Running
Today is my normal day to do a long run in preparation for the Rock and Roll Marathon (donate!) which I am running on December 6. During the week, I run 3-5 miles every other day, and Sunday’s do a super long run. My “usual” non-training run is a 13 mile through Griffith Park. It’s a beautiful run, taking me through Burbank, to Glendale and into the park.
Today I was going to do a longer version of that run by going in the opposite direction for a few miles and looping up and around back toward the park. However when I got the place where I would go back east, I decided: what the hell, I’ll run west until I I reach half the total distance i want to run, then run back.
I ran through the cities of Burbank, Toluca Lake, Valley Village, Studio City, Sherman Oaks and halfway through Encino. All told, I travelled three separate corridors through the Valley.
I usually only drive these routes, and Amy and I, sadly don’t get out to explore much (we stick around Toluca Lake). Some things I saw and noticed:
- I ran by the vacant hospital where they shoot Scrubs and any hospital scenes in the Office.
- The valley has some cute little cafe’s scattered through it, some of which have pitchers of water for runners outside, which is very nice.
- Sherman Oaks was having a whole street festival, which sucked because I had to run by and I was super hungry
- Burbank is comparatively empty compared to Studio City and Sherman Oaks on the weekend
- Running is fun way to see the variations, eras and booms/busts in real estate through the year. The booms are represented by tons of condo and apartment buildings with the same style. The busts by few in certain styles. A bust year? Archibald Quincy Jones style wood paneling. Boom year? Horrible late 80′s stucco vomit and early/mid-2000′s column/faux Venetian
- It’s a good idea to eat a good breakfast before a long run. I forgot to.
- The Clif goopy gel stuff is much better than Gu. The Clif Shot Blocks are awesome too for some electrolyte’s.
- Pay attention to the camber of the pavement and asphalt when you run. If your arches start hurting, move (as safely as possible) away from the curb or on to the sidewalk (harder on the soles, but easier on the arches)
- Riverside, Moorpark and Ventura Blvd would be perfect light-rail lines and alleviate a ton of traffic. Why hasn’t this been done? Oh wait
- It’s interesting to see how much certain cities value, or devalue human scale architecture. I think it’s also indicative of the era of urban planning. Newer areas (ie, Sherman Oaks toward the 405 and Encino) have no human scale architecture while more “forgotten” corridors, like Riverside in Valley Village or Moorpark in Studio City are all about small shops and long-standing businesses. Interestingly enough, the small shops and human scale retail had less vacancies than the relative ghost towns of the mirrored glass monstrosities
All in all, it was a great run. Not as scenic as the Griffith Park run, but ultimately scenic in a different way. Los Angeles is a weird place with a very fractal sense of community, history and locality. Each little area is a self-similar representation of the bigger city and county as a whole. Running through one city and a few municipalities (there are only three cities in the Valley, technically), you see, block to block, the short history of the area play out.
From stamps in cement with the date that the pavement was laid, to businesses proclaiming over a half century of existence residing next to a Starbucks. We are new and old, and celebrate neither.
Next weeks run needs to be over 18 miles, and my plan is to possibly head north, which is somewhat not altogether safe depending on where you do so, so I have to plan that accordingly.