sort of three miles

Well, I "ran" in Central Park today. I met a friend, M, to run three with her. This turned out to be so-so. I wasn't expecting a trained runner by any means, but ...

We did five miles total, but perhaps two of it at most was running. Though we met at 8 a.m., it was pretty humid and she was having a hard time with that. She's a little out of shape, not bad, but I cringed when I heard the words "elliptical", "treadmill", and "gym". None of those things will get you ready to run three miles in Central Park on a humid morning. Though it was nice to feel like I was the one in shape, I kind of felt bad for her. I'm willing to set her up with a schedule that will get her acclimated to running outside in the summer, but it will take her time. She's also battling knee problems, but they aren't bad thankfully. Perhaps she'll eventually do one of the very democratic 4-milers.

But until she trains up some more, I don't think I want to run with her again; our ability levels are just too different and I have a race to train for.

We went to breakfast afterward. That was fine, too, but the conversation was kind of standard. We are intellectually mismatched, I think. I met M at a benefit concert for Cystic Fibrosis and I'm afraid I may have stumbled onto a CF groupie, if such a thing exists. The morning was pretty good, all told, but I'm not hot to repeat it. Well... my search for a partner, running or otherwise, continues.

[later....]

I'm sitting here doing my hypertonic saline and hocking up big green ones while watching fireworks out my window, so I'll add a couple of notes.

1) My typing skills continue to degrade. Modern keyboards are not conducive to expert touchtyping; they are merely adequate.

2) I love the hypertonic saline. It makes me cough real hard, which means I get treated to my own personal fireworks each time.

3) I love the hispanics in this neighborhood. They began celebrating 4th of July LAST night, using M-80s in attempts to effect Sudden Digital Relocation; I'm sure a few will succeed tonight.

4) The jog in the park today revealed for the first time what a "conversational pace" is. 12 minutes a mile. Much too slow. Forget conversation.

5) While I didn't leave a slime trail in the park, I did hock one up on the way out of the park. M actually LOOKED, as in interested LOOKED. Though I want my running acquaintances to be comfortable with my peculiarities, I'm not sure I want a brand-new acquaintance to be that interested.

6) DOF moments today; many of them. You know, the kind where you go in the house to get something, but once you're in there, you can't for the life of you remember what you were after, or even why you went into the house anyway. And the only way to remember is to go back to what you were doing. It can turn into a vicious cycle.

7) Tomorrow's six-miler may have to wait 'til Thursday. I'm swamped. I may also have to delay the start of my vacation and catch up with the group of riders down the road, due to some parts delays. Crap.