upper/downer

I obviously just discovered instamatic
 

This kind of looks like a frame from the Zapruder film

So now that my face is down to a manageable size, I'm back out on da streetz.  Unfortunately those streetz are covered in snow and it's colder here than I have experienced previously. EVER.  I have a wool neck gaiter that I pull over my face when it's cold enough.  The thing froze solid on Saturday.  Trish just told me that the Metrodome is open in the evenings to run laps.  I think I should do that, mostly because I want to go in there before they blow it up.  Apparently it's more economical to have four separate arenas all over the place for your sports teams instead of having all of them in one huge, central location with a nice big roof on top.  I'm sure this was all negotiated by the likes of our past and present political all-stars such as - Jesse Ventura, Al Franken and Michelle
Bachman. 

What is going on in this freaking place? Has our cerebrospinal fluid frozen from living here?

Ok, I'm getting somewhat off-topic here.  Have I mentioned that I have a B.A. in Print Journalism? 

So, without anyone to tell me not to, I've signed up to run the US Cross Country Championships next month in St. Louis.  I usually have pretty good luck racing shortly after marathons, so why not push my luck?  The only downside is the recovery time I've had to endure from toothmaggedon and the meds I had to take to keep my face from getting more infected. I'm completely convinced the anti-inflammatories I took kept my quads from healing up quickly enough, but, 9 days later, I'm pretty sure I'm back to fighting condition.  If I can get a few decent workouts in and not get stabbed here in the 'hood, I think I'll be ready to go.

The real plan is to see if I can sneak in the top 10 or 15 (who knows?) and maybe get to go to NACAC.  Nobody seems to want to go to that race, but I DO.  I'm also banking on not a lot of people doing XC, since it's an Olympic year and everyone is afraid to do any sort of race without at least 8 months to recover.