Hash

It fucking snowed. Just a little for maybe five minutes. Before and after it drizzled. The wind blew hard throughout B.J.'s Hash run from Maumelle's Lake Willistine. It took me 1:09:09 to complete it. I probably covered five and a half miles and what's remarkable is that I felt very good, except that I'm still shivering.

Gimblett-Park Hill-Gimblett Loop

I ran, in order, the Gimblett, Park Hill and Gimblett Loops, plus the first mile of the Park Hill Loop. That's 16 miles in 2:51:33, w/ splits of 10:48, 11:05, 10:19, 10:47, 10:37, 10:39, 11:03, 10:23, 10:57, 10:22, 10:48, 11:17, 10:12, 10:45, 10:38 and 10:53. I walked the first two minutes of each mile and the first minute of each half mile (three minutes a mile, or 48 total minutes). It encourages me that I was bit dead-legged throughout, far from sharp. I didn't feel nearly as good as I felt last Monday-Wednesday. Yet, I went through a half-marathon, 150 to 200 feet higher at its finish than its start, in 2:20:42, averaged 10:43.3 a mile — a 4:41:07 marathon pace — and am confident I could have run another 10.21875 miles at a 12:34.1 pace to finish a marathon in 4:59:59. This was an effort, and I may be off my game for a while as a result.
My blood sugar was at 134 thirty minutes before I started. I ate a package of Gu maybe five minutes before I started, and then packages at 4, 7, 11, and 14 miles, and my blood sugar was at 125 a few minutes after I finished.

Maple Street Loop

walked and jogged, for a total of six minutes, in 26:06.

Maple Street Loop

jogged and walked in 24:13.

Gimblett Loop

run in 46:47, with splits of 9:54, 10:05, 9:19, 8:42 and 8:48. Again, easy. The weather was perfect; calm and maybe 50.

35th Street Loop

run in 36:47, with Erin Vratil style splits of 9:55, 9:16, 8:54 and 8:43. This was the easiest run of this sort so far, and remarkably smooth the day after a 10-mile run. I felt light.

Maple Street Loop/Park Hill-Gimblett Loop

I jogged one of each five minutes to finish the Maple Street Loop in 26:59 this morning.

This was more like it. Beginning a few minutes before 5 p.m. Central, I ran the Park Hill-Gimblett Loop in 1:48:49, walking the first minute of each half mile, so I walked for a total of 20 minutes. The splits were 10:55, 11:30, 10:45, 11:35, 10:41, 11:02, 11:32, 10:10, 10:41 and 9:59. I swear I didn't push the final mile, and was amazed when I saw that split. This was the easiest 10-mile run I've done since I ran a couple with Genie Bubb in 1981-82. Coming down that final long hill, it seemed odd how pain-free I was. I walked a few hundred yards after I finished and felt like running some more.

My blood sugar was at 134 before. I ate energy gels at 3.5 and seven miles and it dropped to 117.

Now I can enjoy listening to Green Bay Packers play at New Orleans, and cheering against the NFL's Packers' wide receiver Greg Jennings. I need him to score fewer than 10 fantasy points (0.1 point for each receiving yard and six for each touchdown) in order for my Democrat Football League Green Bay Packers to win. I will, by the way, be delighted for him to beat me if that's what it takes for the real Packers to win.

Orange Street Loop

run for the final two minutes of each five in 34:23, with splits of 11:50, 11:33, and 11:00, so I ran for a total of 13:23 and walked for 21.

Levy Loop

I ran the Levy Loop as easily as I could and finished it in 20:55, with splits of 10:34 and 10:21. A teenage girl standing by an idling car near 35th Street said, "Look like that man got some tights on tonight." A middle-aged, fat woman with her said, "It's about time you put something on your legs."

Russellville High School

RUSSELLVILLE — It was so cold an hour before the start of the Russellville Cyclones' 13-7 victory over the Fort Smith Northside Grizzlies in the Class 7A state playoff quarterfinals that I was able to run a little over two miles in my coat, blue jeans and mittens and not sweat a drop. I jogged the first four of each five minutes for 25 minutes through the dark and around the back side of the school and on the firm soil of a huge parking lot under construction and felt great. Russellville had a touchdown (after which it missed the extra-point attempt), a field goal, and two safeties. I had never seen 13 points scored like that.

35th Street Loop

A new, four-mile loop that remains on the relative flat of Levy, run in 38:34 through a hard, hard wind, with splits of 10:09, 10:10, 9:24 and 8:52. A hat and mittens were required.

Hump Day Hash

I probably covered about three miles in 40 minutes running from two Hashers' house near Stift Station, past the deaf school and the Capitol Building to the White Water Tavern, then back to the house for the best homemade chili I think I've eaten.

