The Songs of Distant Earth uses “terabyte” as if it’s a near-impossibly huge amount of storage space, but other than being a bit dated tech-wise (it was published in 1986 and the genesis of the story began as a piece originally written in 1958), this short, brisk novel details events surrounding the improbable chance of two separate colony ships sent hundreds of years apart encountering each other light years away from Earth.
To be more precise, the first colony ship has already landed on the water world of Thalassa, its crew having settled there hundreds of years earlier, populating the three islands that form the entirety of land on the planet. One of the last ships to leave the doomed Earth centuries later stops by on its way to its own destination, the hostile but tameable world of Sagan Two. Choosing Thalassa in order to use its water to reconstitute a massive ice shield on the bow of their colony ship, the crew of the Magellan is surprised to find the planet inhabited (after losing contact due to a broken antenna on Thalassa, it was assumed its colony ship had never completed its journey), thus beginning a clash of cultures, ideas and philosophy, pitting the laidback Thalassans and their seeming Utopia against the crew of the Magellan, who still face a massive amount of work to make their chosen planet livable (an edict passed in the dying days of Earth forbids colony ships from colonizing worlds with any notable life, sort of a variant on Star Trek’s Prime Directive).
There is a lot of debate about what makes life worth living, with a fairly heavy hand directed against the alleged scourge of religion–the Thalassans are non-religious and live in a democratic society where procrastination and non-monogamous relationships are the norm. Clarke has characters from both the planet and the Magellan intermingle–on projects in and out of bed–to help illustrate the risk of “contamination” between the two groups. Complicating things further, the paradise-like nature of Thalassa leads a small number of Magellan’s crew to attempt mutiny.
The tension Clarke creates as these two peoples work and play together for the months it takes to rebuild the Magellan’s ice shield is low and never really threatens to boil over, but the discussions the characters have are filled with insights, dry humor and observations about humanity that feel authentic, if somewhat studied.
The Songs of Distant Earth sometimes feels a bit thin compared to denser works of science fiction, but Clarke does not so much skimp on detail as focus precisely on what he feels is most important to the story. In the end, the novel offers hope that humanity will mature and flourish among the stars, albeit not without some bumps along the way.
Run 454 Average pace: 5:23/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 5:04 km
Time: 27:12
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 33ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 157
Stride: n/a
Weight: 157.7 pounds
Total distance to date: 3630 km
Devices/apps: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
Let me illustrate the temperature for tonight’s run with an actual illustration (technically a screenshot from my Apple Watch of the Weather Underground app):
In the evening I usually head out at 6 p.m. Tonight I headed out about 45 minutes later, hoping it might cool a bit. 33ºC is not exactly cool.
I dutifully headed off on my 5K run, choosing to use the built-in fitness app instead of the Nike Run Club app because it was too hot to fiddle with anything I couldn’t use Siri with. Siri is nice when you’re lazy and she’s feeling cooperative.
I was grateful for most of the run being in the shade. I still sweated copiously.
Though my pace was much slower than Tuesday, it was still a respectable 5:23/km and in an unusual twist, my pace actually picked up in the latter half (the temperature dipped slightly, which may have helped a little).
Considering the heat, I’m fairly pleased with how the run went, especially given how strongly tempted I was to loaf at home instead. Sunday is promising to be much cooler and I ain’t complaining.
My doctor referred to a recent test I took as “poop on a stick” and that is literally what it is–you apply a small bit of your poop to a stick, seal it in a container and the medical lab people examine it for nefarious and unwanted things. My doctor advised me when I got the results to not be alarmed if they were positive, as the test apparently generates a lot of false positives.
Today I got a letter from the medical lab regarding my Fecal Imunochemical Test and I quote:
The result of your recent Fecal Imunochemical Test (FIT) was normal.
NEXT STEPS: No further action is required at this time.
