We got more done this morning before noon than usually happens in an entire weekend: rose at 5:00, out the door to Agoura Hills at 5:30, in time for a 7:00 am half marathon. It was a great race, about half on pavement and half on trails, with a couple of nasty uphills and some great downhills, as well. I had fun, even though the last two miles felt endless, and ended up coming in about a minute off my personal best for a purely road-race half marathon, which felt pretty good to me. It was a very well-managed race, with plentiful water stops, good food at the end, and the requisite band blasting classic rock covers at the finish line.





We left Agoura Hills by 9:30 and headed back on the 101 to Echo Park, where we got back on track with our Walking L.A. tours and walked (or rather hiked, as it was mostly stairs) Elysian Heights, which I used as a sort of a cool-down from the race. We enjoyed the views, marveled at the radically different architectural styles planted next to one another, and stopped at Delilah Bakery for some delicious baked goods.



We also made a stop at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, a successful visit after a few thwarted attempts. It’s still coming together, but they’ve got the mini-mart theme down, and have a wide range of items from all historical eras: British tea (made by British people, “The sun never sets on us!”), a full set of chain mail, a stack of Ricky Martin lunch boxes, some dinosaur eggs, and a variety of robot maintenance items. I got some Chubble, from the future; not sure what it is, but it’s apparently not to be used if the box is opened, so I’ll leave it as is.



By the time we got home, it was only noon, so we zoned out and the afternoon sort of flew by. I’ve been keep up with the noir festival at the Cinematheque, with screenings on Thursday and Friday night, and it’s as good as ever, lots of obscure films with great dialogue and impossibly bitter characters. More, please!