I ran 10 miles yesterday wearing training shoes. But it was warm enough and daylight enough to run barefoot. I am participating in a top secret wear test for Reebok, so I felt obligated to get the minimum mileage on the shoes for the week before running barefoot mileage. I really miss getting barefoot mileage right now - reasons for that is a topic for another post. What I am really posting about is how this early change to Daylight Saving Time is making people crazy in a positive way.
A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat
During my run yesterday, which included about 40 minutes on the Delaware-Raritan Towpath, I saw more people than usual outside walking, running, and doing other things. And it was some very cool other things, I must say. And the other things I am referring to have to do with photography, nudge nudge wink wink say no more. On the towpath there was a unique spot where the setting sun shone through the trees, across the canal, and illuminated a dock-like structure that is in Colonial Park. I was on the towpath, of course, on this out-and-back portion of my run. There were three women with a camera on a tripod across the canal on the dock-like structure. One wore jeans and a pink hoodie. One had a long white gown of flowing light, soft fabric; she may have been barefoot. The third had a short dress, bare legs, and boots with high heels. On the way out the third woman was looking through the camera that was pointed away from the canal, so her back was facing me. Now, many people lament that the Towpath is a great running surface, yet the sameness of the available scenery is sometimes its drawback. Given that perspective, this wildlife sighting was quite a welcome distraction. Yet I am a runner on a run with limited head rotation abilities, and sacrilege it would be to stop running while out on a training run, so this distraction could only be savored for about 20 seconds....
Party time! Excellent!
Farther down the Towpath I spotted a 12-pack of Yuengling bottles in the water just at the edge of the canal to my left. They belonged to two guys off the towpath to my right, down by the river. Two Milltown 30-something holdover heavy metal wannabe types: one dark long haired and baseball capped, the other light long haired, capless. They were, respectively, cluelessly, the embodiment of Wayne and Garth, fishing out of season, using Yuengling for bait. If they only had a clue about other things going on just a few minutes' walk down the Towpath, they would have been o so Schwing....
She's been around a bit, been around?
I turned around at Amwell Road for my run's return trip. Again I spied the three woman, and they must have gotten their light metered right, because the woman with the jeans was behind the cam and the woman in the short dress had her arms crossed and was grabbing it low and beginning to pull it over her head. But the third woman saw me - I must have appeared suddenly as I was attempting negative splits - and said something. There was a burst of laughter and the rising dress STOPPED at her thighs....
Running various amounts of my mileage barefoot since July 2004. Now that it's mainstream, I am no longer crazy, but maybe I was among the visionaries.
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