Run 453 Average pace: 5:13/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 5:08 km
Time: 26:30
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25ºC
Wind: moderate
BPM: 158.3
Stride: n/a
Weight: 158.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 3625 km
Devices/apps: Nike Run Club app, Apple Watch and iPhone 6
The Nike+ running app got a major overhaul yesterday, emerging with a new look and name, the Nike Run Club. Unsurprisingly, the social network aspects of it have been ramped up. More importantly, though, the app finally supports the heart rate monitor of the Apple Watch, as it now access all of the Apple Health info if you let it. And so for the first time since I got the watch, I used the Nike app (let’s call it NRC because it’s shorter and looks so totally cool). Setting my preferences and starting the run was simple and sure enough, there was my BPM in the stats at the end. I will dig more into the app later but I did manage to end the run without knowing how by guessing it would use the same method as Apple’s Fitness app, which proved correct.
It was nice to hear that confident voice telling me how many km I’d completed. My only mistake was starting an open run instead of setting it to a fixed distance, so I didn’t get a notification halfway or a countdown at the end. I’ll figure that out for next time.
Oh, and I can actually see a map of my route again. Yay. Apple is apparently adding maps to their Fitness app in iOS 10 but I believe it will still lack voice notifications. The weak taps the watch uses to signal milestones (kmstones?) is something I almost never notice.
Curiously, while the watch and phone apps both show the BPM, the NRC website doesn’t. Not sure why it doesn’t transfer over but it’s not a big deal, as the notes feature lets you add it in.
And the actual run itself went quite well. It was warm but not uncomfortable, with the start of the cooling of the evening. There was one brief stretch where the sun was directly aiming into my eyes but most of the run was in shade. I started out fast–almost too fast–and forced myself to slow down (my second km was, in fact, significantly slower than the others). Overall, though, I felt fine pushing a little more than usual given the 5K length and managed a spiffy pace of 5:13/km, a veritable lightning bolt after Friday morning’s sweat-soaked slog.
The predicted high on Thursday, my next run day, is 31ºc, which could mean a swift return to sweat-soaked slog. But we shall see.
Run 452 Average pace: 6:01/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) – no side trails taken
Distance: 10:03 km
Time: 60:34
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 30ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 158
Stride: n/a
Weight: 157.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 3620 km
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
I slept in a wee bit this morning–only by about 15 minutes–but it immediately put the kibosh on my plan to run earlier than normal to beat the heat. It wouldn’t have mattered, anyway. The day started hot and has only gotten a little bit hotter still since then.
When I headed off counter-clockwise at the lake the temperature was 30ºC and stayed there (I’ve made it red above to indicate that yes, it was pretty warm). The first km, through a relatively breezy section of trail, was actually fairly zippy, but after that my pace dropped off steeply. It was really quite warm. The lack of any appreciable breeze did not help, either. At times the air felt thick and hot and then a mysteriously cool breeze would blast in from somewhere off the trail, only to vanish a moment later.
Weather is weird.
Despite having a “people working” sign up today, I saw no sign of the re-surfacing crew on the Southshore trail. It looks pretty much done to me.
Around the halfway mark I entertained the idea of ending the run early, but pressed on. By the 7 km mark–my slowest by a fair bit–I was giving this much more serious thought but I kept on and once I reached the 8K mark my pace actually improved and I managed to pant my way to a full 10K. My pace was terrible, of course. I think I’ve broken 6:00/km once before. Regardless, 6:01/km is definitely one of my slowest runs ever. To be fair, I haven’t run often when it’s this hot, either. Nor would I want to ever again. It was yucky.
Compounding things, I wore my replacement pair of Hokas, which ironically have an even worse case of color bleeding than my original pair. I wore them because a shoelace snapped on the originals. My left foot, perhaps not used to this crazy, color-staining new shoe, was a bit sore for stretches of the run and that may have ticked my pace down even more. Other than the foot and oppressive heat, I didn’t experience any other issues. My BPM was similar to Wednesday because while I had to work harder with the heat, I was slow enough that it kind of balanced out.
I did get through without seeing any pythons, bobcats or giraffes, so there’s that.
I return to my usual run schedule next week and haven’t decided whether to start Sunday and miss my usual two-day break or wait till Tuesday and get a three day rest bonus. If it’s still 30ºC on Sunday that may make the decision a little easier.
