  Another chance to run along the lakefront and enjoy the last fading blooms and faint perfumes of the lilac trees. (Wow. That was almost poetic. ) And another six miles. Oy. I could NOT keep my pace up tonight.
And I think it was because I ate a lot of crap at work today (new employees and big-wig client meetings = lots of tempting doughnuts floating around the office) and because I didn't eat enough of anything before I took off running. I'm also becoming very bored (and very frustrated) with my inner dialogue. No matter what I try to stick in my head as I run -- be it a song or the conversation I imagine I'll have someday when I find myself sitting next to Oprah or Ted Allen on the 147 bus -- my mind invariably wanders and I find myself running inexplicably to an endless loop of the bridge from Billy Joel's "Pressure": All [run] grown [run] up [run] and [run] no place to go [run] [run] [run] [run] Psych [run] 1 [run] Psych [run] 2 [run] What do you know? [run] [run] [run] [run] All [run] your [run] life [run] is [run] channel 13 [run] [run] [run] [run] Sesame Street [run] [run] [run] [run] What does it mean? [run] [run] [run] [run] You can see how frustrating it can get. And I'm not bashing Billy Joel or even "Pressure.
" It's just that I've been running -- unintentionally, I repeat -- with that song in my head for 10 years now. Maybe if I train myself to run faster than my well-entrenched 9-minute-mile pace I can upgrade to something faster. Like "Uptown Girl. " (Note to self: The Polo Ralph Lauren tighty-whities are too old and waaaaaaay too small after repeated shrinkings in the dryer to be worn running.
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