Orange Street Loop intervals/Maple Street Loop

run in 28:14, with a half mile up, two miles of 60 seconds hard w/ a 60-second jog/walk interval, and a half mile down, w/ splits of 9:30, 9:16 and 9:28.

I went for a walk of the Maple Street Loop, dressed to beat the cold in my second-rate Columbia coat, $4,000 running mittens, new 31-inch-waisted Wrangler jeans ($14 at Walmart), and lovely, red, coffee-flavored beer hat (free, since I stole it), but felt so good I also jogged the last minute of each five (for a total of five minutes), to finish in 26:29.

Orange Street Loop/Rebsamen Park Golf Course

jogged for the first two of each five minutes in 35:19, w/ splits of 11:45, 11:48 and 11:46. Something's missing. Kind of like Friedman said about the father in Cormac McCarthy's The Road, "...until I'm the last guy walking, I'll be looking for the solution at the end of the road."

Same thing with golf, maybe. I scored a 94 this afternoon, playing with a 54-year-old kid named John Hankins, a cell-phone engineer from Cincinnati who reminded me quite a bit of my dad and big brother. I had nines of 48 and 46, with 3 pars, 9 bogies, 5 doubles and 1 triple. I drove well, with a long of 246 and a handful over 230. I used 34 putts. My pitching and chipping sucked. All of my irons went left, some way left, but I had only one shank. John said, "No. We don't use that word. It was a low, hot slice."

Maple Street Loop

jogged and walked in 23:06

Aborted Ridge Road Loop

after about two and three-quarter miles and splis of 11:21 and 11:43

Levy Loop

walked and jogged, for a total of 10 minutes, in 25:31.

(Dead legs return, so the) Levy Loop

with six minutes of jogging in 27:08.

Aborted Park Hill Loop

after two miles in 21:20

47th Street Loop

I jogged the 47th Street Loop in 32:15, with splits of 10:54, 10:35 and 10:46.

Orange Street Loop/Levy Loop intervals

I ran the Orange Street Loop in 29:43, with splits of 10:18, 9:53 and 9:32. My legs are only a bit deadened and sore from Saturday night's run, but my left, mid-quadriceps cramped sharply as I turned right, off a sight incline about a quarter of a mile into the third mile. Just a spot about the size of a Kennedy half-dollar. That was new to me (of course, I have only been running since 1974). The spot remains slightly sore and ever-so-slightly swollen.

The ease of this run, other than the cramp (which is now covered with an ice bag), inspired me to reflect on a three-mile run from Aug. 20, or 10 weeks, five days ago, when I ran a 29:53 and it exhausted me. I wrote, "This was damned near a time trial." Fuck the Champions Tour. If I continue to improve at this rate, I will win several events at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Okay, maybe I am a little tired. I only did one mile of intervals tonight. I jogged a half mile up, did a mile of 60 seconds hard with a 60-second-jog interval, and jogged a half mile down to complete the Levy Loop in 18:45. My quadriceps felt fine.

Levy Loop/Hash

I walked the Levy Loop in 30:37.

Late this afternoon I felt better than I've felt in a while while running with the Hash. I was out for 50 minutes and probably covered four miles on trails through Burns Park.

Maple Street Loop/Park Hill-Gimblett Loop

I jogged the first of each five minutes to cover the Maple Street Loop in 25:59 this morning.

Tonight a long football game led to another late start. It was a little after 10 p.m. before I started the Park Hill-Gimblett Loop. I ran the 10 miles in 1:36:48, with the Park Hill Loop in 49:12 and the Gimblett Loop in 47:36. My splits were 9:34, 10:26, 9:25, 10:15, 9:30, 9:39, 10:50, 9:16, 9:17 and 8:36. My blood sugar was at 70 before I started. I ate a package of energy gel and drank two ounces of grape juice before I left my house, then ate packages of gel at 3.5 and 7 miles. My blood sugar was at 70 a few minutes after I walked back in. It was cold tonight; guessing, I'd say 40, maybe a bit colder.* My hands hurt until a couple of minutes ago. Now they itch.

*It was 36, half an hour after I finished

River Trail

Hurricane-force winds dissuaded me from a 10-mile run this morning. I ran the first mile of the what became a three-mile run in 9:53, didn't feel good enough to go four more miles and then turn back into the 30-mile-an-hour wind, so ran another half mile and turned around. Good decision, because I had to fucking battle to break 20 minutes for two miles. I went through the second mile in 9:54, and jogged and walked the final mile in 12:56 to finish in 32:43. Maybe it will be calmer tomorrow evening.

