Levy Loop

I interviewed four people on the phone, played seven holes of golf at Fort Roots, wrote a 1,200-word story about the Little Rock Marathon, ate pork, potato salad, cole slaw, and baked beans at Diamond Bear Brewery (where I sat with now-redheaded Leah Thorvilson), then walked the Levy Loop, with four one-minute jogs, and four 100-yard semi-sprints, in 27:52.

I skipped Nos. 2 and 3 at Fort Roots, and played the other seven holes in even-par, with three birdies, one par, and three bogies. The greens were tough. I hit the par-5 ninth with driver, 4-iron, faced a downhill, 20-foot eagle putt, and then four-putted for bogey so I wouldn't forget that I suck.

Back from Tech

I finished my second consecutive 14-hour work day, and walked and jogged a little the Levy Loop in 27:40 beginning at about 12:15 a.m. Then I ran a half dozen 100-yard semi-sprints, with a 100-yard walk between them.

What hurt most was my belly full of a Wendy's double cheeseburger (now I know why it's been six years since my last Wendy's burger. I ate it the night I watched the second Natalie Portman Star Wars movie at the now out-of-business Cinema 150). This burger sucked, plus they put ketchup on it. No one should put ketchup on anything served to anyone over five years old without approval. The Wendy's girl in Russellville should've said, for instance, "Would you like us to fuck up this lukewarm hamburger meat with some ketchup?" I would've appreciated that almost as much as I did her telling me I would have to wait two minutes for my French fries, since they had run out of cold, stale ones and thus were forced to fry a new batch. The fries nearly made up for burger. They didn't, though. How do they sell those things to anyone more than once every six years?

Reaching

Here's hopeful thinking. I hope I feel as good through the first 3 miles of the marathon as I felt running the 47th Street Loop tonight. I ran and walked it in 37:22, with mile splits of 12:20, 12:41, and 12:21. That is faster than I will go Sunday, but it felt easy. Nice, really. We'll see. Sunday I will not have just stepped from a car after a 14-hour work day. On the other hand, 14 hours of what I call work is usually a preferable circumstance to crawling out of bed at 4:30 in the fucking morning.

Monday

The abyss between my fantasy world and reality is closed. This 15-mile-a-week training program might allow me to break six hours Sunday in the Little Rock Marathon, but that's the extent of my hope — might. Probably it won't, though.

Nothing I can do in the next five days figures to hearten or encourage me, and so I must shoulder the burden of my sad state of fitness and psychologically prepare to slog along. I slogged tonight as practice, running and walking the Park Hill Loop in 1:05:52, with mile splits of 12:42, 13:30, 12:32, 14:14, and 12:54.

Hash

I did not run Wednesday or Thursday, but ran and walked the Park Hill Loop twice Friday evening in 2:10:07, the Ridge Road Loop in 48:53 last night, and about 3 miles with the Hash late this afternoon.

Who knows?

I am in search of a pace I can maintain for 26.21875 miles. I ran the Park Hill Loop in 1:02:06 tonight, or 12:25.2 a mile, and that ain't it. At least it wouldn't have been tonight.

My splits were 11:50, 12:55, 12:00, 13:17, and 12:05. It was easy, but [too] ambitious for a marathon.

I'm better

It might've been the flu, but I don't think so, since I never wondered if I was going to die. Still, I was sick. My fever hit 100.4 Sunday morning, but was gone by the evening and has not returned.

I ran and walked the 47th Street Loop tonight in an easy 38:35, with splits of 12:48, 12:44, 13:03. I wanted it to be easy, and it was, surprisingly. Afterward it was nice to not puke in my side yard.

Oh well

I hoped last fall to run the Little Rock Marathon in under five hours. My goal dwindled to sub 5:20, then 5:30, but after the last few days, I wonder if I should start. Of course I will, but I might walk most it, and no longer have any idea how long it will take.

Tuesday I jogged and walked the Levy Loop in 25 minutes, then threw up in my side yard. I had a fever that started Tuesday night and peaked this morning at 101.4. It subsided this evening in Russellville. I ate a can of chunky chicken noodle soup an hour ago. Assuming my fever does not return, I will try a little something tomorrow, and maybe attempt a few miles Monday.

Discouraged

"Discouragement" should not apply to frivolous things like running and golf, but, in my shallow life, it can. It was discouraging to realize after a mile of what should have been a 16-mile run this morning that I felt worse than ever last year, when I was not nearly so fit. I planned to take it very easy, just finish the goddamn thing, but even a 13:30 first mile was difficult enough to request I turn back into a cold east wind and return to my car.

Oh well. It's too late to make the Olympic team, and, anyway, U.S. Open qualifying is still a couple of months away.

