I hit the ground running.

Oh, great. Another cold. What the actual. I have to say, parking the buses in sub-freezing temps does take a physical toll, but seriously? Anyway, runny nose, high feeling in my chest -- though that's actually the Sudafed. Been taking a lot of Sudafed this season

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 27:54
Pace: 8:59

Brisk run, enjoyable. I didn't wat to do it, I feel now like I might regret it. But I enjoyed the run itself very much.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 46°
Climate: partly cloudy & cool
Mood: illing

1999 Playlist

Lullaby of Clubland (Jay 'Sinister' Sealee Remix) - Everything But the Girl

All Star - Smashmouth

Livin' la Vida Loca - Ricky Martin

Steal My Sunshine - Len

And One (on One) - Lilys

Push Upstairs - Underworld

Fast As You Can - Fiona Apple

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 161 lbs. (-1.0)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: yes

See you Saturday?

You can run, you can run. But it will catch up.

Current read.

Mind cloud. I do have things to accomplish. I am on a bit of a brain sabbatical. There is some writing, though. I think this weekend might be good, we'll see. I just convinced myself that I don't actually just write down whatever comes into my head. Except here.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:41
Pace: 9:15

Tuesday evening I started feeling something in the back of my throat, but it wasn't until Wednesday night that it broke out into something debilitating. That night I slept for twelve hours. And yet, by the time I got to urgent care -- today -- nothing. Post nasal drip? What? Anyway, I have a sore throat.

And the weather is nice. 

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 53°
Climate: partly cloudy & cool
Mood: a little drowsy

2011 Playlist

We Will Become Silhouettes - The Shins 

Ritual Union - Little Dragon

Kyoto - Skrillex ft. Sirah

Little Talks - Of Monsters & Men

We Found Love - Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris

Money - The Drums

Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win - Beastie Boys ft. Santigold

Dance Wiv Me - Dizzee Rascal ft. Calvin Harris & Chrom3

In two more runs, I will be halfway through the year runs. And soon we will know if we will be attempting "number five." What's good about the year runs is that I don't have to think about what I am listening to next. If we return to training, that will be something to plan for. 

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Time to get real.

Right here, right now.

Alas, no more runs in August than in July. This time, due to illness.

COVID-19, bout two.

Tuesday (August 26): Thought I had allergies: tickle in the the throat, watery eyes

Wednesday: Following a horrid night's sleep (woke dozens of times) tested positive. Headache all day, pain across the eyes, cough, woozy, slept on and off all day, watched a lot of TV.

Thursday: Night sweats but an excellent night's sleep. Woke once or twice, sore throat, no head pain. Bit dizzy. Slight cough. And sputum, which is always rewarding.

Friday: Difficult night, coughs and pained throat. Active during the day, working remotely, taking calls. Sore throat much preferable to head or body aches, feeling grateful. 

Saturday: Still testing positive. Good night's sleep. Haven't had a fever since Wednesday. Minor sore throat, little cough. 

Sunday: Spouse in the throes, kept me awake most of the night. Otherwise, mildly stuffed up, high feeling in my chest.

Monday: Ears stuffed, throwing off my equilibrium. high feeling in chest.

The question is, should I run? Rehearsals resume tomorrow. Will exercise wipe me out ... or help clear my system? I have been resting for nearly a week and it's driving me to distraction. And it is specifically because my head is stuffed that I want to run, to clear my head.

I hope I do not regret this.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 30:39
Pace: 9:53

Dance/Electronic Mix

Block Rockin' Beats - The Chemical Brothers

Around the World - Daft Punk

Don't You Want Me (Purple Disco Machine Remix) - Human League

Star Guitar - The Chemical Brothers

Poor Leno - Röyksopp

Pacific 202 - 808 State

Right Here, Right Now - Pete Tong w/The Heritage Orchestra

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 77°
Climate: sunny & warm
Mood: woozy

Ringing in my ears, slight pain in the head now. Dehydrated. Lungs feel better. Will shower and rest, see where the day takes me.

Ha ha, no, that's not ringing in my ears. That's what it sounds like outdoors! Those are insects! 

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs.

I’m not trying to run your life.

