38th Street Loop/HIndman Park

My legs were dead this morning, deader than Dennis Hopper. I jogged and walked the 38th Street Loop in 22:55, with splits of 10:32 and 12:23.

It's not everyday that a total stranger says, "Here, man. You gotta big-ass spider on you," and then swats across your chest. I was standing at the top of a thickly wooded, weed-strewn and very steep muddy embankment, at least 50 feet above the creek that runs between Nos. 15 and 16 at Hindman Park, holding the man's fence as he grilled in his backyard. I had climbed out of what to him must have long appeared oblivion; dark, dank, soggy stench. "No, man. Shit. You a long way from Hindman." I was a mile away, but Julius didn't know the shortest route through Meadowcliff and, at his suggestion, I would never have asked, drove me all the way over to 65th Street, then wound back along the creek to the small park by the entrance to the golf course where I'd parked to scout next Saturday's Great Cross Country Race. I was out for about an hour and a half and covered maybe four miles through all sorts of shit. I'm going to drink beer today, and fry some chicken gizzards, in lard. I might cook a pizza later. Fuck it. The Reds lead the Cardinals by one game. They start a three-game series in about two hours (it's 2 p.m. Central).

Sweetheart Loop/Hash

I walked the Sweetheart Loop this morning in 46:58.

Basil Julian, Tom Zaloudek, and I got lost on the Hash run today, way out in west Little Rock, off in the woods, and were out for 90 minutes, and covered at least six miles.

River Trail/33rd Street Loop

I joggged three miles on the River Trail this morning, out and back from the Big Dam Bridge, in 31:55, with splits of 11:00, 10:37, and 10:18.

I started the 33rd Street Loop at about 9 p.m. Central, after watching the Reds beat the cow shit out of Houston to take their largest lead (two games) in the National League Central since early June, 2004, and the last two innings of Roy Halladay's perfect game for Philadelphia in Miami against the Marlins, and ran great. I felt fantastic all the way, resisted pushing, decided after two miles that I would see how easily I could go and still break 50 minutes, and completed it in 49:23, with splits of 10:15, 9:53, 9:59, 9:36, and 9:41.

Orange Street Loop/River Trail

I walked the Orange Street Loop this morning in 45:15.

Late this afternoon, I walked across the Big Dam Bridge and then for two and a half miles on the River Trail to cover a little over four miles in 1:03:21.

Chandler Street Loop/North Little Rock High

I walked the Chandler Street Loop in 47:49 and was miserable until I took my shirt off with a little less than a mile to go. Fuck it. Maybe I'll get a tan.

We had a brief thunderstorm this afternoon and the air was dry this evening. It's, I'm guessing, 68 at 9:55 p.m. Central. I just got in from doing 3X1000 meters at the North Little Rock High track, with three-minute intervals, in 4:56.8, 4:52.0, and 4:39.1. They were easy. I never looked at my watch, except to check the intervals, and I think that's a good idea; just run them easily, and see later how fast "easily" was. I mean, maybe. What do I fucking know? I jogged and walked one mile for a warmup and to warm down.

Levy Loop/Ridge Road Loop

AccuWeather.com reports that, at 10:43 a.m. Central, it's 80 with a Realfeel® of 95 in Levy. It is a little breezy, so the windchill probably brings it down to 92 or 93. I walked the Levy Loop in 31:16.

I walked the Ridge Road Loop this afternoon in 59:47.

38th Street Loop

I walked the 38th Street Loop this morning in 30:27.

Ghetto Cat Loop/Gimblett Loop

I walked the Ghetto Cat Loop this morning in 31:54.

Starting at about 8:15 p.m. Central, I ran the Gimblett Loop for the first time since, I think, September. This was the best run of this sort that I've had this year; I ran it in 48:27, with splits of 9:33, 9:52, 9:29, 9:58, and 9:36.

Maple Street Loop/Hash

I walked the Maple Street Loop this morning in 33:30.

For the first time in I don't know how long, I ran a long, hard Hash run without shortcutting. Bill Brass set it in Burns Park, and I was out for 1:04, and ran all but about 10 minutes of it, so I think covered close to five miles. Maybe four and a half. I felt good, but was glad to finish.

Chandler Street Loop/33rd Street Loop

I read that it's supposed to break 90 today; at 10:41 a.m. Central, it's 83 with a heat index of 89. I walked the Chandler Street Loop in 46:21 and had to hang my polo shirt in the bathroom.

This afternoon, starting at about 5 Central, I jogged and walked the 33rd Street Loop in 58:51; it felt as easy as 58:51 five-mile runs are supposed to. My splits were 12:26, 11:46, 11:55, 11:33, and 11:11.

38th Street Loop

I walked the 38th Street Loop this morning in 31:45.

