Chilly Cheeks 10K

CAMDEN, Ark. — Contentment for me does not require a pretty woman stand on my front lawn in sharp, mid-afternoon sunshine and label the day "glorious," but is forever insured by it.

Elsa Kanner won the women's division of the Chilly Cheeks 10K in 48 minutes, give or take thirty seconds. I think I was fifth overall in the men's division, and also dead last, in 58:43. I didn't see mile markers at one, two, or five miles. I went through three in 25:57, four in 36:01, and ran the last, circa, 2.2 in 22:42; disappointing results, but only a handful of minutes off my most hopeful expectation.

There were perhaps 15 entrants. Two, possibly three, finished behind me.

Elsa won $100 for her victory and bought lunch at the truck stop in Redfield and impressed me most with her joyous response to a jumbo cheeseburger, French fries, and tator tots. Quote of the day: "There's no way the barbecue tonight [for Air Force pilots about to be deployed] will be as good as this."

Levy Loop

I walked the Levy Loop in 28:33 at about 1 p.m. Central.

Levy Loop

I ran the Levy Loop in 17:40, starting at about 8 p.m. Central. It was nice to run in short pants and garden gloves instead of mittens. Whatever I had, perhaps a mild viral infection, has passed.

Maple Street Loop

It's 30, but with little wind and no rain; much easier to bundle against. I walked the Maple Street Loop in 27:25, and genuinely liked it.

Aborted Park Hill-Gimblett Loop

I'm not sure how much to blame the weather. ...No, check that. I sat here for about 90 seconds considering how much to blame the weather. I don't feel good. I'm sniffly and have sneezed away a good part of the day. Perhaps I would have cut the Park Hill-Gimblett Loop to the Levy Loop even if it wasn't raining very hard (ignore that light-rain bullshit at weather.com) and 34 degrees, but I don't think so. I started running regularly, most every day, logging my mileage (among my innumerable regrets is that I no longer have that original diary), in early November, 1973, as a ninth-grader. I'll guess that I have run in weather exactly like this about one other time in the subsequent 35 years, two months and two or three weeks. The only comparable circumstance I recall is the Arkansas AAU Marathon, run on Mount Petit Jean the morning of Feb. 1, 1975. I ran in cold rain last night, and a couple of weeks ago, but those weren't down-pours. This is, was. Fuck. I'm blaming the weather. I didn't want to open my mittens to take the split, and my glasses were too goddamn wet to read my watch, and I don't care what I ran the first mile in anyway. And I feel kind of silly reporting how fast I ran the Levy Loop tonight, but, for the record, 19:14. Oh. There was one funny thing; I ran by three Mexican-American kids playing soccer in the street. I hope they don't lose their diaries.

Holy shit

This weather qualifies as dreadful. It's 27, and I'm not sure why it's raining rather than sleeting. Maybe because of all the wind. I ran the Park Hill Loop in 44:57, with splits of 9:00, 9:27, 8:46, 9:29, and 8:15, and I'm moving to Mexico. I will not look back.

Hash

It was 32 degrees as we ran away from the parking area in Burns Park close to the southwest edge of the golf course and the long, narrow water-skiing pond. A 20 mile-an-hour wind blew due east, right down the fucking river. I ran with B.J., Tom Z-Man, and Brass for 10 minutes until we lost the trail, turned and walked back to our cars. Elsa Kanner said I would complain just as much when it turns hot, but I won't. I wish it was 108, with a heat index of 212.

Levy Loop/Gimblett Loop

I walked the Levy Loop in 28:46 early this afternoon. This might have been the easiest sub-29, two-mile walk in the history of sub-29, two-mile walks — by anyone, anywhere; particularly in Levy. "I used to daydream about having whatever it is in a dog's brain that allows them to walk with people, but not anymore," said Jo, Levy Ghetto Cat No. 3. "There's no way I could keep up with you and shit."

"Easiest and shit?" Sam said. "Do that count they East Europe walkin' dudes at the motherfuckin' Lympics an' shit?"

Tonight's run was also less than burdensome. Beginning a bit after midnight Central, I ran the Gimblett Loop in 45:14, with splits of 8:51, 9:46, 8:48, 9:08, and 8:41. I never pushed; just gave it a consistent effort throughout.

