I've started running at night again, like I did at Fordham. At least three or four times a week, I used to run sometime between 10 and 1... maybe about a mile and a half or two miles. I didn't care how cold it was out... I was out there in shorts and a t-shirt. In fact, it was better when it was cold out. I loved the feel of the cold. It wasn't a jog. I was running... almost running away from the cold, or away from something, or after something. The music set the mood. My favorite song to run to was David Bowie's "I'm Deranged" from the Lost Highway Soundtrack. I listened to that outside tonight. I just looped it again and again. Running around the campus at Fordham was great.. I'd run out the door of Hughes Hall, down towards Walsh Library and around the back of Martyrs. When you ran past Martyrs, you could see the first floor suites and you'd get these little vignettes of college life... mostly just people watching TV or sitting around chatting. You'd catch sight of window decorations from the upper floors, too... neon beer signs, Christmas lights, banners on adjacent walls. I ran behind South and then North, where the Rambulences parked, and past Fordham Prep. Past the tennis courts and McGinley Hall, by Eddie's Parade, where you might catch someone else running just around the Parade path. What a boring run that would be.. just around and around Eddie's. Around Keating and past Millenium, Tierney, and back up towards Walsh Hall. That was a sketchy stretch, because you had that parking lot where they kept Facilties vehicles and then JMH... two places you weren't going to run indoors to, but you'd always bump into people along that stretch. You'd be running at them for some part or behind them, and you could sence their uneasiness. Right past I went, right by Finlay and instead of a right turn to Hughes, I'd go past it and back around Martyrs again, and not stop until the tennis courts. Then I cut right and walk it off back to Hughes.
The streets were empty and the wind was frigid tonight, but I felt great when I got back inside. My arms were red from the cold and the water from the shower confused my skin. I remembered showering in Hughes. The bathroom was usually freezing b/c someone was always leaving the window open. I couldn't figure out if the water it was cold or hot, because my body was so cold from the outside. I felt great. It makes me tired before bed and it gets rid of all the stress that my body unconsciously picks up even though my brain is pretty well trained to ignore it. I think I'm going to make a regular habit of this again.