I actually saw a restaurant called...

Heh, you're going to have to work for that one. I'm going to bury the end of that sentence somewhere further down the post just to make you read it. Hopefully once you find it you'll be interested enough to stick around for the end.

I spent the last couple of nights in beautiful Arcadia, CA. Everything I know about Arcadia I learned from the television series "Joan of Arcadia." I did not have any instances of God talking to me through the homeless guy (actually, I didn't even see one homeless guy), baseball coach, night manager, or barista. All in all that was pretty disappointing, because that could have been an interesting conversation. I did, however, learn a few things:

1. The mountains are close, but you can barely see them thanks to all the crap in the air. It worries me a little when I think about what I might have been breathing (oh, hi Cancer! I didn't see you there!). When I can't see the mountains from somewhere in Seattle, I know it's either night, raining, or just low flying clouds. I'm not saying our air is pristine and perfect, but it was a hell of a lot clearer than what I got in Arcadia.

2. Seabiscuit was here, and he had a lot of other horse friends that hung around town. I went to lunch one day at a place called the Derby. It was right next door to my hotel. I was in there with a 25 year old, a guy that was probably around my age (35), and a guy that was somewhere between 45 and 50. We were still the youngest people in there by several decades. Our waitress looked like she could fondly remember her first encounter with a celebrity, Noah (the guy with the Ark, not the one from ER). The place was devoted to those select, obscenely wealthy people that don't have anything better to lose money on so they buy horses and spend all their time at the track. I hate them because I'm not one of them. I don't want to be their age, just obscenely wealthy with nothing better to lose money on.

3. Exploration runs are fun, as long as you're not trying to plan one while you're actually doing the run. A smart person would have consulted walkjogrun.net for a route or consulted with the concierge/locals at the hotel for a good place to go. I didn't do that.

4. I need to get a better control of my food situation and do it faster when I go away from home. I ate so ridiculously that first night that I would not be surprised if my traveling companion was right now telling one of our other coworkers "I can't believe how much CRAP he shoved in his mouth! And it happens the same way every single time. The first day I'm away from home I might as well just have a trough filled with slop in front of me, because I'm a freaking pig.

I arrived in Arcadia around 5:00 on Monday afternoon and took an hour or so to wind down and get settled. Monday is a rest day, so I didn't have a run planned. Instead, I went to a chain restaurant and proceeded to shovel in fried zucchini (the healthiest thing on my plate) a giant chicken fried steak and a massive back-loader full of mashed potatoes. It was so fortuitous for me that I found that place because I've been craving some chicken fried steak for a couple of days. Unfortunately, I found out that there are three of these restaurants here in Western Washington. Not right in Seattle, thankfully, but in easy driving distance. I think any carbs I might have been lacking in my diet were replenished by that meal. I barely stopped myself from getting the deep dish berry pie. I still kind of wish I'd pulled the trigger on that one. After that it was back to the hotel to veg on my two addictions, television and the Internet.

Tuesday I had a planned four mile run. I brought stuff with me so that I could do it, and I'm so proud of myself for actually getting out and running. I wish I'd had this kind of motivation when I was gallivanting all over the world. Due to the nature of the people I was traveling with I probably wouldn't have gotten as many runs in, but the running thing makes me get out of the cave (or hotel room, whatever you want to call it) and it makes me eat. In spite of the ridiculousness that were my eating habits on this trip, my normal inclination when on the road, especially if I'm alone, is to not eat. Not because I'm not hungry, I usually am, but because I'm either too lazy to leave the room or too embarrassed by my laziness to order a pizza. Well, to be somewhat fair, I've been to some places where even ordering a pizza wasn't an option. However, I've always had the option of room service, but I haven't always taken it.

I had no plan other than a distance. I had this rough idea before I got there that I'd just pick a direction and go two miles then turn around and come back. My research on this area was so non-existent that I didn't realize that we'd be in a fairly bustling suburb. I thought we'd be out in the middle of nowhere. So that brought up the complication of stoplights, which I wanted to mostly avoid. So I started out running around the block, which got rid of about 3/4ths of a mile for me. I could tell you all of the twists and turns I took, but it doesn't make for riveting reading if you must know. I wrote it all out and nearly cried because it was so boring, so I'm sparing you pain. Instead, I'll make a few comments about things I saw:

People. When you're running, non-runners stare at you like you're some kind of alien. Nodding does not always get you a reaction. Nor does smiling. Saying "hi" actually looks like it might cause some fear. "Mommy, why is the alien TALKING to me?" Just because I'm actively moving with the express purpose of maintaining some cardiovascular health does not mean I'm from another planet.

Horses. I didn't see any actual horses, but I did see a full service bookkeeper that specializes in all of your horsey needs. She keeps the books for your valuable equine property and does your tax returns too. I wonder if she was a CPA. I vaguely remember from when I was studying for my CPA that there are some special tax rules regarding horses used for racing, so I'm going to assume that she was.

Routes. Pick them wisely. At least pick them before you start running. If I had just done a little research I would have seen the nice park about half a mile down the road. I ended up there anyway, but by time I got there I didn't really need it. There was lots of activity in it too. I think there was a high school team of some sort doing some conditioning by running through the park. I though about sort of joining them, but I decided that having the 35 year old man crash their run would be more than just a little creepy. I wisely refrained. I wonder if I could have run to the Santa Anita horse racing track and run around that. Eh, that's probably what the fine fellows with badges and guns like to call trespassing. No sense in making them work any harder by doing something stupid.

Restaurants. Here it is, the money shot. I hope you read the whole thing rather than skipping right to the end to see if I stuck it someplace predictable. If you did, you owe it to me to go back and start from the beginning. Anyway, I thought this kind of crap was made up. You see it on all sorts of websites, like engrishfunny.com but I never expected to see one up close. I actually saw a restaurant called "Young Dong." I'm surprised if it's not busted by Arcadia's vice squad at least once a month. With a name like that, you know it's a cougar hangout.

Times for my splits are as follows:
Mile 1 - 9:44
Mile 2 - 9:48
Mile 3 - 10:01
Mile 4 - 10:10
Remainder - 1:34 (a whole .17 miles, so nothing to get excited about)
Average pace - 9:54