If I live to be 1,000, I will probably still tinker with juvenile diabetes as it applies to my running. Tonight I ate two peanut butter sandwiches and a cup of yogurt with blackberries and took five units of Novolog three hours before my run. My blood sugar was at 50 about 45 minutes before. I ate two Halloween-sized Payday bars and a package of Gu (a total of 45 grams of carbohydrates), took four units of Levimer five minutes before, and it was at 58 a moment after the finish. That was fine. Had I planned to run longer, I would've eaten Gu at three and a half or four miles, which usually pushes it up 70-80 ml. Testing will continue for my next long run, and thereafter until I die, I suppose.

Orange Street Loop

I walked and jogged the Orange Street Loop this afternoon in 37:42, with splits of 12:15, 12:53, and 12:35.

Gimblett Loop intervals

I jogged the first mile, then ran three miles of 60 seconds hard, 60 easy, and cruised the final mile to complete the Gimblett Loop in 45:42, with splits of 9:37, 9:49, 8:39, 9:03, and 8:33. I didn't know what to expect 42 hours after running 20, but hoped for something like this. My quadriceps and calves are sore. It was 49, so I sweated a bit.

Orange Street Loop

I jogged for one minute of each five to cover the Orange Street Loop in 39:43, with splits of 13:41, 12:48, and 13:15, a walk-jog dominated by a dog which looked remarkably like Socorro, except she was reddish-brown and about 20-percent smaller. She joined me near the end of the first mile and ran along until I had about a quarter of a mile to go, on Melenne Street, when she apparently found home. She never barked, even as dogs howled from yards, and played with each child I passed. Except for stopping traffic on 47th Street, she was a perfect running partner.

Levy Loop/Park Hill-Gimblett-35th Street Loop

It's 37 with a hard north wind. I walked the Levy Loop this morning in 28:42.

Before I left my house at about 11:15 p.m. Central, I packed enough Gu for a 20-mile run, just in case. I finished the Park-Hill Gimblett Loop, 10 miles, didn't feel great, but good enough; so I ran the the Gimblett Loop again, and then the 35th Street Loop, plus the first mile of the 35th Street Loop, to go 20 miles in 3:44:03. It was cold, 27 to start, and 23 at the finish. My splits were 11:17, 11:37, 10:59, 11:33, 10:52, 11:24, 11:41, 11:00, 11:06, 10:34, 11:15, 11:38, 11:03, 11:09, 10:31, 11:07, 10:48, 11:37, 11:27, and 11:24. I averaged 11:12.2 a mile, or a 4:53:44 marathon pace. I'm cooked. I would've been required to average 12:12.6 a mile for the final six miles, 385 yards, to break five hours tonight. I don't know.

Oh, I almost forgot. My blood sugar was at 83 a couple of minutes before I started. I ate a Gu, then packages at roughly seven, 11, 15, and 18 miles. I will have to pause to test it. ...Getting up hurt. Let's see, it's at 157. And to think we can put a goddamn man on the moon.*

*I didn't get to sleep until 5:30 a.m. Central. I awoke at 8:45 with my legs in severe pain. I took four ibuprofen, They felt much better at 10:30 when I finally got out of bed.

Maple Street Loop

Today I took a cat to the veterinarian, ate two ice cream cones, half of an apple pie, a corned beef sandwich, a box of popcorn, an order of French fries, and won $18.40 at Oaklawn Park (thanks to a $52.40 late daily double cashed en route to the fucking door), then ate pork chops and a baked potato at Tom and Corky Zaloudek's, and somehow still managed to run the Maple Street Loop in 22:33. My head hurts.

“Over there. Miss Oaklawn Park?”
“Maybe. Let me take a closer look.”
I put down the binoculars. “Shit, what about the girl to her right?”
“She won’t look this way.”
“Well, fuck, she’s looking now.”
“We got nabbed, didn’t we?”
“That’s beside the point. Goddamn, man, are those twins?”
“I think they are. That would make a good story for you.”
“It would: ‘Call Tom; He’ll tell you. The twins and me, Oaklawn Park, 2009.’ ’’

Levy Loop/Maple Street Loop

I jogged and walked the Levy Loop in 21:31 this morning at 10 a.m. Central. My legs are dead, as they've been recently after runs like last Tuesday's.

Erin has averaged 10:07.4 a mile through 18.6 of the Chevron® Houston Marathon, or on pace for a 4:25:25. She went through the first 6.2 miles at a 10:05 pace, did the next 6.9 at 9:55, but averaged 10:25 for the last 5.5. We Levy fans, even those who bet under the 4:06 prediction (Jo, Pam, and I. Sam passed), await her result, which should appear in a few minutes.