Run 451 Average pace: 5:54/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) – no side trails taken
Distance: 10:07 km
Time: 59:34
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25ºC
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 157
Stride: n/a
Weight: 157.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 3610 km
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
It was a bit warmer today and I started out a little slower, then stayed a little slower for the entire run, with the splits otherwise following the usual pattern: faster first half, slower back half and a bit of a boost in the last km. I ran clockwise, again skipped the optional trails and found my pace a fair bit slower than last week. I’m not sure if it’s the changed route, the consistently warmer weather or general caution of going splat again but since I felt pretty good for most of the run, I’m not exactly disappointed with the pace. Well, maybe a little. Taking almost an hour to run 10K is not exactly where I expected to be with a bunch of them under my belt (and let me tell you, they barely fit in there).
There were multiple groups of walkers again, especially at the end where they seemed to be clumping up. At this point I’ve resigned myself to them–the weather is gorgeous, it’s summer, people are going to be out. I just wish they weren’t so damned oblivious. Several times today I even called out, “On your left” as I approached from behind, which elicited exactly zero reaction most of the time. It’s weird and annoying.
No real issues with the run, otherwise, just slower. I felt decent through long stretches, so perhaps the combination of the warm weather and fear of tree roots may be see how a more jogging-like pace could be nice, almost relaxing. Other than the Cottonwood trail, there really aren’t many places left on the loop around the lake with prominent roots or other obstacles in the path.
The trail resurfacing continues and it probably won’t be much longer before they’ve finished the entire Southshore trail. The excavator was idling at the side as I passed by, though I swear the driver keyed the ignition when he saw me.
Overall, an unspectacular effort but I’m good with that. Friday is expected to be hotter so I’m not expecting my pace to improve. It may even get slower if it is truly Africa hot (it looks to be 26-27ºC during my usual run time, which shouldn’t result in a pace much different than today.
Run 450 Average pace: 5:50/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) – no side trails taken
Distance: 10:03 km
Time: 58:38
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23ºC
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 155
Stride: n/a
Weight: 158.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 3600 km
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
My big fear today, of course, was coming across another evil tree root. Or more specifically, tripping across another evil tree root. To reduce the risk I chose to skip all three side trails (Piper Mill, Spruce and Conifer Loops) and chanted direction. This had the side effect of giving me more of that smoove resurfaced, uh, surface to run on and also meant that if I did trip again, I’d at least fall in a new direction and in a new spot.
I did not trip.
The first half of the run I was surprisingly brisk but the second half saw me slow a fair bit, partly due to the Monday effect, partly due to burning too much gas in the first 5K and maybe partly due to being cautious, though most of the exposed roots were on the Cottonwood trail, during the first half of the run. While the pace of 5:50/km is nothing special, my BPM was also down at 155 and the weather, though warm, was an entirely tolerable 23ºC throughout.
The various lacerations and bruises didn’t have any effect I could tell, though the hip bruise became less mysterious when I noted that the shorts pocket that holds my keys perfectly matched up with it. Now I know what it feels like to slam onto gravel into your own set of keys. I don’t recommend doing this.
The resurfacing continued sans detour, with only a single worker out raking dirt. The construction zone was fairly small and strangely I missed the excavator entirely. I can only guess it had broken down or been defeated in a similar manner to the killdozer.
A few walking groups were out but were more on top of things than usual, so I was able to consistently slip by without incident.
The most interesting thing happened on the walk back along the Brunette River trail. Shortly after I crossed the bridge there I saw a snake. Now, I’ve seen several snakes this summer, of the small, slithery black and yellow garter variety. Observe below that this is not a small garter snake:
This is a python. It is a long way from home.
As mentioned in the caption, this is a python, about a meter long. It was very chill, as the kids say, and just laid there while I and a guy passing by on a bike took pictures. It eventually moved very casually off into the vegetation. As you might guess, pythons are not local to Burnaby or most of this continent, so it was either an escapee or an unwanted pet. Poor guy. Or girl. I’m not sure how you tell with a snake, really.
Looking back, maybe I should have contacted animal control or something, though the snake would have been long gone into the bush by the time they arrived. Still, I’d feel bad if it ate someone’s little moppet or something.
