Had a fantastic 22-23 miler yesterday, starting out at the famed Will Rogers trailhead (thank you, George Michael, for making the bathrooms here so world famous), traversing the Santa Monicas to Trippet Ranch in Topanga Canyon, and heading back, all in 3 hrs 45 mns.

What's great about running near the ocean is the temps tend to stay about 8-10 degrees cooler than where I live, just east of Hollywood, and the marine layer hangs around to provide cover pretty much until 2:00pm, which yesterday, it did ever-so-nicely.

As I wrapped it up around 12:30 (yeah, I actually kept my promise to hit the trails earlier than usual on a weekend), I was washing off my feet and toweling away the caked on layers of salt, when another runner, obviously done conquering the hills, strolled up to the water fountain.

Asked I, "How long did you go today?"

Him: "About 8 miles. How about you?"

"I think about 22.5, but I'm not sure."

His eyes swelled: "What?"

Me: "Well, I just dropped an application for a 100 miler in 3 months in the mail, so I can't mess around."

Him: "Ohhhh...you're one of them."

"Them" meaning "ultrarunners". I had yet to have been told I was crazy by another runner, and truth be told, I'd been waiting for this day for years.

Being called crazy never felt so good.