Vampires are training for this run too?

So yesterday I woke up looking to do my first real training, but first I had to get my daughter ready and dropped off at school.  I go through the usual brush, pee, get dressed, dad plays a quick poker tourney on line, make her lunch, then it's off to school kid go learn something useful. But this morning she stumps me with " Dad, can you braid my hair?" I looked at her as if she just asked me to wipe her butt with my bare hands. Which truth be told I actually would do if I had to.  There's something about your own kid's feces or vomit that doesn't quite gross you out as much as your own or anothers. Don't get me wrong the smell of both are still sickening but the touch of it is really nothing.  Anyways, it went something like this.

Chayse

Dad can you braid my hair please?

Dad has an uncomfortable look on his face.

Dad

That's for mom's sweety and besides I don't know how to.

Chayse

But dad, mom knows how to braid my hair, why can't you?

Dad

(pause)

What are you trying to say, mom can do something I can't? Cause if that's what I think you're implying by that outrageous presumption you can count on a 13 hour timeout. Now go get one of those hair band thingys and come sit at my feet.

It might not have gone exactly like that but it was how I felt, competitive. So it was a lot of brushing and fumbling with certain fingers holding certain hairs while crossing hands and such. It was all a little emasculating so in my mind I was actually fashioning some dock line needed to moor my 75ft yacht to the deck at my Hampton summer home. This was the result:

Guess I would have lost my boat to sea. Funny how it looks like a horseshoe crab I once stepped on when I was 13 on a field trip to Sandy Hook, NJ.

So I'm not sure whether or not this makes me a good dad because I at least tried or a bad dad because I sent my kid to school looking like she hadn't showered in days.  For kicks I should have sent her in pink fuzzy house slippers with a cigarette dangling from her mouth. And I'm so insecure that when I got to school I made sure to apologize to anyone that was over the age of 5. I apologized to a 12 year old that happened to be visiting, wtf. They were all understanding and said it just had to be pulled tighter the whole way through next time. 

T minus 32 days

So I finally arrive at the reservoir ready to do this. I'm gonna check the time before I begin so I have an idea of where I'm at pace wise.  I normally wouldn't be concerned about this but my wife and her friends have all been hardcore training for months now. Not to mention they apparently have Jerry bashing sessions, they're all motivated to beat me for some reason like I'm their arch nemesis or something. The funny thing is I know my wife is the ring leader of it all.  And they're open about it. It's like they're the evil news casting team from Anchorman led by Vince Vaughn and I'm Ron Burgundy only without the crew.  I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly... Needless to say the week before the run I will definitely be sleeping out of house in fear of sabotage by poisoning or physical injury.  More to follow on this developing drama I'm sure.

I check the time and I'm off.  I ease into it for the first few hundred yards, hamstring is feeling fine.  Then it occurs to me that it's been overcast and suddenly nothing looks as beautiful as it did the other day. The twin lake reservoirs look a little swampy almost tar pittish and the joggers coming at me look like vampires. It is clear to me that running in anything less than great weather is a chore.  I chore on but have already forgotten what time I started.  I remember it ended in an 8, and I couldn't have been jogging more than 7 minutes so I should be able to figure it out given the time.  I shout out to the Mexican guy running with his German Shepard. He reluctantly tells me, I think I threw off his breathing pattern.  I started at 10:18. Nothing of note the rest of the way but that a lot of vampires live in Silverlake.  On the back stretch I'm dying, but I'm trying to maintain a steady pace  I'm struggling to keep my form I'm trying to run with push through my foot. Don't know what that last term means really I made it up while running.  It's something to do with using my toes to help finish off my stride, maybe it's the secret to fast running. I finish exhausted.  Going to my car I almost wander into oncoming traffic. I'm ready to throw up I check the time 10:37.  I don't know what this means, I'm so gassed I can't even subtract the two numbers. 37-18=?  18-37=?  37-18=?  I actually pulled up the calc function on my blackberry, and I was in Calc BC.  19 minutes, it took me 19 minutes, what does this mean?  Oh no let's see I need minutes per mile, okay the brain is starting to work.  19 minutes divided by 2.2 miles,  okay this I need the calculator for. 

19/2.2 = 8.63 minutes per mile

Not bad for a someone who has kind of quit smoking : ) I couldn't have run another lap but I have four more weeks of training. By the way the evil news casting team is always talking about 10 minute miles. 

