In which I make two references to pad the length of this post, because I don't have much to say

We'll start with the first, because there's not much to say: A Dream of Spring is the book after the book that George Martin hasn't released yet in his Song of Ice and Fire. I haven't read it; no one has. Maybe, no one will.

Which would make the title a bit appropriate, wouldn't it? Dreams, after all, are not real. And so if it's a spring that never comes, because WINTER MOTIF, then... well, that still wouldn't be very satisfying. But it would be something.

I mention that because the Pi Day Half Marathon has been my "spring is nearly here" race for about seven years now. The last five, I've won it. That counts today. I felt bad, ran my slowest time of the five, but had my biggest margin. That's something, and I'm not unhappy.

There are races I race for time--on roads, with fast fields--but this isn't one. It's on a trail, it's basically 14 miles, and winning races put on by the club that's responsible for my being a runner at all carries outsized sentimental importance, admittedly.

Which brings me to my next reference, which is less of stretch.

Scorn Defeat is a 1993 black metal album by Sigh, a Japanese band. Maybe you've clicked play by now, and yeah, the vocals are supposed to sound like that. People who like this sort of thing like this thing in particular; you'll just have to trust me that it's considered a classic.

Anyway, my tendency is to say I don't care about winning this race or others like it--or at least, to state unequivocally that I shouldn't. To the latter point... I mean, I don't know. I tend to think caring too much about trivial things is the only respite from the irrelevance of the nominally important things in our lives. So I do care. Or rather, I care independent of whether I ought to. And I didn't want to not win. So. I have another pie plate. I don't bake. The end.