47th Street Loop/Levy Loop

It was almost balmy this morning, felt damp like the inland streets of a beach town, 65 degrees with a breeze and a mist to start. I hoped to run the 47th Street Loop easily, and did. Without looking at my watch (an act which requires I resist 35 years of conditioning), I ran the loop in 30:43 and, as hoped, it seemed I could have continued for hours. My splits were 10:30, 10:08 and 10:05. Sixty seconds after I stopped, my pulse was 104. Oh. These light-weight, firm, Asics DS Trainers, that I like as much as the other shoes I've run well in [Puma 9190 and Lydiard Flats (1970s), Brooks Hugger and Nike Pegasus (1980s), Ascis 825 (1990s-00s), and Asics Gel-1110 (2005-07)], get terrible gription on wet roads. Other than that, I love them, and recognize them as the next shoe I will mourn and struggle without when they're discontinued.

I walked the Levy Loop this afternoon, under a brilliant, bone-dry blue sky, in 28:52.

Aborted Orange Street Loop/Hash

Maybe 30 miles in four days was too much. I walked the first mile of the Orange Street Loop this morning and realized my legs were dead and I was tired and hungry and not having fun, so I continued south on Orange to my house.

Tonight I felt much better as I set a two-mile run for the Wednesday night Hash group, and then as I walked it to make sure no one got too lost in the dark. And then as I ate almost all of a large pepperoni pizza.

Levy Loop intervals/Maple Street Loop

My legs were lively this morning. I ran the Levy Loop twice, with a half-mile jog warmup, followed by four, five-minute hard runs with three-minute jogs for intervals. I finished the fourth about a quarter of a mile from home. I ran the four miles in 36:34, with splits of 9:16, 8:55, 9:19 and 9:04. This was the best I have felt running in the morning since, I don't know. Maybe Oct. 1982, the morning I ran 17 miles in 1:51:30 with a tall, skinny, flat-chested, Pete-pretty, married blonde named Beth Walker, back in the glory days, before I contracted full-body cancer.*

And they were full of run tonight, too. I ran the Maple Street Loop, without looking at my watch, attempting to go at a pace I could've maintained for much longer. I did it in 18:45, with splits of 9:33 and 9:12, and felt like a runner instead of a football player made to do laps.

*I don't remember that time. I do remember that I ran 17 miles at a 6:30 pace (thus that time), that we ran by Beth Walker's house with about three miles to go and she quit, at which point I targeted a group of several guys maybe a quarter of mile in front way out west on Markham before anything was out there, and caught them a block or so before the finish in what was without question my best public training performance. I also remember a balding guy with a mustache going on about how fast I finished and wondering where Beth Walker went. I hurt my left knee about two weeks after that, moved to Fayetteville three months later, started smoking pot and drinking a lot of beer and never again ran nearly so well, except for a brief revival in 1985 when I ran a quarter of the Hogeye Marathon in a relay in 36 minutes (5:30/mile).

Maple Street Loop

My legs are a little dead this morning, as expected, but that's it. Nothing hurts. There is no particular tightness. I ran the Maple Street Loop in 20:36, with splits of 10:29 and 10:07.

Maple Street Loop/Hash

I walked the Maple Street Loop in something like 32 minutes, but am uncertain of the time since Jo and I walked across the street to bullshit with James Taylor before I thought about my watch. James said he's about to release an album: I Cain't Tell You How Happy I am John and that Fucking Tom Moved (and I Sure as Hell Hope They Don't Come Back), with a single due out next month entitled, I'd Offer You a Cup of Coffee, but This Here's the Last One.

I ran and walked for 56 minutes to cover 4.48 miles with the Hash from the covered bridge in Burns Park, and was surprised by how good I felt. I ran for almost all of the last 30 minutes or so.

River Trail

Thanks to triple overtime at Ouachita Baptist, I didn't start my River Trail run until 9:05 p.m. Central. I ran the 14-mile roundtrip between the I-30 and Big Dam Bridges in 2:38:51, with splits of 11:44, 11:26, 11:38, 11:49, 11:37, 11:19, 11:18, 11:17, 11:11, 11:34, 11:17, 10:54, 11:08 and 10:40, with one-minute walks at the start of each half mile to average 11:20.8/mile, or a 4:57:29 marathon pace. I'm pleased to have prevailed after a rather dead-legged first four and a half miles. My hope was to average better than a five-hour marathon pace and not be wiped out, which I was not. I ate a packet of energy gel at 3.5, 7, and 10.5 miles, and my blood sugar dropped from 138 to 106.

Oh yeah. I walked two miles in Arkadelphia, around 1 p.m., before Ouachita Baptist's 45-43 victory over West Alabama.