We run May 2nd

Raising awareness for Pediatric Cancer. It's now personal. Join Team Hunter for a 10K run or please donate and help us help them. http://pcrf-kids.org.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=329465&lis=1&kntae329465=94C6BC013E8D47C1AC923632E6F9944F&supId=283487581

Training for Team Hunter

It's a cliche I'm certain, but it has never been a desire of mine to blog about anything to anyone . What would I have blogged about anyway, being an actor in LA? How narcissistic or gay would that be? and I mean gay in the high school sense of the word, no idea that people of the same sex actually wanted to make out with one another. It was ignorant then, it's ignorant now, but some times the word just fits so beautifully. Yes I went to high school before Ellen came out on Ellen and yes my wife and I are looking for a great gay couple to be friends with. I've written five sentences and already It's dawning on me that this could be a very bad idea. But bad ideas are far more fun anyways right? Right, so I'm going to blog unapologetically for the next 5 weeks as I train up to run the Cinco De Mayo 10K for Pediatric Cancer Research. I will run as a member of our global village, as a father, and for one Hunter Zen Thawley.

Day 1 "Silverlake Reservoir"

It's 2.2 miles around this beautiful reservoir complete with dog park, basketball court, and children's day care. Too bad I won't actually be running it today, It'll be more like a recon mission through Trader Joe's. For one, I've never run more than a mile in my entire life and two, I've been shut down physically for 6 weeks due to a torn hamstring I sustained playing basketball. Torn hammy, come on, I've never even thought about that muscle. As a matter of fact I didn't even know what's it's purpose was until I hurt it. For those interested, it's the largest muscle in your body and it's responsible for retracting the lower leg. Not sure what it's good for other than running, well maybe for pulling the ottoman a little closer, now that is incredibly important.

So the plan is to walk half the loop around the reservoir, warm up the hamstring, and lightly jog the second half. It just so happens I have a 50yr old friend who lives right by the reservoir. What better person to have join me. He won't push the pace and I won't feel the need to alpha male him. Everything went as I had planned, I barely broke a sweat and it was a pleasant lap. My friend is a wealth of knowledge and he couldn't have been better company. My only regret is that I did the lap shirtless. Ashamed of my body I am not, but walking and talking to another Asian guy for a mile and a half around a reservoir with my shirt off, well that's just.......a little too Sex in the City.

So I'll run once or twice a week, cross train with some swimming and basketball, and voila I'll be ready to run this 10K. I'm well aware this isn't a monumental accomplishment in of itself and the training for it hardly deserves blogging about, but it's the why we run that has inspired me. I've always had a special place in my heart for children, probably because I am forever one myself. Being a father these past 4 years has been the greatest privilege of my life. It has been a lot of work and I'm painfully aware that the challenges will only become more difficult (I'm already constructing the gun case that will reside above and behind my desk) In return I only ask for one thing. That I may watch her grow, tackle life, and reach for her fullest potential. Young Hunter like many other children have not been afforded this opportunity. It kills me, and the hurt the families endure, kills me. For some back story, two weeks ago I sent this email out to my friends and family.

Hi everyone, two months ago Trish somehow convinced me to run a 10K marathon with her on the Cinco de Mayo. It's a run organized by The Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. We have a team of 10 running and collectively our goal has been to raise 1500 dollars. Originally, I was simply going to raise my share locally and go suffer along with all the other runners but the circumstances have changed. Over the past week, this run and this cause has become painfully and incredibly personal for me. On Monday our friends Zen Todd and Lenore Davis lost their boy Hunter to Leukemia, he was only 3 1/2. He fought valiantly for over two years and he has become my hero. His parents have given all their love and all their strength to him and it is time for them to now rest. We are picking up the fight and we are going to run and take it to the cancer. Help us celebrate and honor the life this young man lived, please donate and join Team Hunter. I know times are tough but in this cause like many others, every dime counts, so there is no amount too small. But either way we are all family and I love you all dearly, hope to see everyone soon- J

I have no idea what to expect of this blog, but I can say it'll be candid and have my honest point of view. I can say it will not be a constant solicitation for donations to the Pediatric Cancer Research fund, but it will always be an option should you want to, and I can say only jog with your shirt off if you're by yourself .

We run May 2nd

To learn more about Hunter, you can read his mother's blog at www.healinghunter.com <http://www.healinghunter.com/>

to make a donation for the run please visit my donation page
http://pcrf-kids.org.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=329465&lis=1&kntae329465=94C6BC013E8D47C1AC923632E6F9944F&supId=283487581