Obligatory whiny post about the lack of spring

In case you couldn't tell from the calls to fire Punxsutawney Phil, yesterday was both frigid and the first day of spring.

I'm not truly a Viking, embracing cold and snow, but I like to think I'm not a crybaby about winter, either.

Still, reading "feels like 1 degree" in late March, pulling on the bug inspector mask, covering my tights with yoga pants and worrying more about saving my cellphone's strength than my own are not on my list of favorite things.

Worst of all, though, is dealing with my sinuses.

Flashback: Back in the day, I was a big fan of "The Baby-sitters Club" series and its spinoff, "Baby-sitters Little Sister," starring elementary student Karen Brewer. Karen had a friend whose grandpa died in one of the books and whose socks were droopy in every single book ... and, if I recall correctly, her nose was always running, too.

That's me. I'm Natalie Springer. It's not at allergy level, but I have Kleenex with me at all times, including on runs. (I have not mastered the snot rocket, nor have I tried since the era during which I was reading "Baby-sitters Club.")

Running doesn't make my sinuses behave any worse than normal, but being out in the cold does, obviously. And so running in the cold can be messy.

I tried to hold off on breaking my nose's seal yesterday — anyone else notice that once you blow your nose, your sinuses seem to overcompensate? — but I had to, eventually. No sooner would I get moving again than my left nostril would start tickling again.

Yeah, I can wipe my nose while moving, but blowing it as I run leaves me a little too breathless, and it also steams up my sunglasses if I don't push those back too, and forget about operating a zipper with my gloves still on ... so many first-world problems over a single half-hour.

It was quite the stop-and-start effort, so I'm glad it was only a short shake-out run. I still reaped all the mental and physical benefits of running, but I couldn't help thinking wistfully — and irritatedly — of last Friday's 60-degree temps and the mostly calm sinuses they brought.