It did. Erin finished in 4:34:21. The last section must have hurt (Erin averaged 11:17.7 a mile for the last 7.6). Oh well. Some of us would be delighted with a 4:34 marathon.

Chris did not appear in the results, though Matthew Vratil finished with or very near Erin. Pam said she suspects "he's probably a nice guy like his cousin."

"Not that Pete would know anything about being a nice guy," Jo said.

"Right," Sam said. "He's a cock."

Erin later explained her performance (Chris was misidentified as Matthew in the results).

"I had two bathroom breaks on the race, one where I had to wait for a porta potty," Erin said. "The second time I had to run 120 yards off course. My right knee bothers me, but I mainly just wanted to run with Chris."

This evening, at halftime of the AFC championship game, I jogged and walked, for eight minutes, to cover the Maple Street Loop in 22:59, with splits of 11:36 and 11:23. My legs felt far livelier.

Park Hill Loop

It seemed like I ran as slowly as I could; I was dead-legged and lethargic and thus surprised to see I ran the Park Hill Loop in 52:06. I walked for a minute to start each mile and for a little over a minute up the hill on 43rd Street and the one in the fourth mile, on whatever street that is. My splits were 10:14, 11:02, 10:00, 10:48, and 10:02.

Levy Loop

I jogged the Levy Loop in 21:32 with splits of 10:44 and 10:48.

35th Street Loop/Maple Street Loop

Weather.com says it's 24 in Levy; it feels like 14. A few seconds after I started the 35th Street Loop at noon Central, my head hurt like heads hurt when exposed to ice cream too quickly. I jogged through snowflakes the size of Fritos in 39:21, with splits of 10:06, 9:47, 9:50, and 9:38. My legs are dull, I suspect from Tuesday night's run.

At 5:24 p.m., it's still, or again, 24. The snow is gone; the gray, too, replaced at dusk by bright pink shreds framed in deep blue. I ran for a total of six minutes to cover the Maple Street Loop in 24:34.

Levy Loop

I jogged for the final minute of each five, for a total of five minutes, to cover the Levy Loop in 26:00 through a brisk wind and bright, cool morning. The cats are having a fucking ball.

Levy Loop/Park Hill-Maple Street Loop

I ran for four minutes, 36 seconds and otherwise walked the Levy Loop in 24:36 this afternoon.

After my run tonight, begun at about 11 Central, I believe I feel an inkling of what Erin Vratil felt the the day of her 11-mile run last Halloween. I ran the Park Hill and Maple Street Loops, seven miles, in 59:20, with splits of 8:36, 9:08, 8:21, 8:52, 8:16, 8:13, and 7:54. I had never broken 47 minutes for the Park Hill Loop and got it in 43:13, and this was the first time I have run a flat mile under eight minutes since I ran a 22:50 5K in late July, 2004. Also, I ran the last six miles in 50:44, faster than I have gone through six miles since I ran a c. 45-minute 10K, with JoEllen Black in attendance, at the Duck Run in Stuttgart in late November, 1990.

I hope this didn't wipe me out.

Levy Loop

I walked the Levy Loop, and jogged for five minutes, in 25:34, and passed a half-dozen 13-year-olds walking home from the school bus to overhear: "That's the runner," and, "He's the man with all the cats."

Maple Street Loop/Gimblett Loop

I walked the Maple Street Loop in 28:15 and felt great this morning.

I wanted to run 20 miles tonight; indeed wrote in my diary that I would by god. I didn't. My hands got cold. Heck, my legs felt cold. It was 40 when I started at 6:45 Central. It's 34 degrees now. Maybe I should have worn tights, mittens instead of gloves, or been braver. It was cold, but fatigue stopped me. I decided to quit about half way through the 10th mile, which explains the last split. I ran the Gimblett Loop twice in 1:47:52, with splits of 11:17, 11:28, 10:41, 10:43, 10:43, 10:55, 11:09, 10:45, 10:26, 9:46.

Levy Loop

I jogged and walked, for six minutes, to complete the Levy Loop in 22:16, with splits of 10:48 and 11:28.

Levy Loop/Gimblett Loop

I adjusted the Levy Loop to eliminate its passing of the Elm Street Gang. It now passes a bilingual coed gang (one far more likely to produce a grandchild I might marry in circa 2059) on Sycamore Street. I ran it, with one-minute walks to start each half mile, in 21:04, with splits of 10:40 and 10:24.

When I began one tour of the Gimblett Loop tonight at about 11:30 p.m. Central, my hope was to average 11:26 a mile, or a five-hour marathon pace, without looking at my watch. I averaged 11:25.6, with splits of 11:21, 11:48, 11:21, 11:36, and 11:03.