Today Jeff and I went on our first hike in a good long while, a relatively gentle saunter down various connecting trails on Burnaby Mountain. The weather was sunny and warm but fortunately not Africa hot. We encountered a few cyclists but got out of the way without incident each time. One of them approaching from behind tipped us off to his presence with the world’s screechiest bicycle brakes. Seriously, an entire can of WD-40 may not have been enough to quiet that thing.
I knew there would be tree roots a-plenty on the trails and indeed, I tripped up on several of them, but because I was walking and looking down instead of running and gazing off at some non-specific thing up ahead, it was easy to recover each time and so I emerged at the bottom of the mountain sweaty but otherwise unscathed.
I only took two pictures because as pretty as trees on a mountain are, I didn’t have the time or inclination (or skill) to make fairly generic nature shots look like more than generic nature shots. But trust me, it was pretty.
The only other picture I took is of the vehicle cast down on the mountain in the olden days when the area was still a logging operation. Apparently some people tried to make a trail down to it or something, perhaps as a weirdly unprofitable salvage operation, as signs and fencing make it clear you are not meant to go down to touch the car:
I returned today to Burnaby Lake and the Conifer Loop, to see if I could find that tree root that will forever mock me, at least until the trail is resurfaced and it is buried under a crushing load of fresh gravel, which it should be. Or set on fire. I’m not fussy which.
As I was approaching from the opposite direction I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find the spot. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find the spot at all, really, because the trail looks pretty much the same over long stretches. You got your gravel, your trees and other nature stuff. It’s very idyllic and peaceful when your exposed skin isn’t skidding on the gravel part. I remembered a few details, though. I knew it was before I got to the point where the Spruce Loop and Conifer Loop meet, I knew it was in a shaded area and I knew it wasn’t on a corner. This narrowed my search down to a section that was probably still several hundred meters long, most of which looks the same.
But I think I found it.
The shot below is from a “midway to face-planting on the ground” perspective, looking in the same direction as I was running yesterday. That is to say, I took the shot while crouching. The root is near the bottom center of the photo. You will observe several things:
It’s a very pretty trail
This particular stretch of the trail is what one might call sun-dappled. One might also call it a mix of sun and shade that makes it hard to see objects on the ground, especially when moving at high speed
That is one seriously big tree root to accidentally trip on, so I suggest I was dazzled by #1 and ultimately felled by #2
I think when I run on Monday I’m going to skip the optional Spruce Loop/Conifer Loop combo. There are plenty of other exposed roots to trip on (the Cottonwood trail, which stretches for several km, has a bunch of them and in similar lighting conditions) but it seems a little too playing-with-fire to follow up the fall by running the exact same route. Or maybe I’m just paranoid.
No, I know I’m paranoid. Every root will no longer present itself as something to be simply stepped over, but as a potential trip to the emergency room. I’ll think about wearing my fingerless biking gloves to protect my hands. I’ll wear a helmet. I’ll actually run inside a human-sized hamster ball.
Or maybe I’ll overcome my fear by remembering that I completed 448 runs without tripping and falling.
UPDATE, June 22, 2024: I have changed the title again. Sorry, Nic! I wanted something that would show up more easily in searches. Nic's title was Just scraping by.
UPDATE, July 8, 2022: I have changed the title of this post from the original of Tree root: 1, me: 0. Credit to Nic Demers.
Run 449 Average pace: 5:43/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Distance: 10:09 km Time: 57:52 Weather: Sunny Temp: 27ºC Wind: light to moderate BPM: 158 Stride: n/a Weight: 159.6 pounds Total distance to date: 3590 km Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
I was concerned about two things today: my right leg and the temperature. As forecast, it turned out to be very warm so I was glad to head out in the morning. Even then it was already 27ºC but fortunately it stayed there for the length of the run.
The right leg started out fine, which surprised me. I could eventually feel it but not until I was more than 6 km in and it was much milder than on Wednesday. I’d say it was of almost no consequence.
Expecting to detour along the sun-drenched Freeway trail, I opted to run clockwise, to get the extra-hot part out of the way first. As it turned out, the detour wasn’t in effect today so I was able to run the usual route. The excavator that trundles loads of dirt or gravel from a location off the Freeway trail and to the Southshore trail once again had a near-close encounter with me as it came off a feeder trail directly toward me. I was faster so ducked by but I swear that thing has a GPS lock on me. It is always right there no matter when I show up.
