A lesser athlete would have...oh yeah, I already said that one.

Ran, 42, neighborhood.

I heartily mocked the first Californian I saw jogging while talking on his cell phone. In fact, before I became the cell phone's #1 fan, I thought everyone who had one was pathetically self-important. Now, with the zeal of a late-adopter, I certainly feel incomplete without mine. And I took it along on today's jog so I wouldn't miss an important phone call verifying whether today or tomorrow was Sushi Lunch.

To save some time, I decided to jog right around here, and it was pretty good. But - I almost turned back several times, though. OK, I almost didn't even start after I ran over my left pinky toe with the recycling bin. I hit its most sensitive spot and for a few minutes the pain was whimper-inducing. But I kept going. The sideache that ensued shortly thereafter made me forget all about the toe, though. I heard Coach Bagley's helpful suggestion, "Just run it out, Hecht, it won't kill you!" so I kept going. Then I got behind a garbage truck, whose noise drowned out my music for quite a while. I hate running without music, so I changed my route and kept going. Something still felt wrong with the music. Investigation indicated that the earbuds were in the wrong ear. I corrected the aberration and kept going. When I was almost done, I felt a few drops, but stopping didn't even cross my mind. Unless it's a torrent I run, rain or shine. After a couple of minutes I noticed the glint of red in my right hand. I ran a little more, then started to feel guilty. While I do consider myself the Chuck Norris of the 20-minute mile, my cell phone probably isn't as quite as tough. I wanted to finish, and since I'd already sacrificed a phone to Tlaloc last year, I tucked it into my sock. A little uncomfortable, but not enough to stop me. I do realize that the real Chuck Norris would have stuffed his phone down his underpants or right up his butt to keep it dry, but I'm not really as hardcore as I like to think I am. That more experienced California cell phone jogger probably would have bought a special water-proof case for his phone, but the best I could do would be to put it in ziploc. But I think I'll just leave mine home next time and make sure I confirm Sushi Lunch in a more timely manner.