Thursday, July 03, 2008
the runs
Lately, as i've settled into life here in koshigaya, i've been starting up a running routine. This first week of work is kinda putting a crimp in that routine, but hopefully, once i get into the swing of things, i'll get back into running four times a week or so. Running truly is such a big part of my life, and i rarely write about it, so i thot i'd give it a shot.
the route i do here is fairly long, about an hour and a half, and is a there'n'back kind of run. i've done it a couple times now, so i've worked the kinks out and am able to really stretch my legs for most of it. it starts out going up this pretty busy highway that heads away from my station, past my house, and up north to wherevertheheckitgoes. i take it for about ten minutes, and then run down a sharp enbankment to a riverpath. i take this path for the rest of the run, save my last little run back down the highway home.
the path is fun. in the afternoon and early evening there are always walkers, runners and cyclists tooling about. i skirt, wave, and flick them off respectively. man, a well placed biker can really ruin your pace if you aren't totally paying attention. they really think they rule the path, expecting me to get my behind outta their way, when really, if you go by boating rules, the faster one should have to divert their course to allow the slower one to pass, ie the one with the wind to its back. and since bikes pretty much always have the wind to their backs, obstensibly, then They should be the ones to swerve outta My way. do i hear an amen? can. i. get. a.......... witness.
thank you.
seriously, tho. running on paths and sidewalks would be way easier if it were no holds barred. i'd chicken wing the slow runners, clothesline the walkers, and superman the cyclers. and if there were a biker who just happened to be going the same way i was, and also going at the same speed (which so many oddly do), i'd just hop on the back and get a breather. if you don't get in my way tho, be prepared for a stylish, magnanimous, earth-shattering head nod in your direction. oh yeah. you know it. don't be surprised if you get a little star-struck.
but all that's in my head, prolly due to the lack of oxygen created by anaerobic activity. my body starts lactating, or lactosinacidnating, or whatever, and then i stop thinking clearly. some little girl stops walking to look at a toad, "argh! what are you doing?! i almost smooshed you!" or some old lady on a bike pulls out right in front of me and "are you crazy! don't you look?!" and so on. it's a vicious lap.
and then sometimes little unexpected things happen to make the run more interesting. like last week, i was running after getting back from dinner with a guy i was training with. it was latish, and just getting dark, but i wanted to get in a run, so i went anyway. turns out, that was a dumbalicious idea. no sooner did i get to the river than i realized my mistake. every single midge, gnat, bugger, and whirlydig known to japanese men came out of the tatamiwork. they clustered in swarm-like windshield traps. but, not being on a road, they had to settle for meek runners who had their minds occupied with ducking the low-hanging, uncut cuz everyone's short, limbo tree-branches along the path that whip out of the dark at unexpected heights. after i swallowed, snorted, and porously inhumed the greater part of the mosquito nation, i figured i was in the clear. i had left the overgrown stretches of the path and was into the heavily travelled portions. lotsa people about and swerving to accomplish. it was then that it struck.
you really have to imagine it from its perspective. a peaceful evening, humid. all its friends are out flitting about. it can hear them all having a good time. so it puts on its sticky shoes and shoots off into the breeze. ah, the fresh air. ah, the light of the moon. ah, the slight chill in the air that comes with night. OH NO, A HUGE HUMAN EYEBALL!!! splat. ouch. man, that hurt. where the hell am i? ow, stop that. stop rubbing! you're, stop, no, no, oh no.... i'm trapped! i'm suffocating.. gasp. help. anybody. BANG BANG BANG. i'm trapped behind a big piece of... glass! no, plastic. no.. what the heck is it? cough cough, splutter splutter, choke. aaaaaaaahhhhh, i'm free, finally! fresh air! squish. flick. splat.
yeah, it got me right in the contact. i had to take it out to dislodge the poor fellow. and then, instant karma for killing one of the mosquito god's creatures, i lose my left contact. cue searching futilely through grass, embarrassed looks at passersby, and then one very long very blurry run home. delightful.
but not all events are that traumatic. i found a place to stretch out and do some mediocre exercises next to the path. apparently, it's also the place where this one old guy practices his croquet malleting. he's quite good at the long ball. practiced aim. but it's a little weird with him there, and some other lady cheering him on, and then some guy with an unusually attentive white ghost dog attached to a tree all watching me as i do some pullups and whatnot. and i'm pretty sure i gave a yelp of pain at one point that got their attention. i was doing situps, and somehow pulled my shoulder. i have no idea. i must have been tense. i didn't even know that situps worked that musclegroup. oddness.
and there are other little fun things. like the driving range that's lit up like heaven. brighter than a baseball field at night. wonderful for a landmark when it's dark and one is missing a contact. or the one road crossing that is ridiculous to cross. i waited for ten minutes one time for a gap in the cars. they have the timing down perfect. first a string of cars from the south, then a string from the north. i'm thinking from now on i'm just gonna run 300 meters down the road to the crosswalk and then run back to save time and frogger lives.
ooh, and then there are the two pedestrian bridges. these are nice. they go up and over to big thoroughfares, connecting the path alongside the river. quite nice. and you can get some cool views of the surrounding city/countryside. and if you run just a bit farther, there's a temple of sorts with various paths to run on. i'm not sure what's past that, but i'll find out one day when i finally get in shape enough for super long run.
