Levy Loop/Gimblett-Orange Street Loop

I ran for a total of four minutes, 29 seconds, and otherwise walked the Levy Loop in 24:29, beginning a few minutes before noon Central. It was cool and windy. To my credit, I have become almost unselfconscious of running in street clothes, and did today in blue jeans, month-old, dog-and-cat-hair ladened black fleece The North Face jacket, and the navy-blue Adidas shirt I slept in (in fact, have not removed since Sunday afternoon). I also wore a stolen red beer hat.

Among the nice things about getting a happy-birthday call three minutes after walking in from an eight-mile run through a wind-chill factor of 19 is that it gives your hands time to warm for the task of typing your fucking blog.

I ran the Gimblett-Orange Street Loop in 1:14:19, with splits of 8:56, 9:59, 8:55, 9:07, 8:57, 10:04, 9:16, and 9:06. Here's how cold affected the sixth mile: I couldn't remove a Gu package from my shorts. I took off my mittens and still couldn't figure out how to get under the flap that covers the change/key pocket. My hands were numb, and I somehow twisted the pocket so much that it felt knotted. I was befuddled, but not so befuddled to not trace my befuddlement to a need for the Gu. I slowed to nearly a walk under a street light and finally extracted the package with a feeling a surgeon might envy. It then took me at least another minute to untangle my fancy, $5,000 running mittens and put them back on the correct hands.

Ten miles today gave me 500 for the last 100 days; 850 in 200.

Among the problems of a call from the only regular reader of your blog three minutes after a run are that you might have said things you wanted to write; like, for instance, how freezing at the very hour of the 50th anniversary of the Day the Music Died sucks, though remains preferable to being on board that flaming airplane as it twisted to earth. At least I'm warm now, unlike Buddy Holly and the Big fucking Bopper.