Please Don't Let Them Take Me, Too

My office sounds like the triage area in a plague movie.

There’s the guy down the hall who hacks these full-body cough-and-snorts at least 1-2 times a minute (I was keeping a tally). No wonder my nerves are shot! And with the students back, a chorus of sickly coughs rings constantly throughout the building.

I think I may be the only person who has not yet been sick.

Now I’m wondering whether the hint of chest cold I feel is really something or just my typical dose of hypochondria.

Despite the threat, I went swimming late in the workday for a mere 2,100 yards:

• 500 yards free
• 5 x 200 yards alt. IM and free
• 500 yards free
• 100 yards free warm down

My energy was lagging (between the snowstorm and still-problematic sleep patterns), but my primary excuse for cutting the swim short was time. Of course. But for an excellent reason: I gave myself a good 40 minutes in the pool before I had to head home to take Neil out for his birthday dinner! And he was very grateful for all of the birthday wishes. Thanks to everyone!

It was fairly easy to take a running rest today. Not only was it too cold to walk to and from my car in the nearby parking lot at work, the track at the rec. center was packed with ROTC folks again. And we all know what happens when ROTC and I coincide.

But I swore that place off last month anyway. I’m an outside runner now! (My goodness was it easier to say that earlier this week!)

Less than a month from today, I will be in Portland becoming a bigger Web nerd than I am at the be-a-bigger-Web-nerd-than-you-already-are conference. Rumor has it, however, that Portland is swell and has plentiful running terrain.

I’m actually looking forward very much to the running possibilities and to hunting down the home offices of Tin House, one of the best short fiction publishers of all time. Hey, we all have our vices.

And, finally, as an example of my mental running health, I have slipped into second place in my Nike challenge (someone new logged 21 miles this morning) and I didn't even think about running today.

OK, I did think about it. But I didn't have my shoes.