Having cleared the Veterans Administration facility, I was now heading closer and closer to the homeland, Santa Monica and the happy training grounds of the northern end of the LA Roadrunners course.
Right before the Mile 21 Marker, there was a left turn on the course and I got my first sight of the magic words "San Vicente." It was still Los Angeles; but, San Vicente is a big deal when you are a member of the LA Roadrunners. I got a bit of happiness in my system knowing it was now getting interesting. San Vicente is the end of the line on the northern side of the LA Roadrunners running course. It means I would soon be entering home turf. I passed Mile 21 and saw I was still passing lots of people.
Now, I got my unexpected fun moment for the race. One of the Roadrunners pace captains has such an upbeat attitude and every long run he would say as we neared the water station"things like "Menudo Time!" ... even though for some reason the menudo never quite seemed to be on the table.
So, I am running along San Vicente and I see him just ahead; so, I sped up a bit and was just behind him. He did not know I was there.
I hear him, apparently motivating himself, call out loudly, "Menudo Time!" I was in shock; but, I sped up alongside and chirped, "What no coffee and doughnuts?" "Coffee and doughnuts" was his other frequently-used phrase. he looked at me with my grey Roadrunners shirt on and we both started laughing. I think basically people around us must have assumed heat stroke had set in or we were both just plain insane. For us, it was a bit of inside humor and for me it was like a nice, reenergizing moment of humor that really lightened the mood.
Mile 22 marker came right at Bundy ... now I was definitely in familiar territory and I was excited. Plus, without O.J. Simpson around his old hunting grounds, I could relax even more. I saw two bicycles decked out with Union Jacks (British flags) and somehow presumed they were for me (well, they were not; but, it worked at the time).
I was now in the last 4.2 miles. I was seeing the Los Angeles street numbers go higher and higher. I knew what it meant and it was good, very good.
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I know how you felt when you saw the Union Jacks. I saw some people with Mexican flags and I knew they were cheering for me. Then I waved... then they got louder.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could have seen the Menudo time incident. That sounded like fun.
Ok... and then what happened?
You should work for as a TV show writer. You would leave everyone on the edge of their seats... To Be Continued...