post the ninth, 2013

i didn't want to go.

wait. let me back up.

i woke up tired, which is never good. first thing at work was the weekly production meeting - couple of hours of folks squabbling over limited resources. then i spent several hours wrangling spreadsheet data into an ICS file and while there's nothing i love more than herding tagged text with my regular-expression lasso, it IS a bit tiring. production meeting, text wrangling, followed by a conference call which thank osiris i could mute and half listen to whilst dealing with email.

and, boom, it's 1500 and somehow i've eaten everything i brought for lunch, haven't left my desk, and haven't done my running.

"done my running" HAR HAR.

but, no. really. to accomplish my Bright-Idea-Run-Fast-Marathon-Okay! goal i have to be a bit purposeful about my running. if i didn't have that idea in the back of my mind plus an incredibly bitchy coach combing through my every log entry for signs of weakness... i would have bailed today. yeah, it was an archetypal ACE BAIL DAY: tired, late, off schedule, just want to go home, wah wah wahhhhh!

today's assignment was nothing much, just 5 miles easy. my easy pace is anywhere between 9:30-10m/m, but i'm not too worried about it. i mean, if i were to go just a little slower, it wouldn't be the end of the world. anywayssss, my point is that it wasn't some complicated workout where i had to count laps or watch my watch or anything. 5 mindless miles jogging around. c'mon ace, be a man.

i decided to not run in the city, but instead to go to a local greenway i've been exploring. the greenway's off a soccer park, a dozen or so fields, and part of the greenway loops the park. i generally don't loop the park but i was like, what the hell, loop the park for a mile, then 2 out 2 back on the greenway, wah-lah, done.

so off i go down the front side. i keep hearing what sounds like an indian pow-wow drum. i finally get close enough to see a couple kids with a 16" marching bass, just banging away. practicing? maybe. fucking around? yeah, probably.

i keep jogging along, around the bend, moving along to the backside of the loop which is between the sets of fields. there's no trail on the actual far side of the park. coming down the back stretch i'm wondering about doing another loop or doing something else, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but an offshoot. offshoots rank right up there with tagged-text wrangling in my book, but i am in such a fog of boredom that i jog right past.

what was that? what? <<-- i think to myself.

i go back and peer down the offshoot. seems to be a path to the subdivision next door. ho hum. probably just a path for the kiddos to walk to soccer. probably just 1/4 mile. probably won't get me any closer to five. probably just a stupid path to a stupid parking lot.

so, i take it.

and, it is about 1/4 mile... TO THE GOOD PART!

the path is asphalt, bumpy in places where tree roots are encroaching, maybe wide enough for 2 people, but no wider. i can't tell if it's part of the greenway or a feature of the subdivision or both but there's not an armed guard, so i'm going in. it's very similar to the other parts of the greenway, and it connects to the soccer park, but i'm clearly in the subdivision. the placement of the path verges on trespassing - i'm just inside the relic of an old farm fenceline bordering these people's backyards.

i'm the only one out here, in the drizzly grey gloaming, and i can see inside the houses where bulbs burn golden over kitchen tables. it's so quiet out here, with everyone else behind their closed doors. i think about a video i saw somewhere where this runner says that he reaches a point in the run where he's no longer a runner, he's a guy having an adventure, and p.s. he's running. (or, something like that. i can't remember now exactly what it was, and i can't find the reference.)

as i trot along, the path unfolds into many paths. they look equally traveled, haha, so i choose one knowing the typical suburban path will loop on itself and i'll be back to try them all. the border is pine, cedar, some others who've lost their leaves, and the trees are packed tightly enough that the ground below is just moss and some scrabbly clover stuff. you know what i mean? that's my favourite sort of ground, the kind that happens when the trees are tightly packed. doesn't everyone have a favourite ground type? anyway, by now my mood is picking up. grey skies, 55º, my favourite ground, a path new to me, all to myself. at one point, the path flows beside the road, and the streetlights in this subdivision are pink (sodium vapor or pink bulbs?) and they're lion-witch-wardrobe shaped (in keeping with total adventure theme) and light is emanating from one of the streetlamps with enough force to reflect vaguely on the wettish road in a way that makes the road itself appear to be pink. and, immediately i wish i had a camera to capture this and share it with you... and immediately i am relieved that i do not, so that i do not share when i would regret not keeping it for myself.