Friday, April 6, 2018

Austin Storm

On Tuesday I drove up to a park in north Austin (where I was this week for work) and set out on a run. A bank of ominous clouds scuttled in from the north, and about a mile out I decided I should head back to the car in case the heavens cracked open. By the time I got back to my rental car and looked at the radar map on my phone it appeared the storm had passed by enough for me to be safe. I got no rain or lightning but plenty of wind, which was my undoing.

On the way back to the car the trough among the hills was filled with dust and pollen, mostly pollen, lifted into the air by the wind. I spent the next four miles wheezing and trying to breathe. Somehow I made it on a windy path through a neighborhood, apartment homes, and then back around by the parking lot; through a sports complex where people were playing softball, baseball, soccer, and skateboarding; and then I finally made it to my 6-mile mark.

It was a pretty severe allergy attack and several times I felt like stopping, but I decided long ago that if I waited until I felt great and let allergies have their way with me then I'd never run.

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