Double-Digit Midget

(The title is what my camp friend, Tricia Lillich, called me on my 10th birthday.)

Monday:

Distance: 3 miles - Time: 40:26 - Avg Pace: 13:26/mi.
Calories: 350
Soundtrack: The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton

Tuesday:

Distance: 5.02 miles - Time: 1:08:12 - Avg Pace: 13:33/mi.
Calories: 586
Soundtrack: The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton

Thursday:

Distance: 4 miles - Time: 56:04 - Avg Pace: 14:00/mi.
Calories: 466
Soundtrack: The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton

Sunday:

Distance: 10.01 miles - Time: 2:23:21 - Avg Pace: 14:18/mi.
Calories: 1167
Soundtrack: Beloved

I know I haven't written in ages; the fundraiser swallowed me up this week. More about that in another posting. For now, let's talk walk. I gotta say, if you're going to be walking 10 miles in windy, 20-someº weather (or -6º, as my British upstairs neighbor referred to it in horror when I met him just after I'd been out and told him what I'd done), having Toni Morrison read to you is a pretty nice way to spend a couple hours. In fact, overall, it was a great walk, which I found on the USA Track & Field website, a gem to which I was directed by the lovely Anna Schmidt, a marathoner friend. This was my route. When I mapped it out on Google, starting from and finishing at my house, it came out to 9.81 miles, and given that I crossed a bunch of streets in there that aren't accounted for by the map, I have no trouble believing that I actually walked 10 miles. 10 miles! What am I, crazy? I learned an important lesson about something I thought I had known. It had been my impression up until today that even when it's cold outside, I can dress fairly warmly, and stay plenty warm when I walk. This especially goes for my hands. Almost every time I've worn gloves, I've ended up taking them off after a bit. And today, as usual, I warmed up...and then got cold. After 6 or 7 miles, I was chilly, thanks in part to the wind and in part to...no longer warming up, I suppose. My hands were especially chilly, and I ended up pulling them inside my sleeves a couple times as best I could, which was fairly effective.

A really neat part about today's walk was all the different neighborhoods I got to walk through. The languages I saw on the shop signs around me went from English to Hebrew to Chinese to Spanish, and the faces I saw varied accordingly. Most of the Hasidim didn't much look at me, with the exception of one lady, who gave me a thumbs-up, which totally made my day.

So next time: gloves, and a hat instead of just a headband. Aside from that, good times. My sensor briefly turned off for a couple minutes, but was otherwise well behaved, the Chocolate Outrage-flavored Gu I downed after five miles was utterly palatable--like a mouthful of cooled hot fudge--and I burned over 1100 calories. Not bad for a day's work.