Despite the heat and much sweating I felt decent as I continued on, never straining or struggling. I encountered a curiously still snake that didn’t move as I approached it. Maybe it was zonked out from the sun? I hopped over and continued on. Around the 8K mark I dragged my left foot once, which is an indication I’m getting a bit tired. This is bad on a trail with many bumps and uneven surfaces (thank you park workers for helping make the trail smoother, safer and sexier), so I made an effort to pick up my feet. This turned out to be an omen of sorts.
As I entered the Conifer Loop I checked the distance and saw I was at 9.18 km, right about what I expected. I continued down the trail, heading toward the Spruce Loop and the final stretch. I was about 500m from finishing (roughly 2-3 minutes) when it happened.
The tree root.
The Conifer and Spruce Loops are side trails and while some work has been done on them (a foot bridge on Spruce was recently rebuilt as part of the current construction/resurfacing), the trails are in fairly rough shape, with lots of ruts, some loose gravel and tree roots poking through.
I have tripped up on tree roots before, my foot just catching enough to cause me to stagger before righting myself and continuing on.
That did not happen today.
Instead, my left foot firmly wedged against a root, causing my entire body to twist to the left. This made regaining my balance impossible. I was going to fall. And I did. The whole thing happened in less than a second. I remember hearing myself let out an “Oof!” and having enough time, somehow, to stick out my left hand to absorb the impact and prevent my face from hitting the gravel. My cap and glasses popped off. I skidded to a stop and laid there on my right side, looking over to the cap and glasses.
I picked up the glasses and they seemed undamaged, so I popped them back on, did the same with the cap, stood up, then without even bothering to dust off, I resumed the run because I was not going to let a spill at the 9.5K mark end my run early, especially if, as it seemed, I was just bruised and a bit battered.
I finished with a pace of 5:43/km, almost identical to Wednesday, and with a lower BPM of 158. Considering the heat and the fall, that’s pretty decent. My slowest km was actually at the 5K mark.
When I hit 10K (and those few minutes getting there seemed to stretch on unto forever because I really wanted to check out what exactly I’d done to myself) I walked over the dam to the snazzy new fountain and used the bottle-filling part to wash off the affected parts: my right leg, my right arm and left hand. I walked home at a brisker pace than normal, had a warm bath (avoiding using the usual Epsom salts and thus also avoiding screaming) then finally inspected my body in detail.
The right leg looks like a bear raked it with its claws, a set of nasty-looking scrapes along the upper half of the calf.
The right elbow and part of the forearm are nicely banged up.
The top of the right shoulder (covered by my t-shirt) sustained some abrasions, though it doesn’t look like the skin broke.
There’s a sore spot on the right hip that will bruise but again, no broken skin because it was under my shorts (the shorts came through fine, just a little dusty).
The left hand has five puncture wounds where the gravel hit. Three are small, though one still had some gravel embedded, the fourth was more sizable and the last is big enough to be kind of grossbuckets.
There’s probably more I’m missing. The bruises tomorrow should look great, and sleeping tonight will probably be fun.
I have applied copious amounts of Polysporin to everything.
Overall, I consider myself pretty fortunate. I didn’t sprain or break any bones, I didn’t hit my head, none of my stuff was damaged and on top of all that, I still finished with a decent pace.
I’m planning on my usual run on Monday and admit I’ll be feeling a little paranoid every time I see a tree root peeking above the trail surface. This is the first time in nearly 450 runs spread over the course of nine years that I’ve actually gone down (not counting that stupid dog) so hopefully this was just a rare convergence of circumstances that is unlikely to ever repeat.
I’ll know in three days!
I’ve put three images of “what happens when my body hits gravel at high speed” in the spoiler tag below (EDIT: This apparently broke ages ago, but I’ve now fixed and hidden the images again, for now – July 26, 2024).
