Every year, right around Easter, the weather gets nice down here in North Carolina.

Really nice.

That’s when I break out my warm-weather running clothes from last season and think—Whoa, what the eff? Were these pants always this tight? Ugh! This madness must end!

I feel this way every. single. year.

Winter kicks my ass, but so what if my pants don’t fit? I always budget a little money for a “running wardrobe refresh” in the spring. This year, I started with my shoes. I went to the Brooks store in Seattle and bought a new pair of neon pink Ghost 7s. They are fabulous.

Then I went to the Seattle Art Museum’s TASTE restaurant and had three kinds of ice cream.

The center one is avocado. I took one look at the menu and said, “Fuck it. That’s why I run.”

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(I’m going to wait to buy new running clothes.)

Listen, winter was brutal for all of us—in Boston, Chicago, New York and even North Carolina. We did what we had to do to survive!

(My survival included champagne, sugar and fat.)

The good news is that spring is here. And there are less than three weeks to the Tar Heel Ten Miler. I’ll be using all of my stored energy to get my ass up Laurel Hill, and my new shoes will look awesome.