Running and Hay Fever

Damn, that Tom Selleck had a nice-looking hairy chest, am I right?

Yeah, that's foreshadowing.

So anyhoo, when you've got a bad case of hay fever, every single year, from about April to July, you can't really just put running on hold. I mean, that's the meat of the running year right there. In the Northwest, that's damn near the entire running year. Outdoors anyway.

So basically, you just pop your favorite pill every morning and hope for the best.

So after a little Fexofenadine fix, I hit the trails this morning for a nice ten-miler in the Corvallis sunshine. And apart from a little wind (which hay fever sufferers never want to see), the weather was just about perfect.

So off I went. A nice little loop by campus then back to Bald Hill Park via the Midge Cramer Path.

And even though my pace slowed down considerably going up Bald Hill, I was pretty happy with my overall pace, especially the few miles after the hill. I felt good.

My splits for the ten+ were:
8:17
8:32
8:34
8:54
8:58
8:31
10:21
10:07
8:13
8:03
7:58
Can you tell where I was going up?!?

And while my hay fever didn't cause my throat to close up, like it sometimes does when I run through Avery Park, it was clear when I went to take my shower that the pollen was going through my lungs pretty good.

No, I don't have chicken pox. Those are hives from breathing in too much pollen during the run. Makes you wonder what my actual lungs look like. I don't really want to know. And no, I don't have quite the hairy goodness of Magnum, P.I., but I'm getting there.

And you wonder why Galen Rupp wears that dorky mask? Well, that's why.

Galen Rupp photo from Thomas Boyd and the Oregonian.