David Alan Grier

The actor-comedian is running in the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday.

Creature of Habit: On Friday nights, I like to go to dinner with friends at Orso’s on 3rd Street. I get the same thing every time--their Diablo pizza, with soup and salad. Then I go see a film at the Laemmle Sunset 5. I love watching art films with the intellectuals that go there. [He laughs.] Then I come out and buy some CDs for my never-ending collection. I like that ambient, dub, trip-hoppy kind of spooky music that they play on KCRW, which I listen to incessantly.

Early Start: I wake up at 6 o’clock every Saturday to walk my dogs while I listen to NPR’s “Morning Edition.” I go down to the Country Store in Laurel Canyon to get some coffee and an apple turnover, sometimes two. I think if I’m going to run 13 miles later in the day, I can eat really badly. Plus, it fills me up, which gives me an excuse to delay the run.

Still Holding Back: After breakfast, I’m a slug. I lie in bed or enter notes into the computer. I’m working on a script.

Time to Hit the Road: Early in the afternoon, I go and do my run along the bike path at the beach. It’s my longest run of the week, and because I’m preparing for the marathon I have to run 12 or 13 miles, which means I have to run from the north end of the bike path in Malibu into Marina del Rey and all the way back. If I don’t start by about 1 o’clock, it will be dark by the time I finish, because I run like an old man. After that, I get a Jamba Juice smoothie, head home and turn up the heat really high because by then my body is totally breaking down and I start questioning, why am I running this [expletive] marathon?

Refueling the Tank: If I’m not too beat up after my run, I might go out Saturday night--either back to Orso’s or to the Little Door, which is Moroccan. They have these scallops encrusted in pistachios that are really, really good. To me, the perfect evening is excellent food at a restaurant that’s not trendy--a restaurant where the emphasis is not on who’s there but on excellent food.

Yeah, That’s the Ticket: On Sunday morning, I get up and read the L.A. Times and the New York Times in my backyard. If there’s a Laker game on, I always watch. And I always brag about how far I ran on Saturday, always adding at least three to five miles. If I ran 13, I say I ran 17, and so on and so on.