I played with Jerry, the same guy I played with two weeks ago, at Hindman Park Golf Course this afternoon, and scored a 94, with nines of 47 and 47. I used 34 putts. I played the last two holes of each nine in one-over. Most pleasing were two compliments I received on my gray-and-blue sweater, a birthday present, and a perfect sweater for golf.

Hashing

The slow people all took a wrong turn, and pitiful Josh, the hare, convinced me to return to the true trail, so I got stuck in no-man's land, 10 blocks behind the fast people, and ran and walked the last 30 minutes of a 45-minute run by myself. I probably went a little over 3 miles.

Late

I ran after midnight tonight for the second time since early December, 2005, running the Ridge Road Loop in 46:25, with splits of 11:45, 12:02, 11:48, and 10:50. It was easy. I felt like going much faster, but prevailed slowly on purpose, to save myself for the next test.

Easy walk

I walked the Levy Loop in 30:22. In a few minutes I will drive to Monticello for a couple of basketball games, and will probably hike around the Arkansas-Monticello campus for a while.

Park Hill

Maybe you could call these mile repeats. I ran the first, third, and fifth miles of the Park Hill Loop, and jogged and walked the second and fourth, in 54:33, with splits of 10:15, 12:15, 10:03, 12:05, and 9:55. I felt fine. It is 45 degrees now, a few minutes after I finished, so the temperature was ideal. The wind was awful.

I'm fucking sick of wind. This has got to be the windiest winter in the history of windy winters. Accuweather.com said it's blowing from the WNW at 15 mph. If felt more like 50. I won't argue with the direction, except to say WNW must be an average. Come to think of it, the speed was an average, too. Without question, it was blowing 30 from the north when I ran north, and 30 from the west when I ran west. It rotated from west to north or north to west as I turned so that it constantly blew in my face. Except when I ran south or east, when it did not blow at all.

I mean "did not blow" in a literal sense, of course.

Ridge Road

It's 73 and very windy, and I am on my front porch, about to finish Richard Yate's A Good School, just in from a slow walk and jog of the Ridge Road Loop.

My legs were fatigued by yesterday from the start, but there was no perceptible change in their status as I proceeded for 53:22.7. I did not take my first-mile split, but went through 2 miles in 27:04, and the final 2 in 13:18, and 13:01. It was easy, and pleasant.

I look forward to watching basketball tonight at Little Rock Christian, a school near the Wal-Mart Super Center on 10 (by the Mt. Pinnacle turnoff). I watched a game there last Tuesday, and they served perhaps the best popcorn I have ever eaten. They also have an ice-cold refrigerator stocked with 20-ounce bottles of diet Dr. Pepper.

Eight

It's 6:48 a.m., and it's 67 degrees. That's also what it was when I left to drive to the River Trail at 4:45, or 35 degrees warmer than a week ago, and the warmest weather I have run in since October, unless it was this warm one of those evenings I ran in San Antonio two months ago. Sweat burned my eyes, fogged my glasses, and soaked my long-sleeve T-shirt, and I didn't feel worth a fuck anyway. I ran 5 miles and decided to cut my 16-mile run in half. I went 8 miles in 1:36:25, with splits of 12:56, 12:45, 12:34, 12:29, 12:21, 11:12, 11:08, and 11:01. I ran the last 4 miles against a 20-30 mph wind. It sucked. I'm glad Jo's in my lap and I have good things to read, and a meal at Paul's 13 hours away. Oh. And a memory less than 12 hours old of one of the best football games I've watched.

Super Bowl Hash

I ran and walked (mostly walked) for 45 minutes with Basil Julian along Tom Zaloudek's Hash route. It was easy, though my legs felt heavy and tight, not at all how they must feel in the morning if I'm going to have a successful 16-mile run. I ate far too much, including five or six pieces of fried chicken, and two slices of perhaps the best pumpkin pie I have tasted.

47th

I walked past a 75-year-old woman today who spoke to me on the 47th Street Loop a couple of weeks ago. She walks with a cane and a 50-year-old son disguised as Kris Kristofferson. All denim with a gray mop. A fine way to look if you're a Rhodes scholar and multi-millionaire country music writer.

Two weeks ago I ran past her and her son and she cackled and said, "Show off." This morning I stopped to walk a block in front of her. Her son scowled as she smiled and said, "You better pick it up."

"You have to slow down sometime," I said.

"That's right. I slowed down a long time ago. But I'm old."

"I'm getting there."

"Yes you are .... Don't be in any rush."

I ran and walked the loop in 34:54, with splits of 11:28, 11:36, and 11:50, and didn't feel very good despite the weather. It's 54 with what accuweather.com would describe as "abundant sunshine." Perfect weather to show off in front of and flirt with a 75-year-old woman.