17. Weather, running, senselessness.

In Missoula this month for no reason at all it's incredibly springlike. There is still snow on the ground and ice on the streets but my dad says he saw robins last week. Yes that was in Idaho and not in Missoula but same difference. My point is, it's unseasonably warm. I am unseasonably warm. Every night I wake up at 3 a.m. sweating. I wear extra clothes to work out of habit and every afternoon at 3 I'm sweating. It gets up to 80 degrees in my office, for no reason at all.

This month's unseasonable springishness is startling because last month was cold, unseasonably cold - colder, they were saying, than it's ever been anywhere. Ever. One day I walked to work and it was so many degrees below zero every single thermometer in the state had broken. It was so cold ducks were freezing and falling out of the sky with nary a quack. Do you know why our tears are salty? It's so our eyeballs don't freeze. I made that up but I'm sure it's true.

I have gotten a membership at the campus rec center for no reason at all. Or, rather, I had one reason - the weather/darkness/general terribleness of outside - which became moot when it turned so springlike, is what I'm saying. Know what I'm saying?

What I'm saying is, I've started running again, inside, on a tiny track. You have to go around 10 times to go a mile. It's almost dizzying, or would be if I went any faster. It's hard to keep track of the number of laps. I use the chron on my watch, it's what it was born to do. Running on a tiny indoor track is boring and almost claustrophobic, and there are too many people, but at least it's something, right? Am I right?

For no reason at all, I went to a talk last night about the marathon. I've done it, or, I've done the half, every single year the Missoula Marathon has been in existence (two), and so I totally already know everything there is to know about it, and about running in general. And I was already excited about the beginning of another running season, so there was no reason for me to go to the talk last night, no reason at all. But the talk made me so excited I went home and wrote in my journal (a.k.a. diary) and underlined words and used multitudinous exclamation points.

The training group starts at the beginning of March. Last year I also did the Snow Joke Half Marathon training group, which started in January and led right into the Missoula Marathon training group in March. The Snow Joke training is what is not happening this year, as expounded upon previously, and so I am footloose and fancy-free until March.

The training program last spring was tough but it was great, and the results were so great that now I don't even think about how tough it was, I just think about how great it was. Here, you see, I had just finished the big race in July and was walking over to Anders, our coach, who was right there cheering everyone on, who gave me a hug even though I was slightly sweaty (only slightly, because I am a lady). And not to be weird or pathetic but that was one of the high points in my life, those few seconds right around when that picture was taken. I almost asked for a copy of that photo for Christmas because it still makes me kind of giddy to look at. Instead, I asked for a copy of this incredible photo (please note the water droplets suspended in mid-air awesomeness).

So, like, totally looking forward to formal training again. Etc.

In other news, tomorrow on my radio show I'm going to play bands that start with V. Benjamin Franklin, that son of a bitch, is still in England. Length of day tomorrow will be 1 minute and 53 seconds longer than today.