59. Weather, walking

Last night I was out on Reserve, arguably the worst place in the state - a terrible concrete sprawl of strip, nothing but cars rushing by and parking lots and terrible generic stores in buildings they don't deserve. Rain had been predicted all day - 90% chance, all day long, every hour - but the rain didn't come until the early evening, first a few splatters and then heavier and heavier.  And out on Reserve, that waste of concrete and pollution, it was heavenly. It smelled like tulips. You've never smelled fresher air.

It rained all night and into the morning. This morning I walked to work in a raincoat with an umbrella. I walked through the tree-covered University neighborhood to campus, the state's official arboretum, where it smelled like worm meat.  Worms, worms, nothing but worms.

58. Running, weather, math

The other night while I was out run/walking in the hot summer sun I was doing math problems, as is my wont, trying to figure out my running pace - a challenge when you're run/walking (or should it be run-walking?) - and I'm embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to figure this out - the answer is so obvious now. My excuse is that, although I'm constantly doing math problems while I'm running, I'm not constantly solving math problems - meaning, I'm not very good at math while I'm running, even though I'm always thinking about it. So, if I do 29 run/walk intervals of 1:15 and :30 over 4.75 miles, what's my running pace? Like I said, the answer seems so obvious now, but I just figured it out.  Wait... what?