RUNNER TESTED SELFIE PHOTOS OMG LOOK AT HOW CUTE I AM

I got an email titled "blog material(?)." Since I'm too lazy to come up with my own material, I'll almost always take the bait.

And so I was sent this article. 8 super cute hairstyles that you can wear on your run!!!!!

I swear, I don't get it. When did fashion begin to trump function in running?

Running: oh, right, that's something I do

I'm back from Egypt, just in time for the country to descend into chaos... again. But this time, luckily, neither the American taxpayers nor my sister will be funding my recovery mission.

I went for a run this morning. It was a rather brutal baseline of where my fitness is right now. But the good news is that things can only go up, eh? Actually, I suppose they could go down. I ran 3m in the heat with little trouble - I could have struggled through a shorter run in cooler weather.

I did lose some weight while I was in Egypt, but I'm not kidding myself that that is anything but water weight lost from standing in the 110 degree sun 8 hours a day. I mean, I did the NYT 7 minute workout regularly, but now that they have a 4 minute workout, why did I waste those three extra minutes?

While I was running this morning, I overheard something kind of funny. A woman was walking along with a friend, and it looked like they'd just finished their run. She was saying to him, "Yeah, the first mile was like 20 minutes, and the second one was way faster, it was, like, 10 minutes." I think I gave her an odd look.

As she said it, I realized how different that was than how I'm used to hearing people talk about their running. I'm used to my friends saying things more like, "The first mile was about 10 minutes, but then I picked it up to 8:42 for the second and third miles and 8:20 for the fourth." Or, if they're being imprecise, something like, "The first mile was about 10 minutes, but the second was probably 9:15 to 9:30."

It kind of reminds me of back in the olden days when I started running, when I used to approximate my mileage by driving as close to my running route as I could. The future is now.

No pressure, but in case you've wondered what I've been up to...

I'm trying out this "tumblr" thing that's all the rage these days. So I have a new blog, I guess. BUT, and this is important: it's not about running. It's about my work life, the one I try to refer to only obliquely over here. I'll probably be updating it more often over the next couple of weeks. But no promises.

This will get me running again!

I signed up for a half in DC this November.

A half marathon with a twist, that is. Or, as they say on their website:

Most runs have water stations and bananas on hand for refueling.  The DC Half and Half Marathon challenges you to down a half smoke with chips at the midway point. 

To be honest, I don't exactly know what a "half smoke" is, but I'm assuming it doesn't involve tobacco. And is edible. And that this race was basically made for me.