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September 16, 2005
Morning ritual
Don’t tell my doctor, but I’ve started to run again. It’s been 12 years since a medical condition forced me to give it up. I have short legs and a stocky body, but I used to run five miles three times a week and 10 or 12 miles on some weekend days. I had done my first 10k road race a few days before chest pains doubled me over, the first sign of the condition that stopped me in my tracks.
My aims are modest now. I’ll be running slower, if that is possible. I’m hoping I can build up to a two-mile habit. And because I dislike indoor workouts and swimming pools and never developed a yen for skiing or skating, I want to run again in winter.
My official reason for sharing this personal story is to say a word of praise for the track at Memorial Field. What a community asset! Some days I wish it had a dome over it, but even though the resurfacing job is several years old, the track is much better than the crumbled asphalt I remember from my running days.
During the last month or so, my wife and I have spent many early mornings there walking and running. Sometimes we have the track to ourselves. There are never more than three or four other people there.
More should come. Lanes are going unused. And for people like me, who want to avoid hills while working themselves back into shape, the track beats city streets.
As we circle, we often see a community of dog walkers gathering nearby (though not on the track, where they are forbidden). There’s a black dog with a white face, a couple of reddish dogs that are probably setters, and pound dogs of various shades and patterns. The dogs are friendly and fast, and their owners are responsible and seem to enjoy one another’s company as much as their dogs do.
Crows sometimes watch us on the track. One in particular perches on a light stanchion on the north side of the football field. I tell my wife it’s the same one every day – I can tell by the caw. She’s doesn’t believe me. But I know it’s the same one because when it goes caw-caw-caw, I hear, “Run, Mike, Run.”
At first I took this as encouragement, but then it occurred to me that this was a crow talking, and I began to wonder.
Posted by Mike Pride at September 16, 2005 03:37 PM