Levy Loop/Sweetheart Loop

I ran the Levy Loop early this afternoon in 18:54, with splits of 9:35 and 9:19.

Early this evening I walked the Sweetheart Loop in 44:56, and saw the loveliest earmarks of a Levy summer: beaded beer bottles beside hamburgers on a grill, marred only by the angry guy with a cigarette in his mouth waving away charcoal smoke as he yelled to his wife, "I said, 'Bring out the goddamn plates.' "

Park Hill Loop/38th Street

Man, I felt similar to shit. Maybe it was the seventy thousand barrels of olive oil that spilled into me yesterday. I walked and jogged the Park Hill Loop this morning in 1:06:55, with splits—kind of irrelevant I guess—of 13:05, 13:38, 12:35, 13:56, and 13:43.

I measured a new two-mile course today and will call it the 38th Street Loop; it's named after the street on which I once turned west to drive to Walmart, back in the glory days, before Walmart closed and Levy went to hell. Starting at about 5 p.m. Central, I walked it in 29:30 to warmup for this evenings' Reds-Atlanta Braves game.

Levy Loop

I spent the day in Hot Springs with my father, and the evening eating a chicken thigh fried batterless with whole, peeled garlic cloves in ether-light olive oil, a serving of angel-hair pasta and half a bundle of fresh asparagus broiled in salt and heavier olive oil, topped with a fried egg that drained yolk all over everything. Thirty minutes later, after I watched the St. Louis Cardinals stay within a half game of the Reds with their victory over Washington (the Reds beat Milwaukee this afternoon, 5-4 with three runs in the bottom of the ninth as I gave Dad a day-long tour of his new home), I walked and jogged the Levy Loop in 23:15, with splits of 12:09 and 11:06. I walked for the first two or three minutes and then jogged like an old man the rest of the way.

Orange Street Loop/ Chandler Street Loop

I jogged the Orange Street Loop this morning in 31:12, with splits of 10:41, 10:29, and 10:02.

This evening, starting at about 5:45, I walked the Chandler Street Loop in 43:28.

Men
5K
Arkansans over 50, through races of May 15

Keith Willsey, 53, 18:42

Gary Davis, 53, 19:04
David McCormick, 55, 19:11

Tim Gross, 52, 20:08
Rick Simpkins, 54, 20:23
Brad Ward, 52, 20:37
Stephen Graham, 55, 20:43
Richard Ptak, 59, 20:43

Bo Smith, 51, 21:10
Bill Torrey, 55, 21:18
Mike Christenson, 58, 21:20
Steve Hollowell, 50, 21:26
Kevin Jarratt, 52, 21:28
Kenny Tidwell, 51, 21:34
Brian Wilmoth, 52, 21:35
Greg Taylor, 52, 21:36
Dick Miller, 56, 21:54
Chuck Fincher, 58, 21:56
Bill Rahn, 58, 21:57
Michael Lehman, 53, 21:59

Peter Tanguay, 53, 22:04
Tom Clement, 55, 22:12
Kirk Riley, 58, 22:14
Tim Oster, 54, 22:23
Jimmy Green, 66, 22:27
Neal Hefner, 56, 22:36
Chuck Fincher, 56, 22:44
Bill Crow, 57, 22:44
Eugene Atha, 54, 22:45
Jeff Hathaway, 50, 22:46
Frank Massingill, 51, 22:47
Bo Harrison, 50, 22:51
Sam Cooke, 55, 22:51
Charles Halliburton, 50, 22:54

Cliff Ferren, 54, 23:00
Sam Taggart, 63, 23:06
Tom Aspel, 54, 23:07
Jeff Carfagno, 51, 23:14
Mike Reynolds, 52, 23:15
Gary Keedy, 62, 23:19
Randall Thompson, 52, 23:29
Jeff Goff, 50, 23:29
Ross Bolding, 64, 23:30
Keith Geraghty, 53, 23:32
Roy Hayward, 64, 23:37
Alex Alpe, 53, 23:40
Moki Lowe, 52, 23:42
Terry Oxandale, 53, 23:49
George Roscoe, 55, 23:51
Reza Yousefi, 56, 23:51
Ben Mayes, 54, 23:50
Eddie Dowdy, 50, 23:53
Raymond Hobbs, 51, 23:56
Lee Brown, 50, 23:57

