Day 43 (Thrs., Oct. 13)

It was 3:33 a.m. and the alarm went off. I rolled over out of bed and I questioned myself. I questioned my mental health, mostly.

After brushing my teeth, I reached for water bottles from inside the small, dorm-size fridge that sits on the nightstand next to the bed. Grabbed a few snacks and my camera bag. My running shoes and my watch. I was ready to go.

I drove down the street and filled up "La Huera's" das tank. I was ready to go.

So, where the hell was I going so early? The above photo is of the truck as it faced west into the Gulf of Mexico.

Should I give you a couple of minutes for you to realize what was wrong here?...

I was 123 miles west of Ft. Lauderdale on the beach at Bonita Beach, Florida. I drove there to start what I called the "9.9 Challenge" or the "Do it in Three's Event of a Lifetime".

So, what's the "9.9 Challenge" or the "Do it in Three's Event of a Lifetime"? It's the craziest, coolest, dumbest, etc. thing I was talking about last night.

Since the Gulf of Mexico is not too far away from Ft. Lauderdale, I figured I do something cool today.

First of all, let me catch you up on some stuff that's going on that I haven't really talked much about because I am just concentrating on one thing at a time. I have a short but very important internship in Las Vegas next week. I have not really thought much about that internship because I don't want to cut short the one in Florida. But since I flew out to the West Coast today, it's now time to talk about it. Last year I took part of the Society of Professional Journalists internship program in New York City. This year it's being held in Las Vegas and I am, once again, one of the top 12 journalism students in the country that they chose to do this student project. How cool is that? I get to be a top journalism student in the country, get to show off my talent to all the important people in the industry and I get to go to Vegas. Nice!

Since I will be in Las Vegas next week, I decided I will visit my family in Los Angeles first. After all, it has been since May that I have not seen them. Also, today is my niece Rocio's b-day and tomorrow is my nephew/God son Kevin's b-day. So, I couldn't miss that. It's time to come home and check in.

Back to the task for today. The other day I must have been bored and I decided that it would be cool to do a jog on the Gulf, Atlantic and Pacific coasts all in the same day. I figured the Gulf of Mexico is close by and I live just miles from the Atlantic Coast. Tonight I went to the Pacific Coast. So, that's why I got up early to drive to the Gulf of Mexico.

OK... click here to send me an e-mail and tell me how crazy and dumb that sounds. One thing, though, everyone already told me that. So, you won't be the first.

During the drive to the Gulf, a very cool Floridian milestone came to me. As I drove west on the Interstate Highway 75, or as the locals call it here "Gator Alley" because it cuts right through the middle of the Everglades, I saw a thing that moved on the road. It was dark and really didn't have much of a shape. Just some thing on the road. At first, I thought it was a strip of tire that was blown off a big rig. I figured it was that because there were plenty of those on the road. However, as I got close to it, it moved!!!!

AAHHHH!!!!

It was a Gator. It was a GATOR!!!!

Sure, at first it brought some uneasy feeling up my spine, but seconds later I was thrilled.

WWWOOOOHHHHHOOOOO!!!

I am in FLORIDA, baby!!!!

It's the same thrill that I got on Day 5 of the San Angelo Internship, when I saw my first armadillo in Texas. That's how cool it was.

It was 5:55 a.m. and I finally made it to Bonita Beach in Naples, Florida. I drove around town looking for a cool beach-front jogging path. It was too dark, so I had to make my own path and started on the "9.9 Challenge."

I ran 3.3 miles there and decided to shoot a few photos of myself to prove it. As I shot, a local came up to me and we started a really cool travel conversation. Turns out he has seen most of the things in the U.S. southeast and southwest just like me. We talked for a little while about the cool things in life. The 58-year-old man talked about the power of "being alone". Unfortunately, his mate passed away a few years ago. He is getting through all of that, and in doing so, he has learned that doing things alone is great.

Hey, that sounds like me. Of course, I like it when my mate is around so we can create new memories. But, as you can tell, I am pretty much a get-up-and-go-do-it type of guy. I will not let the fact that I am stuck w/o my friends and family and mate while being away from home right now to keep me from doing things that I think are cool. I love being w/ my family, friends and my mate, but I also love being alone.

So, that was the first part to the "Do it in Three's Event of a Lifetime". Why three's?

Well, Three is my favorite number. Seems like a lot of cool things happen in three's. Like early this week when the Los Angeles Angels baseball team won three games in three nights in three different time zones as they battle through the post-season and into the American League Championship Series.

