There is always something new to see when I go jogging in China Creek Park.
Today it was litter.
At one corner of the path was some kind of electronics device that had been smashed so all that was left were bits of black plastic and other unidentifiable parts. It may have been a VCR. Why would someone bring a VCR to the park and smash it to bits? I don’t know. Maybe it was an homage to Office Space.
There was also a microwave abandoned along the southern stretch, its door left open and, curiously, inside was a plate holding a brown paper bag. I shall not speculate on its contents.
As expected, today’s run was the coldest yet, with the temperature hovering right around the freezing mark. To spice things up further, wind gusts up to 24km/h were blowing. The trail, especially in the shade, has now become near rock-hard, which means the uneven muddy parts are like trying to navigate mini-stalagmites.
When is the only time you are surrounded by girls and yet have to watch for balls? When they’re playing soccer. Fortunately, none of their kicking sent the ball my way. The spectators were shouting mostly to keep warm, I think. At one point I smelled an odor that was very much reminiscent of a pulp mill and there are no pulp mills anywhere around so the only thought was that it was coming from the port-o-potty at the NW corner of the trail but there was no way someone using it could make it smell that bad. After I ran by the smell diminished, so I was wrong. They may want to put a biohazard sign on the door. Yikes.
The run went well and I kept going for 35 minutes instead of the planned 30. As expected, my pace is still well off what it once was but we’ll see how the next few runs stack up.
Notable stats:
Average pace: 5.42/km
Overall distance: 6.2 km
Best km: 5:18/km