running a 5k

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running a 5k Sunday December 5

last night at my dinner party -- the biggest and most successful dinner party to date -- kathy told me she was running a 5k race today. i wanted to join in.

when i woke up today, the weather was very nice, so i could easily run outside without fear of kicking up my asthma. rather, i think it's better to run out there and get all that junk cleared out. anyway, that's gross.

i was dehydrated for the run, and i haven't been running recently. these two factors do not help when you are running a "race", and therefore set a unrealistically fast pace. my first mile was just over seven minutes, and my second one was eight.

but then i started to lose it. badly. i was by myself (the race had spread out), and all of a sudden i heard nate's voice in my head:

"phooze, don't be a wuss. it's a 5K race. we ran farther than that in boston when we went around the resevoir. c'mon phooze...push."

so i ran harder, and i knew that running harder would bring me to the finish line sooner. and so i started talking back to nate, but since he's nate, i was calling him "holmes" in my head. when i get tired while running with nate, i go off on crazy tangents to rationalize. today was no exception.

"holmes, this whole running thing, i should have had more water. i should have trained a little."

"dude, holmes, i don't know, this wind is unbearable here.."

and so i just imagined nate running right next to me, urging me on. then i looked up, and my quickened pace had caught up to the next person up: a young girl wearing a hooded sweatshirt with a name on the back:

HOLMES

and so he was. my final time was 25:05.