all this writing about it makes me want to go run. i think i'll save it for tomorrow morning, tho, since by now, the squigglie-wigglies are out and looking for trouble. and contacts are expensivE
the route i do here is fairly long, about an hour and a half, and is a there'n'back kind of run. i've done it a couple times now, so i've worked the kinks out and am able to really stretch my legs for most of it. it starts out going up this pretty busy highway that heads away from my station, past my house, and up north to wherevertheheckitgoes. i take it for about ten minutes, and then run down a sharp enbankment to a riverpath. i take this path for the rest of the run, save my last little run back down the highway home.
the path is fun. in the afternoon and early evening there are always walkers, runners and cyclists tooling about. i skirt, wave, and flick them off respectively. man, a well placed biker can really ruin your pace if you aren't totally paying attention. they really think they rule the path, expecting me to get my behind outta their way, when really, if you go by boating rules, the faster one should have to divert their course to allow the slower one to pass, ie the one with the wind to its back. and since bikes pretty much always have the wind to their backs, obstensibly, then They should be the ones to swerve outta My way. do i hear an amen? can. i. get. a.......... witness.
thank you.
seriously, tho. running on paths and sidewalks would be way easier if it were no holds barred. i'd chicken wing the slow runners, clothesline the walkers, and superman the cyclers. and if there were a biker who just happened to be going the same way i was, and also going at the same speed (which so many oddly do), i'd just hop on the back and get a breather. if you don't get in my way tho, be prepared for a stylish, magnanimous, earth-shattering head nod in your direction. oh yeah. you know it. don't be surprised if you get a little star-struck.
but all that's in my head, prolly due to the lack of oxygen created by anaerobic activity. my body starts lactating, or lactosinacidnating, or whatever, and then i stop thinking clearly. some little girl stops walking to look at a toad, "argh! what are you doing?! i almost smooshed you!" or some old lady on a bike pulls out right in front of me and "are you crazy! don't you look?!" and so on. it's a vicious lap.
and then sometimes little unexpected things happen to make the run more interesting. like last week, i was running after getting back from dinner with a guy i was training with. it was latish, and just getting dark, but i wanted to get in a run, so i went anyway. turns out, that was a dumbalicious idea. no sooner did i get to the river than i realized my mistake. every single midge, gnat, bugger, and whirlydig known to japanese men came out of the tatamiwork. they clustered in swarm-like windshield traps. but, not being on a road, they had to settle for meek runners who had their minds occupied with ducking the low-hanging, uncut cuz everyone's short, limbo tree-branches along the path that whip out of the dark at unexpected heights. after i swallowed, snorted, and porously inhumed the greater part of the mosquito nation, i figured i was in the clear. i had left the overgrown stretches of the path and was into the heavily travelled portions. lotsa people about and swerving to accomplish. it was then that it struck.
you really have to imagine it from its perspective. a peaceful evening, humid. all its friends are out flitting about. it can hear them all having a good time. so it puts on its sticky shoes and shoots off into the breeze. ah, the fresh air. ah, the light of the moon. ah, the slight chill in the air that comes with night. OH NO, A HUGE HUMAN EYEBALL!!! splat. ouch. man, that hurt. where the hell am i? ow, stop that. stop rubbing! you're, stop, no, no, oh no.... i'm trapped! i'm suffocating.. gasp. help. anybody. BANG BANG BANG. i'm trapped behind a big piece of... glass! no, plastic. no.. what the heck is it? cough cough, splutter splutter, choke. aaaaaaaahhhhh, i'm free, finally! fresh air! squish. flick. splat.
yeah, it got me right in the contact. i had to take it out to dislodge the poor fellow. and then, instant karma for killing one of the mosquito god's creatures, i lose my left contact. cue searching futilely through grass, embarrassed looks at passersby, and then one very long very blurry run home. delightful.
but not all events are that traumatic. i found a place to stretch out and do some mediocre exercises next to the path. apparently, it's also the place where this one old guy practices his croquet malleting. he's quite good at the long ball. practiced aim. but it's a little weird with him there, and some other lady cheering him on, and then some guy with an unusually attentive white ghost dog attached to a tree all watching me as i do some pullups and whatnot. and i'm pretty sure i gave a yelp of pain at one point that got their attention. i was doing situps, and somehow pulled my shoulder. i have no idea. i must have been tense. i didn't even know that situps worked that musclegroup. oddness.
and there are other little fun things. like the driving range that's lit up like heaven. brighter than a baseball field at night. wonderful for a landmark when it's dark and one is missing a contact. or the one road crossing that is ridiculous to cross. i waited for ten minutes one time for a gap in the cars. they have the timing down perfect. first a string of cars from the south, then a string from the north. i'm thinking from now on i'm just gonna run 300 meters down the road to the crosswalk and then run back to save time and frogger lives.
ooh, and then there are the two pedestrian bridges. these are nice. they go up and over to big thoroughfares, connecting the path alongside the river. quite nice. and you can get some cool views of the surrounding city/countryside. and if you run just a bit farther, there's a temple of sorts with various paths to run on. i'm not sure what's past that, but i'll find out one day when i finally get in shape enough for super long run.
all this writing about it makes me want to go run. i think i'll save it for tomorrow morning, tho, since by now, the squigglie-wigglies are out and looking for trouble. and contacts are expensivE
