Sunday, July 10, 2005

Giving and Getting Back at Greenbrook Park

Giving: Many of my barefoot runs are in Greenbrook Park. On Friday I had to groom my course a bit. There was a broken wine bottle in the grass right along the route I loop. It was probably from July 4th celebrations. I found a discarded potato chip bag and piled the pieces onto it, then got it to a trash can. I also had to remove other soft-drink cans and plastic bottles. There were some annoying sticks and branches to throw aside too. This park clean-up detracted little from my run, since I was on a recovery run from the difficult week of training and racing I had cut out for myself in the previous 6 days.

Getting back: On Saturday I ran first thing in the morning. It was about 9 AM and quite hot already. I didn't realize I left the house dehydrated, but in retrospect I remembered I had to get out of bed the night before to fill my waterbottle for my bedstand. I wanted to do a fairly long run of 10 miles or so, but was feeling I had to cut it short from dehydration. So I am running along my usual grassy loop when I spotted a full Poland Spring water bottle in the grass. I picked it up and unscrewed the cap and it had been still safety-sealed! I sucked down the sun-warmed water for the next couple of miles. Did somebody passing through the park or watching a softball game mistakenly drop that bottle, or was the park supplying it to me in thanks for cleaning it up and regularly tickling its grass with my naked feet?

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