July 17, 2005

4 mile run

Got in a decent 4-mile run this evening about 7. Just went up and around Prospect Park, so that was fine. I did find it a little difficult; I really wanted to slow to a walk, but I toughed through it. I took the "easy" direction around the park, because I didn't want to totally expire on the finishing hill. However, the 4th mile was tough, even on the flat bits. At the end, leaving the park, I was tempted to run downhill to home, because that would be easy, but I restrained myself. I'm trying to have patience and build the running up just a bit at a time. The knees need time to rebuild. The muscles, the ankles, the feet, all need time to rebuild. And it may have to start all over once the permanent orthotics happen.

But still...4 miles! Haven't done that since the Healthy Kidney run that hurt my knees so bad. I'm ready for next Saturday's 4-miler in Central Park, and hope that the weather and humidity cooperate to help me do at least 10K pace, though I'll be satisfied just finishing.

Weather today was not too warm at 7 p.m., but humidity was up. Lots of runners, mostly going in the "correct" direction. I passed my neighbor, even, who noticed me before I noticed him. I also had to dodge a lot -- a LOT -- of rude, low-class (and probably low-income) teens and twenty-somethings who feel that it is their god-given right to stand in the middle of the biking/jogging lanes and gab at each other. There's a whole couple hundred acres of park they could dawdle in, but no... they've got to stand RIGHT. IN. THE. WAY. I also have issues with groups that walk abreast -- slowly. Goddamn people, learn to have some awareness of what's going on around you!

Here's an observation that doesn't belong in this blog, or written down anywhere, yet -- because I'm self-destructive by nature and invite conflict -- I'm going to make: as I was crossing the top of the park, past the bandshell, it struck me at the racially segregated nature of the park and the people in it. A concert was getting ready to start in half-hour or so and people were assembling. Outside the gates and fences, off to the side, it was all black people. INSIDE the gates it looked to be all white people, particularly the center section. Right BEHIND the center section, but outside the gates and across the road where you could still see the stage pretty well...more white people, but of the variety that look like students, artists, and others who can't spare the admission price to get in the gates. Now, maybe I'm assuming things. Could just be that the only people who didn't bring picnic baskets (which aren't allowed inside I don't think) were a handful of well-dressed white folk. But still...

And then, of course, one can easily notice that Prospect Park is mostly white towards the top (west) side, almost exclusively populated by blacks on the north side, and becomes mostly hispanic on the southeast portion. There isn't a whole lot of mixing.

Somehow this makes me sad, because, as a runner, I see a lot of mixing on the jogging paths. Like anthropologists on rails, we runners - no matter the race - zip through these sections of the park equally, rarely looking left or right, but noticing all the same the makeup of the people around us. And this extends to the neighborhoods I run through, too. Same deal.

You know who I really admire? The boxers. Those guys run backwards.

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