Things I've learned about running just one mile

I already knew from last year that running a single mile is an odd feeling at first, and that when you compare it with the misery you felt during the middle school mile run, it puts your fitness gains into amazing perspective.

The stretch of subzero wind chills and its corresponding single-mile-run streak have taught me a few more things about the experience:

1. Basically, my head will never not sweat if I'm moving faster than a brisk walk for more than a few steps.

2. My nose will still run, but I can make it back without a Kleenex break.

3. I still need to stretch afterwards. I'd gotten lazy about it, thanks to some poor time management, and after a few days of that, I woke up with my first charley horse in years.

I haven't skipped stretching since, and the charley horses haven't recurred. Correlation doesn't mean causation, but right now, I think my theory is a good one.

4. Though I happily miss out on the runger, I still catch a brief runner's high. That also might just be relief that the Holiday Run Streak lives another day, but hey, whatever lifts the spirits!

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.