My cold is almost through. I feel fine, but the snot just keeps collecting in my throat and my sinuses. Last night, I spit up an oyster the size of a silver dollar.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 26:21

It is fifty degrees today. I could run outside. But there may be slush.   

Mood: all right
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Weight: 160 lbs.

1968 Playlist

(Poor Mi) Israelites - Desmond Dekker & The Aces

Suzanne - Leonard Cohen

Savoy Truffle - The Beatles

Ain’t Nothin’ But a Houseparty - The Showstoppers 

I Say a Little Prayer -Aretha Franklin 

Who’s Making Love - Johnnie Taylor

Birthday - The Beatles

Street Fighting Man - The Rolling Stones 

The Horse - Cliff Nobles

Astral Weeks - Van Morrison 

The only thing that I pray is that my feet don't fail me now.

More illness, saddled by neck pain and fatigue. Is this winter? Is this ageing?

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 27:24

Another go round the track. Noonish on a Friday, the place is full of walkers. Some of them were even using walkers. I felt a little pain in my neck and shoulders, perhaps that is how it happened in the first place. Holding my phone, to better manage the stopwatch, and counting on my fingers so I don't forget how many laps I've taken, that could certainly cause tension in my shoulders.  

Route: Rec Center
Mood: all right
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Weight: 165 lbs.

2004 Playlist

Jesus Walks - Kanye West

TKO - Le Tigre

Holiday - Green Day

Musicology - Prince

Me Plus One - Annie

Toxic - Britney Spears

Air - Owls

Ch-Check It Out - Beastie Boys

Decent Days and Nights - The Futureheads

뛰는 놈.

Car-Free Saturday run with Annie
August 2013

Illness overwhelmed me after the holiday. All the coughing and exhaustion. Then I get one night in complete quiet and darkness and solitude, and I am just awake. Drowsing a bit but awake. Why? No idea. Finally slept a bit in the early morning and immediately popped into my kit. Let's do this now, if even for only a mile or two. 

Distance: 2 miles
Duration: 20:38
Pace: 10:19

Up at 4:30, writing in my journal, "Water tastes SO GOOD."  

Route: Burlington Loop (clockwise)
Temperature: 33°
Climate: overcast w/light snow

Pavement: damp
Mood: all right

2013 Playlist

The City - The 1975  

Right Action - Franz Ferdinand

Animals - Martin Garrix

Gangham Style (강남스타일) - Psy

Harlem - New Politics

When a Fire Starts to Burn - Disclosure

Man. That playlist was fire, as the kids say.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Baseline: 180 lbs.
Weight: 180 lbs. (-0-) 

Goal: 175 lbs.

"The guy who runs."

Better not kill the groove.

Still sick. Still determined to run a little every day. Last night we watched Saltburn. Hot tracks. Millennials who are still hurting from the "This Is Not Your Mother's Mean Girls" campaign have to contend with a film set in the mid-aughts as some kind of period piece. 

Distance: 2 miles
Duration: 20:22
Pace: 10:10

Songs from "Saltburn"

Murder on the Dancefloor - Sophie Ellis-Bextor  

Perfect (Exceeder) - Mason ft. Princess Superstar 
Hang Me Up To Dry - Cold War Kids

This Modern Love - Bloc Party

Loneliness - Tomcraft

You're Gorgeous - Babybird

Route: Burlington Loop
Temperature: 37°
Climate: overcast & damp
Mood: all right

Stretches: yes
Water: yes

We burst through the Overton window.

Hurt my back. Remember the rules, never run like you are trying to get the running over with. Relax, do not lean forward, run at the pace which best suits you at the moment.

Distance: 1 miles
Duration: 10:19

Without posting it here on the blog, I am attempting to pull it back on the consumption. God, there's a lot of little snack things around.  

Your Top Songs 2023

Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine

Steal My Sunshine - LEN

Pontius Pilate's Home Movies - The New Pornographers

Route: Neighborhood Loop
Temperature: 47°
Climate: overcast & damp
Mood: all right

I have a bit of a cold. And I am recovering from the allergies I suffer at Con's house. But I wanted to move, and so I did. I'm on vacation!

Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Sit-Ups: 20

I am a dull and simple lad.

Holiday Inn Express Donegal

Traveling home after dark we were sucked by a snow storm, it was hypnotic and with three hours of driving we decided it was best to pull over for the night.

I slept uneasily, my right knee was in pain. March Mildness is almost complete, taking only one day off. What will April portend?

Distance: 1 mile

Duration: 9:59

Route: one lap around the block 

Temperature: 45°
Climate: sunny & cool

Pavement: dry
Mood: good

One mile. I shouldn't run. Because I am not well. The wife likes to remind me that being cold cannot give you a cold, but I was unpleasantly cool for large stretches of the afternoon on Tuesday, and that's when my cough began.

But it's just a cough, no fever, no chills, it's not like Cincinnati. Man, so far this year I have been sick twice. Being sick is not something that happens to me that often.

1967 Playlist

David Watts - The Kinks

Bring Down the Birds - Herbie Hancock

I Think We're Alone Now - Tommy James &The Shondells

Here Comes My Baby - The Tremeloes 

 
Stretches: yes
Abdominals: no
Water: yes

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, oj, biscuits & sausage gravy 

Lunch: chicken ramen w/broccoli & egg

Tea Time: Earl Grey w/honey

Treat: clementine

Dinner: pizza, carrot sticks, ranch

I tell myself that I'll be strong.

These are the same legs, a bit older. But they are moving an extra thirty of forty pounds. I stretch, but my calves feel the strain.

The thing about those times when family is ill, it makes me feel ill. But I'm not. No symptom. Just. Ugh.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 32:21
Pace: 10:26

Route: Forest Hill Loop

Temperature:  50°
Climate: cool, light fluffy clouds

Pavement: clear & dry
Mood: not bad

2011 Playlist

Dices - Selena Gomez & The Scene

You Make Me Feel - Cobra Starship ft. Sabi

Paradise (Tiësto Remix) - Coldplay

Lotus Flower - Radiohead

Na Na Nothing - Mike Doughty

Lights - Ellie Goulding

Rise Above 1 - Reeve Carney & Bono

Midnight City - M83

Who Says - Selena Gomez & The Scene

 

What was 2011? Little kids, Radio Disney. Twice Told Tales of the Decameron. I Hate This ... And Then You Die in a single evening. Learning about World War One to write The Mysterious Affair at Styles. This house was a beautiful disaster of children's toys, books and instruments.

 
Stretches: yes
Abdominals: 120 sec.
Water: yes

Your feet were so heavy.

Smooth and oily.

Good morning. Still coping with the fallout from last week's drama. Yesterday I was feeling ill all morning, but I couldn't tell whether that was related to my issues, or if I had just picked up a bug from my wife, who had spent Monday morning feeling similarly unwell.

Regardless, no run yesterday, so no "cross-training" today, as if I've done that in weeks. I'll take my three mile, then run a further distance tomorrow.

Received information from the Chicago Marathon the other day; course map and corral confirmation. Also, made my reservation for the night-before party with the Team Challenge team. This is actually going to happen! In Chicago!

Distance: 3.25 miles
Duration: 27:58
Pace: 8:36
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 66°
Climate: cool & HUMID
Mood: in the mood!
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Good Lord, that was a sweaty run. Cool weather, high bpm, top sweat. Crazy. Feel good, though. Hope I stay that way.

Baseline: 179.5 lbs.
Today: 163 lbs. (-1.0)
Goal: 160 lbs.

What's That Lyric?
In the Mood * - The Glenn Miller Band

Boy Camp Bike/Run

Boys Camp is in effect for the summer. We've already done a great many things, including seeing the new Spider-Man movie, dining on chicken and waffles, and purchasing an extremely dangerous knife.

I got sick the last day in Chicago, and I have been struggling through it for the past ten days. The wife and the boy have been to the gym, the girl is engaged in conditioning for high school soccer (it's pretty intense) and I can't even get up early enough to write, let alone run.

The back exercises have gone to the wayside, and I am feeling that, too. In spite of all this, or perhaps because of it, I proposed a three-mile bike/run with the boy.

Because Boy Camp!

Distance: 3.5 miles
Avg. Pace: 9:31
Duration: 33:18
Route: Boulevard Loop

Temperature: 71°
Climate: hot & sunny
Mood: It's Boy Camp!

