Paige's video
"To forgive is to love. And when you love, God's light will shine on you, always."
The kids are back in school but the summer heat is still around. The vacations are done but there are still the fall & winter getaways to start planning. This summer went by way too fast! By the time the summer season winds down, most marathon runners start gearing up the training for the fall races. The "not so Lazy" daze of summer also brings upon the challenges of shorter more high intensity races including 10 and 5Ks. The benefit of these shorter races is that they truly are just a litmus test on our overall conditioning throughout the year.
The Santa Clarita Marathon 2012 is our hometown running ritual. I feel so lucky that I am able to wake up on Marathon Sunday from my own bed and to warm up, ride my bike to the start. This is only my third Santa Clarita Marathon since 2010, but my third marathon this year. I felt that my training so far has been doing okay and I planned on achieving that coveted Boston qualifying time of sub 3:15. Marathons are funny. Not in the "ha ha ha" type, but in the strange way each one at each particular time have a unique quality of their own. I was told that the LA Marathon is one race not one to try and PR. But, I did and felt strong. I was also told that our hometown race is also one that is not a PR course. Fine, this seemed like a helluva challenge and I worked very hard through the training to BQ or at least beat last years time. The response to the question, "So, what time are you shooting for?" was "Somewhere between my LA time and 3:20." That's not too lofty of a goal, right? I do remember back in March that one famous dentist in our club told me, "respect the minutes, young man." Boy, was he right! We have so much talent of all ages in our club, but when seasoned runners speak, you tend to pay extra attention.
I was very lucky to witness multi-Grammy winner, Lenny Kravitz at one of my favorite concert venues last Thursday night at The Nokia Theater at LA Live. My buddy Steve and I were treated to an eclectic and soulful show that spanned the artists 20 plus year career. I was first introduced to his music on the debut album, "Let Love Rule". That record had a personal and rock oriented feel to it, and this live show was no different. I haven't heard any of his new stuff, but I was pleasantly grooving on the mezzanine when he opened the show with "Come on Get it". Lenny then rolled into some of his earlier hits and the sell out crowd was just in a tizzy, including me! Of course, the tune I wanted to hear was "Mr. Cab Driver", my favorite off "Let Love Rule". The horn solo at the end was just stellar! I'm so glad I captured it on video even though it was on my cell phone. I really will remember to bring out my HD Kodak next time at a show! His autobiographical tune, "Black & White America" was truly mesmerizing. The crowd really seemed to enjoy the slide show during this part of the show including the stage setup. Lenny had a huge video pyramid that lit up the night. "Are you gonna go my way" was a perfect set closer that had the people dancing and singing. The encore consisted of two acoustic songs, "Push" & " I belong to you" and his 1st hit, "Let Love Rule". I was impressed by the usual yet catchy chords and melody in "Push". "Let Love Rule" was incredible. Lenny worked the crowd by going into the aisles and making it all the way to the back. It would have been really cool if he made it up to the party section at the mezzanine level!