose spraying the runners or a fire hydrant, I ran to it. For some reason, the water energized me and allowed me to keep running. However, to conserve energy, I walked a little of each mile after mile 23. When I got to mile 26, though, I ran. I SAY I ran, but by the time I got to that mileage, there was little difference in my speed between running and walking. But I "ran" across that finish line albeit looking like an old man. But I did it, right? 

When I got my medal, I was so happy, but I just wanted to sit down in the shade. Even though I was offered a free beer, the idea of walking ANYWHERE to get it just didn't appeal to me. And I only wanted water to drink because my mouth was so dry. 

I had to catch a shuttle back to my hotel in downtown Los Angeles and I was confused (probably from my exhaustion) and got off at the wrong stop and had to walk 2 miles to the hotel. I was dying, but I knew once I got there I could ice my legs and rest-which I did. And then I had a beer.

Later it hit me that while it took me 6 hours and 26 minutes (an hour slower than the average), I exceeded my goal of 20 miles and I FINISHED! 

I can't wait to do it again next year and improve my time! And I'll have even more about Morrissey to keep me going.