Not bad, stopping every mile for water, talking about all kinds of things. I encouraged him to join me in a brief jog at the end, it was very challenging for him. Says his ankles hurt, his heels hurt, his toes hurt.

Running is hard. This is a true thing.

A lifestyle of fun.

Somebody that I used to blow.

Last week, right after the wife left town, our boy came down with a serious allergy attack which has left him coughing ever since. He's been given several medications to alleviate the condition, we think he may have a touch of the asthma.

What I can say is that he has spent very little time out of doors or getting any exercise at all, which is only right for recovery but he's very squirrelly and has been jumping around a lot. We are overdue for a run/bike ride.

Distance: 2.35 miles
Avg. Pace: 8:02
Duration: 18:54
Route: Horizon Loop

However, my back end continues to trouble me I no long think it is a hip condition, or if it was that is no longer the issue. It pains me to sit for long periods. No idea what will come of this.

Pavement: wet
Temperature: 43°
Climate: rain & thunder
Mood: confounded

Bracing run in the rain. Cold rain, brief run. Good to get out an move my legs. Today is a personal day, the wife is home, kids still on break. We did not have the opportunity to visit the zoo on Calvin's Day, so that is where we are headed now.

A walk through the zoo in the rain. Sounds like fun.

Baseline: 174 lbs.
Today: 164 lbs. (-1.0)
Goal: 165 lbs.
Ideal: 160 lbs.

2012 Playlist
Madness - Muse
Somebody That I Used to Know (Mike D Remix) - Gotye ft. Kimbra
Live While We're Young - One Direction
Paddling Out - Miike Snow
Take a Walk - Passion Pit

You've only had to run so far ... so good.

The past two days have been a physical mystery. It was in the seventies on Friday, but I was saddled with a sinus-piercing headache in the morning, and by night I was just weak, weak and tired. I do not know if it was the cumulative effect of moving the set a few times and running pretty much every day, or if I had caught some kind of bug.

Saturday morning, it was the same. Weak, tired, even after a fine night's sleep (a couple of them, to be honest) and a bit queasy after having a simple breakfast. Was I sick? No idea. But another day without running was necessary.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Avg. Pace: 7:54
Duration: 26:05
Route: Forest Hill Loop

Still feeling weak heading out, and yet being outside and moving through the cool air, it was impossible not to go fast. Just felt good. And such a beautiful, sunny day in the park. Looking across the lagoon at the footbridges, hadn't noticed them from that angle before. Just a wonderful place to be.

Pavement: wet
Temperature: 30°
Climate: sunshine
Mood: leaning in

Snowed last night, the morning sun had already melted what was left on the sidewalks.

Baseline: 174 lbs.
Today: 164 lbs. (-1.5)
Goal: 165 lbs.
Ideal: 160 lbs.

Not sure when I can trust the scale. Some mornings it says 167.5, others 162. Changed the battery a week ago. So I try it now and then while I am in the bathrrom until it makes sense.

1982 Playlist
Wham Rap [Social Mix] - Wham!
Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime) - The Flirts
Jason and the Argonauts - XTC
Pressure - Billy Joel
Lysistrata - Utopia
My Own Way - Duran Duran

Gotta get up, gotta get up. Move.

"Oh, shit."

Hey. Remember when Cleveland was up three games to one in the World Series, it was seventy degrees out and the polls predicted an electoral college landslide for Hillary Clinton. Me, too. Good times.

I can't even articulate the feelings, but I'm working on it. Unlike so many of my friends, colleagues, over half the electorate, I have not posting my thoughts on the past week in emotional bursts on social media. I do not have a problem with people who do, so many have been articulate, heartfelt, and good. It's a way of coping. I just can't, anything I might express feels inadequate.

If anything, I have been avoiding Facebook because ninety-nine out of one hundred posts have to do with the election. I dip in from time to time, but it's just too much. Weeping and wailing is good, but there's also so much to do.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Route: Forest Hill Loop

Meantime, I have been ill. Literally sick and tired. Weak, headachy many days. Yesterday I realized I had been squinting pretty much every day since November 8, like the world was out of focus. All of my thoughts have been about what just happened, I can't attend a meeting or have a conversation without thinking, What? What happened? What does that mean? What happens next?

Then realizing I just missed the last minute, or two, and trying to concentrate on what is right in front of me.