Gimblett Loop

I ran the Gimblett Loop for 10 miles in 1:48:20, with splits of 11:00, 11:26, 10:38, 10:45, 10:16, 11:14, 11:35, 10:25, 10:45, and 10:16.

Levy Loop

I walked the Levy Loop through 50-degree sunshine in 28:53. A slim woman wearing blue jeans, an old and green canvas John Deere work jacket and an equally weathered baseball hat waved from Lydia's front yard, where she stood beside one of two 10-year-old battered car hulks parked in a yard littered with toys and engine parts. She smiled and said, as if she knew me, "How you doing?"
"Great, how are you?"
"Can't complain."
"Oh, come on. Surely you can find something to complain about."
"I could, but it wouldn't do me no good."
"Yeah, that's right. Nice change in the weather, huh?"
"I've lived her 37 years and it's always been like this. It can snow one day and be 80 the next."
"I know. It's crazy."

Levy Loop

Next to barbecue, chicken soup is the earth's best aroma on days like today. Cold rain continues to fall. I jogged the Levy Loop in 21:24, walked in and was struck by chicken soup splashed on a current of steam from the kitchen. The North Face makes nothing to protect people from such surf.

Gimblett-Maple Street Loop

It's 30. It rained all day, until about 20 minutes ago, when it started to snow. The cold rain reminded me of my first marathon, in 1975 on Mount Petit Jean, when it was a bit above freezing and rained the whole morning. My tights, which men were not allowed to wear then, and rain-proof running jacket, which wasn't invented then, kept me plenty warm and dry as I ran the Gimblett and Maple Street Loops (seven miles) in 1:11:50, with splits of 10:36, 10:47, 10:00, 10:11, 9:52, 10:13, and 10:10. I ran a bit faster than planned, but it was just as easy as I had hoped; truly a snap. It pleased me that I was able to resist a temptation to push. I am not sure how much longer I could have gone at that pace. Maybe a couple of more hours?

Maple Street Loop/Hash

I walked the Maple Street Loop this morning in 28:49, and ran about three miles with the Hash on Burns Park's Boy Scout trails. It was Ron and Elaine Gimblet's run, and I was out for 40 minutes. I ran non-stop for the first 15 minutes and felt great, and then got caught in a bunch of crap and mud and thick, unrelenting underbrush and never returned to any sort of rhythm, except for the last 10 minutes or so when Elsa Kanner appeared out of the cold, wet gray with her lightning-fast, lean, muscular white dog named Maya (pronounced my-ya.) Maya is built a bit like Soccoro, or Jo, only smaller or bigger, depending.

35th Street Loop intervals

It's 67 degrees at 11:17 p.m. Central. Crazy. I ran the second and third miles of the 35th Street Loop, alternating 60 seconds run hard with 60-second jogs, after a fairly quick warmup mile. Then I blew off warming down and ran the last mile fast enough to break 34 minutes. My splits were 9:06, 8:30, 8:20, and 8:01. Because I am a nut, affected by the majesty of four miles run under 34 minutes, I practically sprinted the last 20 or 30 yards to finish in 33:58; and was consequently reassured of my running dominance throughout the Better Homes district of Levy (at least tonight in the 45-49 age category).

Levy Loop

Tim Cooper and I went to Oaklawn Park on a late whim, ate tacos and French fries there and then Waffle House biscuits and gravy on the way home, and I consequently struggled to make it out of the house for a 20:26 jog of the Levy Loop at 12:15 a.m. Central. Fuck. I made exactly $40 and feel like shit.

Gimblett Loop

I ran the Gimblett Loop twice, beginning at about 11:45 a.m. Central, in 1:39:20, with splits of 10:16, 10:18, 9:57, 10:01, 9:31 (50:03), 10:10, 10:17, 9:42, 9:37, and 9:31 (49:17), using the Huckabee-a´la-Galloway one-minute-walk-each-mile pacing technique. This was pretty easy, not effortless, but far from a time trial. I'm confident I had five minutes up my sleeve, and believe I could've gone at least five miles further at that pace.

I am disappointed in my blood-sugar response. It was at 66 an hour before I started. I ate a tube of Gu, and it measured 132 a minute before. I ate Gu at four and eight miles, and it was at 177 when I finished. It had been, gosh, 11 hours since I last took Novolog (the short-term stuff), unlike the five hours I typically allot for evening runs. I did take five units of Levemir about 90 minutes before I started.