After the talk w/ Mel, I hit the road going east. I ended at my usual beach-front running track at Ft. Lauderdale Beach. It was 8:48 and I was starting the second of the three-part running series of the day.

I felt really good, even though it was a pretty hot morning. I love running at FLB. It's a nice place to do it. I can park "La Huera" (pictured on the left in the above photo) next to the sidewalk and run as the calm waves crash into the Atlantic Coast. Cool.

After doing my second run of the day, I rushed home and showered. After all, I had to go to work today. I gotta finance all the gas that it takes to do such cool things like today. Today's assignment was to go to the local horse race track. I shot there for a while and headed back to the office. I worked half day since I had to jump on the plane towards Cali (in the West Coast, not in Colombia -- haha. The other day I told a guy that I was from Cali and he told me that I didn't look Colombian. How do Colombian appearance differ from Mexican, hmm, I wonder. I thought that was funny.)

After a long five-plus hour flight from Ft. Lauderdale to L.A. I completed the challenge by running 3.3 miles at Santa Monica. This gave me some sort of Forrest Gump feel of achievement. Do you remember the movie? He starts running on the East Coast and somehow ends up reaching Santa Monica Pier. That's what I did today. I started somewhere in the East Coast and finished right where Interstate Highway 10 ends. OK, laugh at me and call me Forrest. It's OK, I don't mind. After all, "Momma said..."

Haha!

So, I am back in Cali. Woohooo!!! Today was a crazy day. A lot of things happened and I will be able to tell about it when I get old. Perhaps it could be the "piece of information" I share when I appear on Jeopardy whenever I am smart enough to participate.

It feels good to be home. I feel so out of place. I have been gone for so long. In the last 16 months, I have only spent four months in L.A. Pretty soon I am going to lose my L.A.ness. Oh oh!

So, since next week I will be doing a different internship, I will start a different journal. So, keep posted to the web site so you can see what kind of stuff I got myself into in Las Vegas. It should be fun. I love Vegas. I miss it so much. It's weird how I only been there two times in the last two years. I used to go about five times a year ever since I turned 21. Oh well, I have been to other places in this country. I guess I have a good reason to have been away.

As I said, keep posted to the web site to see the new journal as I take a little break from this one. Also, you probably already noticed the changes to the Welcome page. I figured it's time to add some eye-candy to it. You can get creative on a five-plus hour flight.

Here's a story I wrote about today's "9.9 Challenge" during the SPJ Convention:

I have a vice and journalism is helping me with my addiction. In Las Vegas, the things that usually come to mind are gambling and alcohol. For me, the drug is traveling and running. Thanks to journalism, I get my fix of both. I love traveling. Two years ago I decided to do something new. I set off to see a new place in the United States every month. So far, I have kept that streak alive thanks to two SPJ internships and three newspapers internships in Texas and Florida. I also love running. I have been running for 15 years and I have six marathons (26.2 miles) under my belt. Someday I want to run a race in every state. So, when I took a break from my fall internship in South Florida this week, I decided to do something I thought was cool. Everyone told me I am crazy for taking on what I called the "9.9 Challenge." The "9.9 Challenge" consists of running 3.3 miles on each of the United States coasts in a 24-hour span. I left Ft. Lauderdale on Oct. 13 to make a quick 1½ day visit to my family in Los Angeles before driving here for the SPJ Convention. The day I left, I woke up at 3:33 a.m. and drove 123 miles from Ft. Lauderdale to Naples, Fla. That's where I ran 3.3 miles on the Gulf Coast as the sun came up over Bonita Beach. I drove back to Ft. Lauderdale and ran the same distance on the Atlantic Coast. Then I worked six hours on assignments for the Sun-Sentinel. After work, I drove to the airport and got on a five-hour-plus flight to L.A. Minutes after my arrival, I headed to Santa Monica Beach where I ran the final leg of the challenge _ just 17 hours after I started my first run. In Santa Monica I felt a sense of achievement. I felt like Forrest Gump when he ran across the country. The "9.9 Challenge" would have not been conceivable if I wasn't chosen as a member of The Working Press. Given opportunity, I had a reason to take a week off from my fall internship, visit my family (which I had not seen since May) and came to Vegas. It also gave me a chance to run into a few old friends from last year's convention. Thank you journalism.

We'll continue this journal soon. Stay tuned.

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