It's just me, your androgenous friend

Yesterday was the big day, the day that Leah would give a talk on her research stuff. And let me just say, it went really well. She didn't sound nervous and she got a couple really nice comments during and after her talk. Go Leah! Woot!

(And the award for best contribution to science by a marathon runner goes to...)

Anyway, after the talk we went home for a little nap and then we were all set to run. And by "all set" I mean "totally uninterested in running." Getting up super early, having a stressful day, napping, and just generally being lazy sucked out all the desire to run. Add in the fact that there was a small hurricane swirling over our happy intersection and there's little incentive left to run. But, run we did ('cause that's what we do). We waited for a lull and off we went. And, let me just say, our timing was impeccable. The rain stopped just as we started running and, other than a little spitting in the middle, didn't start again. Score! It was, however, wicked humid and we were both quickly soaked through. Unscore!

And then an interesting thing happened.

But wait, before I get to that, what is up with the CTA? Why can't they run the damn trains? They keep threatening to cut service and hike rates to make ends meet. Okay, fine, but why are we the only major city that can't run a public transit system? New York has subways that run and are fairly cheap. So does DC. Hell, even the Bay Area has a transit system that's reasonably priced. All big cities with effective public transit. But Chicago? How about the fact that they considered a $7 fare for rush hour commuters? How about the fact that they considered cutting all lines but Blue and Red? That's nice, let's make the city completely inaccessible to the working class. Great. And whatever happens, they'll be raising rush hour fares drastically and cutting back tons of service. Awesome. Whatever happened to encouraging public transportation? So much for a "Green City."

Anyway, back to the "interesting thing that happened." We were doing our usual run through the neighborhood and were somewhere in Bucktown when a couple guys got out of our way as we ran by. Nothing unusual there, right? In fact, pretty polite, right? Maybe, but as we ran by, one of the guys looked me dead in the eyes and said "Afternoon, ladies." Ladies. Plural.

Now okay, I get that I could use a haircut. We all know that. And sure, I have delicate features and can't grow facial hair. Fine. And maybe I look a little bit like a lesbian. Maybe. But really, my boobs aren't particularly big and I was hardly wearing an mascara at all.

Just call me Pat.
Whatever.

But back to the run. We made it all nine miles, but it was a little tough. We were all over the place, starting out at a nice 8:40 clip and then jumping to an 8:16 pace (too fast). Then it was up an down as we had to stop for traffic, then sped up, the got slowed again and blah blah blah. Basically, it is pretty tough to run at 5 pm on a weekday. And the thing is, other than getting stopped for a solid minute at mile 6, we were really lucky with lights. But having to slightly slow down when approaching a little then speeding back up makes it really hard to get in a rhythm. And let me tell ya, the humidity doesn't help either.

So, I can't really say it was a good run. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't good. We might have to hit the lakefront path in the future for these mid-week long runs, I don't know. Or just deal with it. Anyway, here's the pretty graph with our spikey little run. If you'll notice, there are now lines for a 3:35 and a 3:30 marathon. How's that for optimism?