Breathe in the (bug-filled) air

Tonight’s run was baseball and soccer-free, so the risk of getting whacked by sporting equipment was down to zero. Yay! It was 21ºC, sunny and with only a very slight breeze blowing.

A few other joggers were out, along with the usual contingent of people with their dogs, including a guy with a puppy that refused, utterly, to chase after a thrown ball. I think the owner got more exercise than the puppy.

I started faster tonight, coming in at 5:06 and had no dramatic slowdowns during the run. Only a second separated the last two km, with my average pace being 5:27, three seconds better than my previous pace. I also decided to run farther since I knew I wouldn’t be breaking any speed records and actually went on even more than I had intended because my sweaty fingers could not get the scroll wheel on the iPod to turn so I could select End Workout from the menu. An unconventional way to push yourself, I suppose. The total distance was 10.64 km. Curiously the pace for the final .64 km shows as 5:04, which is blazingly fast for me after already running 10 km. I wonder if it was bugged or if I really did boogie once I was off the clock.

The title of this post refers to the clouds of gnats or gnat-like bugs that hang around the path near the trees. I’m pretty sure I inhaled about 50,000 of them along the way. At one point I could feel a bunch of them softly bouncing off my face as I ran through one of the clouds (which are very difficult to see until you’re right on them). I’ve eaten worse.

The chart:

Distance July 17th July 13th July 11th July 5th
1 km 5:06 5:10 5:15 5:10
2 km 5:09 5:14 5:20 5:13
3 km 5:12 5:18 5:24 5:14
4 km 5:14 5:21 5:27 5:18
5 km 5:17 5:23 5:29 5:21
6 km 5:20 5:25 5:31 5:24
7 km 5:22 5:26 5:33 5:27
8 km 5:24 5:29 5:35 5:30
9 km 5:26 5:30 5:36 5:33
10 km 5:27 5:30 5:37 5:34

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