This morning I rose early, I had a headache but it went away. I sat by the fire and wrote a children's play. I wrote for an hour, by hand, creating a tale, a conversation between two women. There is a conflict, one which is resolved through communication and understanding and assistance which results in reward.

There is another play I am working on, which will end in violence and horror. That play relates directly to our present moment, but I can't focus on that right now. Now I am looking for the helpers.

Temperature: 43°
Climate: cool
Weight: 168 lbs. (-0-)
Goal: 165 lbs.
Mood: not great

Cool and brisk, using gloves, not sure I needed them. No wind, that makes a difference. Cleared my head a bit, I mean literally, that's where the congestion is. My nose, my ears, my sinuses. Still, the usual rise I have in my chest after running is serving to amplify the same anxiety which has possessed it the past few days.

I hope having done this does not make me feel any more ill. Sickness like colds take much longer to shake as I get older. At the very least I need to run, and run often. You can't do if you are not able.

We are not defeated. This is very wrong, historically wrong. A friend said, well? If she had won, we'd all be so happy and go back to sleep. My white colleagues and confounded. My black colleagues ... they are sympathetic, you know?

Wake up. Back to work.

What's New Playlist
Move - Saint Motel
Satisfied - Sia ft. Miguel & Queen Latifah
Run Sister Run - Cass McCombs
Cruel World - Phatntogram
New Song - Warpaint
My Shot [Rise Up Remix] - Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz & Nate Ruess

Sitting idle in our boat while everyone else is down the stream.

Los Angeles, 1991

Ugh. Just ugh. Every day getting up is very difficult. I have just been sick. I was hoping, last week, when I only felt it in my throat, that it was allergies. But this is a cold, plain and simple. And it makes me cough and my head is heavy and some mornings I take a pill which clears my head, a little, and makes me hyper and I don't know which is worse.

Monday I actually put on my kit, stepped out and started running up the street. After about fifty yards, I thought, this isn't good. By one hundred yards I had stopped. I hadn't felt like that yet. Maybe a little ill, but not weary, not like that. I thought, three miles? Surely I can run three miles. But no. Why? If I felt like I hadn't felt before, that should be enough to tell me not to do something. I turned around and got through the day. Yesterday I didn't even consider running.

However, Monday afternoon I went to the doctor, for previously scheduled appointment, basically the end to a year-long intervention. In March 2015 I had my "annual" physical exam, about five years too late. I was about twenty pounds overweight, and had dangerously high blood sugar.

I lost the weight, I changed the diet. I was told to have a colonoscopy, which I put off for almost a year. I made the appointment before dad died, but as the time came so soon after his death, my wife suggested I postpone. It was for the exact same reason I kept it.

And I am clean. My colon is healthy, blood work taken last month indicates that my prostate is clear, I am at low risk of cancer. As long as I keep my weight where it is, I do not have to be concerned about diabetes. If I gain weight, well then, I will have to be concerned. Odds are good in that case. So, my path is pretty obvious.

Distance: 3 miles
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 46°
Climate: cool and bright
Weight: 163 lbs. (+2.0)
Mood: searching

Twenty-five years ago I was enduring my brief residence in Los Angeles. So, why not an appropriate playlist? Something to inspire me, at long last.

But dude, if your time in Los Angeles was so regrettable, why will this playlist be "inspiring"? Good question. Because the station was awesome, and listening to KROQ in the car were the times I was my happiest, traveling from one place to another. The anticipation of doing something, accomplishing something, getting there, that was a positive feeling. Actually being anywhere in Los Angeles was inevitably a let-down.

KROQ91 Playlist
Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) - De La Soul
Round and Round - Tevin Campbell & Prince
Head Like a Hole - Nine Inch Nails
The Other Side of Summer - Elvis Costello
Valerie Loves Me - Material Issue
Unbelieveable - EMF

Warmdown
88 Lines About 44 Women - The Nails

Run away and hide from everyone.

Oh, ah. I have a cold or something. Thought it was just allergies yesterday, but this morning I just feel terrible. Yet the work must continue. Tonight I have to curate a playwriting contest, there are meetings to be met, rehearsals to be rehearsed. Love to take the day off. Can't.

Then there's running. How slow can you go?