Phillip Wells, 60, 24:03
Joe Pool, 58, 24:04
James Miller, 24:12
Lester Davidson, 57, 24:15
Chad Pearson, 60, 24:15
Tony Bodon, 50, 24:21
Roy Smith, 60, 24:21
Joe Pool, 58, 24:26
Joe Milligan, 60, 24:30
Skip Roadcap, 53, 24:27
Marc Oudin, 50, 24:28
Bill Ruck, 59, 24:30
Mike Wassner, 55, 24:30
Jeff Maxwell, 53, 24:36
Lester Davidson, 57, 24:39
David Gulliver, 58, 24:42
Roger Smart, 53, 24:43
Rick Estep, 59, 24:45
Carl Imler, 60, 24:47
Dave Felker, 51, 24:49
Roy Smith, 60, 24:50
Ben Owens Jr., 51, 24:50
Emmet Barnett, 53, 24:54
Gary Greenlee, 52, 24:56
Charles Schroer, 51, 24:57

Pete Perkins, 51, 25:02*

*currently ranked 80th

Maple Street Loop

I jogged and walked—for no more than a total of five minutes—the Maple Street Loop in 22:43, with splits of 11:18 and 11:25 (as I wrote the proceeding, former Cardinal and current Red third baseman Scott Rolen hit a home run to give the Reds a 2-0, first-inning lead over St. Louis in Cincinnati. A victory for the Reds would put them in first place, a half game ahead of the Cardinals, the team for which the bulk of my miserable, misguided-by-regional-bias friends cheer).

The Hash run this evening was in a remote Conway neighborhood, ten miles off I-40. It rained all afternoon and washed away most of the marks, so we ran about a mile. I drove at total of 70 miles. Oh well. It was nice to brag on the Reds, now in first place.

Orange Street Loop

Suck my ass, Al. It's a money deal with you, isn't it? It was 66, overcast, and breezy this morning; perfect. I walked and jogged the Orange Street Loop in 37:49, with splits of 13:42, 12:13, and 11:54.

It's a perfect day for a drive, so I traded in my Toyota and the rickshaw I bought yesterday for a Hummer; I'm going to Oaklawn to bet a $10, Preakness Stakes exacta box on Aikenite (20-1 on the morning line) and Dublin (10-1). When you Canadians get some time off, I'll fly you to my villa in Monaco. Jo said, "Please, Rockamundo, have them bring the dogs."

Sweetheart Loop

I now realize it was foolish to disregard Vice President Gore because of last year's unusually cold winter and cool summer. This morning it is 82, with a heat index of 86, which clearly proves global warming is upon us.

I jogged and walked the Sweetheart Loop in 39:01, with splits of 13:17, 12:37, and 13:07. My legs felt as if they were full of glue.

Levy jog-walk

I jogged very slowly and walked through Levy for 27:26 this morning. I think I jogged for a total of about 15 minutes, yet only covered 2.1 miles.

Chandler Street Loop

I jogged and walked the Chandler Street Loop this evening in 35:25, with splits of 12:08, 12:26, and 10:51.

Levy walk/Maple Street Loop/First Tee

Last night I walked around Levy for about 35 minutes. This morning I walked and jogged the Maple Street Loop in 28:25. This afternoon I golfed with Randall Hunhoff at First Tee and scored a 46, with 3 pars, 3 bogies, 2 doubles and 1 triple. I used 14 putts.

Old Center Point Road/Hash

NASHVILLE—I jogged and walked six miles, out and back, on Old Center Point Road from my mother's house on Saturday evening in 1:04:08, with splits of 11:22, 11:30, 10:48, 10:30, 9:50, and 10:08. I walked for about five minutes, and not at all the last two miles.

This evening I jogged and walked for 45 minutes through Burns Park on Rick Rainey's Hash run.

Ghetto Cat Loop

I jogged and walked the Ghetto Cat Loop this morning in 23:12.

Levy walk

It's almost hot today; 86 at 4:02 p.m. Central. The record for this date is 90. I walked at random through Levy for 34:12.

Levy walk

I walked through Levy this morning for 33:26.

First Tee/Maple Street Loop

I played First Tee with Randall Hunhoff this afternoon and scored a 46, with 1 birdie, 1 par, 5 bogies, and 2 triples. Randall scored a 41.

This evening I walked the Maple Street Loop in 32:40.

Maple Street Loop/North Little Rock High

Starting at about noon Central, I walked and jogged the Maple Street Loop in 24:38.

Late this afternoon I ran 2X4X200 meters at the North Little Rock High track, with a one-minute 100 interval between the 200s and a four-minute, 400 interval between sets, in 56.3, 56.6, 58.4, and 53.2, and 58.1, 58.1, 55.0, and 53.7.

Hash

I was out for about 30 minutes with the Hash on Kacye's run from Kanis Park.

Walmart

Levy was hammered by storms the last two nights. It started raining at about 5:30 tonight, right after the Kentucky Derby, and poured until about 15 minutes ago, moments after I stepped in after walking for 40:20 at Walmart. The last 10 minutes were spent shopping, so there was a little stop-and-go involved.