My slightly shredded body
I will tell people I fought a shark. Yes, while trail running.Elbowing my way to various scrape and lacerations.Yeah, just kind of gross, isn’t it? You can even see a tiny bit of gravel still stuck in there. Kids, don’t try this at home!
Run 448 Average pace: 5:42/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 10:05 km
Time: 57:25
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 19-20ºC
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 164
Stride: n/a
Weight: 159 pounds
Total distance to date: 3580 km
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
Today’s run started out curiously slowly, with a pace of 5:41/km during the first km. I know I was trying to establish a deliberate pace but maybe I was more effective than intended. In fact, four of the other km (including the 8th) I was actually faster than that first km, which pretty much never happens. A weird start.
I ran counter-clockwise today to change things up and the cloudy skies meant cooler conditions in the morning, though it was again humid and sweating profusely was not a problem. About halfway through the groin (site of my recurring injury in my upper right leg, what I sometimes refer to as the hip, though my doctor tells me it ain’t no hip) started to feel stiff. I contemplated way to do, since it started so early, ultimately opting to continue through to the full 10 km. It did start to feel better toward the end and this is reflected in my pace picking up in the last few km. I can still sort of feel it now, but it no longer hurts.
It is a point of concern, but we’ll see how a day of rest helps before Friday’s run.
The trail was a bit damp from yesterday’s misty rain but was otherwise in good shape, with no puddle-jumping needed. The trail construction was more minimal, basically just a short stretch of unraked/smoothed gravel. For some reason, regardless of when I run, the one little excavator always seems to be on the same section of trail as I am when I get to area and once again it loomed large–and in reverse–forcing me to make eye contact before skirting around it. This was fine and the crew working on the trail have always been mindful and considerate of the people like me plowing through their work (there is still one section off-limits where a bridge is being replaced). But there were others out, specifically another walking group. These groups seem to have the collective brain capacity of a small rock, completely oblivious to everything and anything around them. I am convinced there could be a forest fire raging around them and they would not notice until they themselves were ablaze.
This is to say that as I entered the uneven gravel area, which is very soft and hard to keep traction on, I always spied a walking group immediately ahead of me. They remained unaware of my presence even as I moved through them, carefully navigating to the left, trying to not stumble off the mushy path. At one point a fellow walker did call out, “Runner, runner!” to absolutely no effect. These people react like slugs except slugs are tiny and easy to avoid.
The trail in general was a little busier than expected, though most of the others out were other joggers and a few walking their dogs.
I completed the run and had a pokey walk home that was identical to Monday’s, also a little weird. My overall pace was 5:42/km, nearly identical to last Friday’s 10K (my first as part of post-recovery), so that was a plus, at least. We’ll see how that stacks up to this Friday.
Run 447 Average pace: 5:47/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 10:07 km
Time: 58:20
Weather: Sun and cloud
Temp: 21ºC
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 160
Stride: n/a
Weight: 159.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 3570 km
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6
I slept in so started out later than intended today, but still started in the morning (and ended in the afternoon). The weather was evenly split, with the first half of the run sunny and the second half overcast. The temperature never budged from 21ºC, so conditions were pretty comfortable.
I started out slower and basically just stayed slower throughout, with little variation, though I was faster in the first half of the run, perhaps powered by the sun’s energy, just like Superman. Cardio-wise I felt like it was more effort in the first half, likely just feeling the sun, but it was tolerable and I never felt like I was close to ending the run early or anything.
The upper right leg got stiff around the 6K mark but I pressed on and within a few km it was fine and remained fine after. But at the 8K mark my left calf suddenly decided to stiffen up. It was odd and I kept going and it, too, went away on its own. My legs are strange.
Other than that, the run went decently enough. I was expecting having the weekend off would lead to a slower pace and 5:47/km isn’t too terrible, being only six seconds off Friday. I finished the 10 km and surprised myself with a weirdly slow walk back home. I have been hitting under 9:00/km on the walks to and from the lake but today the walk back came in at 9:25/km. I’m actually a bit baffled as I didn’t think I was moving that slow (slow being a relative term).
The trail construction was more minimal today, though I did have to once again duck out of the way of a vehicle on the path. Other than that it was relatively quiet and that was nice.
The Songs Of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke
