CULT OF JAMES

Same ride, same Circle K, same Gatorade. Strava double-logged this one — GPS hiccup or maybe I hit record twice. Either way, the ride happened. 5.53 miles in the Pensacola midday heat for a cold drink from a gas station. Still had the Metal Gear V playlist going. “Gloria” kicked things off, “The Man Who Sold the World” carried the…

Strava recorded this ride twice. Same Circle K run, same Gatorade, same Metal Gear soundtrack. GPS hiccup or phone being weird — either way, the ride only happened once but the data says otherwise. Leaving it up because it’s kind of funny. The algorithm thinks I was so committed to hydration I did it twice. Five and a half miles…

Gatorade run. 5.5 miles to Circle K and back because hydration is a lifestyle and sometimes that lifestyle requires a bicycle and eleven songs. The Golden State Sunshine Singers, Thin White Ziggy, The Punk Rock Movement — a cover band playlist for a cover story. Nobody rides five miles for Gatorade. You ride five miles because the body needs to…

Five and a half miles on a bike to get Gatorade from Circle K. That’s the activity name because that’s what it was. No training plan. No route optimization. Just: it’s July in Pensacola, it’s already 90 degrees at noon, and I need electrolytes. The whole Metal Gear Solid V soundtrack playing through my ears while I pedaled. “The Man…

Five and a half miles on a bike in July Pensacola heat for a Gatorade. From Circle K. That’s the mission. That’s the whole mission. The Metal Gear Solid V playlist was running — “The Man Who Sold the World,” “Rock the Casbah,” “In the Air Tonight” — and honestly riding through Pensacola with Phil Collins building to that drum…

Seven tenths of a mile. A Tuesday evening walk in early July, Pensacola still holding all the heat from the day. Not going anywhere in particular. Just going. PreFeKt’s “Stars” came on and I let it carry me for a few blocks. Synth and atmosphere, the kind of song that makes a nothing walk feel like the opening credits of…

July third. Pensacola evening. Barely three quarters of a mile and honestly it was more of a wander than anything with intent. The kind of walk where you leave the apartment because the walls got too close and the AC was making that sound again. PreFeKt’s “Stars” came on and I just… kept going for a little bit. Not far….

Evening run. 0.7 miles. Fifteen minutes. PreFeKt in the ears — one track for a short loop in the July dark. Not every run needs a story. Some runs are just runs. Shoes on, door open, move, come back. Done. STATS 🏃 Walk — Evening Run 📏 0.70 mi  |  ⏱ 15 min ⚡ 21:25/mi View on Strava → LISTENING…

Parkland Lowlands Trail. The 1.9-mile section, out and back, which gets you to 3.7 miles and twenty-seven minutes of actual trail riding. A hundred and eighteen feet of elevation — real terrain, not just driveway ramps. July 3rd. The day before the Fourth. Everyone else was buying fireworks and charcoal. I was on a trail in Parkland, winding through the…

The Parkland lowlands trail — the 1.9-mile section. Twenty-eight minutes on the bike through actual terrain instead of neighborhood loops. PreFeKt again, one song stretched across almost two miles of trail. 3.7 miles total with the ride out and back. The trail section is the payoff — different surface, different scenery, different relationship with the handlebars. The rest is just…