Distance: 4 miles
Route: Forest Hill Loop

Pseudoephedrine is a strong motivator. Hope I don't regret this later.

Temperature: 61°
Climate: overcast, cool. very light rain
Weight: 163 lbs. (-1.0)
Mood: sick

What's That Lyric?
Don't Answer Me - The Alan Parson Project

UPDATE: Jesus. Well, bet you can guess what I will be listening to for tomorrow's run.

To long-legged women.

Whoa, I need more sleep than this. We had the first reading of the new Agatha Christie play last night, not quite the end of a long day. Concentration, focus -- drive. Not coming so easily. The middle of September and I am trying to remember the point of anything. Because I need more sleep than this.

Hmn. Girl has been sick, now the wife is ill. Hope that's not a sore throat. And now suddenly my ears hurt. Need to move on with the day, take pain reliever, ignore this.

Distance: 6 miles
Duration: 47:28
Avg Pace: 7:54
Route: South Euclid Loop

The Moth: Dog Mother, Tour Guide, and Milli Vanilli

Another podcast, another brisk run. It's a simple, square run. Two miles east, two miles south, two miles west, and then a funky dogleg home. Not actually a square, but it feels like one. Straight, straight, straight, funky dogleg.

Temperature: 64°
Climate: cool and humid
Weight: 157.5 lbs.
Intake: fruit yogurt & grape nuts
Hydration: yes
Water Stop: no
Stretches: yoga (10 min.)

I got one foot out the door.

Too soon?

Ugh. So? I have a cold or something. Probably picked it up from the boy. Woke myself with coughing last night, it's a real drag. Doesn't it make sense to take it easy, not to run, to rest and let myself recuperate?

Of course not. I am training for a marathon here.

Distance: 4 miles
Duration: 32:00
Avg Pace: 7:59
Route: Cain Park Loop

Got a sporting goods gift card for my birthday I have not used yet. Yesterday reminded me I need that rain hat. Had a such a great one for New York, all those years ago. No idea what happened to that.

Temperature: 75
Climate: shiny!
Weight: 159.5 lbs.
Intake: lunch (not telling)
Hydration: yes
Water Stop: yes
Stretches: no

Dag. That felt good. But I feel delirious. Perhaps I will collapse now.

But hey - they started repaving the sidewalks!!!

What's That Lyric?
Want To Want Me - Jason Derulo

I want to run but I can't hide.

Now it is cool and rainy. My sinuses are very unhappy and I have gotten up every morning with a slight headache.

I remember in the early-late 1990s, after the wife (who was then the girlfriend) had moved in and I would often wake up feeling headachy and stuffed up and in pain and just not in the mood to spend an entire day in a basement on Coventry and I wondered what was wrong.

Was it this house? Was it the heating system, was there mold in the walls? Dust mites?

Well, no, maybe it had to do with being twenty pounds overweight and all the smoking and drinking.

Each year I can pretty much count on a week or two of cranial unhappiness at the beginning of September. I feel it has come a little early this year.

Distance: 8 miles
Duration: 1:06:52
Avg Pace: 8:21
Route: Forest Hills-Cain Park

Yesterday I had a headache pretty much all day. Today my throat is scratchy and I feel a bit like I have a cold. What will I accomplish today? It is August 27th. I have four days to complete the script.

Temperature: 63°
Climate: rain
Weight: 158.5 lbs.
Intake: yogurt & granola
Hydration: yes
Water Stop: yes
Stretches: yes

As I lay half-asleep after my wife had gotten up (she would return in a half-hour with coffee) I thought I heard it raining, but it wasn't. The pavement was dry. I suited up and stepped out ... and there was mist. It was too cool and I was too ill to run without a jacket.

My voice was resonant, like a sick person, and she encouraged me not to overdo it. It occurred to me that maybe I should run later, in the afternoon or evening. But what if I felt worse later in the day? Besides, I was dressed. I headed out.

The rain did not get any heavier, though it was steady and light for the first half of my run. By then I was feeling good, my pace had picked up. I did it. Eight miles, as the sky lightened so did my chest.

Just made myself a big, fat eggs and cheese breakfast burrito with onions, tomatoes, peppers and hot sauce.

Running twenty on Sunday morning.

What's That Lyric?
Long Hot Summer - The Style Council