Run DMZ

How can you not like a race in which you begin on level ground, knock off a hill or two and finish with vendors from 450 booths cheering you on as you move toward a finish that includes a giant medal and equally large, fresh strawberries? Sunday was actually my second time doing this annual Memorial Day weekend running event in North County. A couple of years ago I did the 10k race with a friend and finished strong. I forgot my time or place among my age group, but the race results for that year were down last time I checked. This time I was introducing my nephew, whom I’m now raising, to San Diego running. He’d shown an affinity for it during his school’s recent jogathon. He just turned 11, is quite small for his age and intellectually disabled. No way would I foist a 10k on him, so we signed up for the 5k, which actually is the bigger draw most years. The 10k runners go first, at 6:45 a.m. which means by the time we pulled into Vista Village around 6:30, parking wa...

Bay 2 Breakers 2013 from Run DMZ on Vimeo . Of all the races I did during my five-year blogging hiatus, none left as big of an impression as Bay to Breakers . This storied run from the bay to ocean through San Francisco is distinct, and not just because of the high nudity quotient or people passing the time throwing tortillas at the start . It’s more than 100 years old (ancient by West Coast standards) and in the Guinness Book of World Records for holding 110,000 participants in 1986. It remains one of the largest fields in the world, ranging from 40,000 to 100,000 on average. Bay to Breakers, to me, embodies San Francisco. There are crazy-ass costumes and plenty of people wearing nothing but their birthday suits. There are spectators drunk at 8 a.m. on a Sunday, hosting raves on the toughest part of the course, and cheering on the teams of salmon “swimming” against the endless current of runners and walkers going the other way. On a good year, there are upwards of 100...

Deborah is beating me! (And Diane's already finished.) Every now and then I like to mix it up. I am not one for the Stairmaster, but with hiking season well underway, I needed to get in a good leg workout. So I convinced some friends to join me this morning to do repeats on the San Diego Convention Center stairs .  There are 100 of them to get to a platform with stunning views of the bay, Coronado bridge and Embarcadero Park, home in the summers to the San Diego Pops outdoor concerts . Facing the other way are stunning views of downtown. During weekday afternoons, you’ll see people going up and down the stairs doing repeats. And then you’ll see tourists giving these stair-runners a strange look. Whether you walk slowing or try to run up them, your quads and calves will be angry with you for a little while. We went when it was cool and uncrowded, as in 6:30 a.m. If you chose to go later, bring water. You’ll need it. View at the top of the stairs I didn’t do...

One of my favorite annual events is driving up to the formerly known SouthCentral LA and joining hundreds of thousands of other book lovers at the LA Times' Festival of Books. It used to be held at UCLA and now takes place at USC, and, yes, there were plenty of jokes at actress Lori Loughlin's expense but I don't think she was on campus to hear them. Almost every one of us as kids soak up as many books as we can and at one point want to be librarians or independent bookstore owners just so we can surround ourselves with the objects of our affection. Then we grow up and become something else. But the love of books remains. So, fortunately, does this April festival that features excellent authors discussing craft and content. And so many vendors it's overwhelming. That's to be expected for what is now the country's largest book festival. Here are some tips for how to make the most of the two-day festival . Getting there I admit I liked when the fest...

We tend to take photos for granted now that pretty much everyone I know has access to a digital camera, either theirs or someone else's. Sometimes I miss film cameras, not just for the quality, but for the mystery of the images a solid 35mm camera could produce. There's no mystery now. Just plenty of do-overs and flattering filters. There was a time not long ago when professional portraits were far more precious. Take this photo of my grandmother in 1937. I'm pretty sure this was taken for her wedding because she and my grandfather were still coming out of a brutal Depression and dirt poor. They would never splurge on such a luxury. I am, however, so glad someone did. The photo is as well preserved as she is. Happy 105th birthday today, Grandma! UPDATE: My grandmother passed away on May 8, 2019. She'd reached her finish line.

Directions seem so easy on paper. Or a smartphone app. Or a car’s navigation console. For as many times as our party of four had read the description for today’s hike, you’d think we would have gone the right way. Or at least recognized the wrong way at some point in the 3.5-mile journey. But no. That did not happen.  Ever since Deborah months ago read a blog post about a nice beach walk at San Onofre State Beach , we’d tried to schedule a Saturday morning trip. The problem was timing it with low tide and everyone's schedules. After three months of examining tide tables and calendars, today was the day. We drove about 45 minutes from our meeting spot in San Diego to the Basilone Road exit off the 5 North freeway and then worked our way first west and then south in the dark to an empty state park kiosk and parking lot. Along the way we passed a landmark every southern Californian recognizes: the decommissioned San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, better known ...

Unexpected storm moving into Poway this past Monday. If there’s one thing that people in Southern California love to talk about, it’s “weather,” our colloquialism for anything other than sunshine and mild temps. And we’ve had plenty of it this winter, with annual rainfall well above average and night temps prompting frost advisories. No one complains after years of drought had good citizens holding off toilet flushes and replacing thirsty plants and grass. Almost every hike I’ve planned the past two months has been canceled due to rain or the serious threat of it. Before you roll your eyes and think “wimp,” please know that we locals stay off the trails out of respect for fragile areas. And rules. When it rains, most public trails officially close. Not to mention I have a hard enough time staying upright going down steep dirt hills without the additional stress of slick mud underfoot. This has left many a weekend free to guiltlessly nest inside, where it’s warm and dry....