I think that running is one of those activities that lends itself well to routine. Sometimes it’s almost too easy to get stuck in a rut. When I have a rut, it’s mainly a result of doing the same route too many times in a row. For some reason, I don’t often think of running wildly across campus in any direction. There’s really not a reason for this; I have a GPS unit that will tell me how far my run was no matter where I go. I guess it’s easier not to think about how far I’ve gone when I know all the mile markers for a given route. Service Road is my go-to starting point for after-work runs and my go-to ending point for lunchtime runs.
Today, I could no longer stand Service Road. Service Road is very important in my life; it allows me to cross to the other side of campus with minimal student/car traffic. It’s the easiest way to get over to Hagadorn and then out to Lake Lansing. I run on Service Road 4 or 5 days a week. This afternoon I carefully planned out a route that would give me about 5 miles. The only condition was that I needed to end back at work so Jack could pick me up.
When I got outside, I realized that I was sick to death of Service Road and could not bring myself to turn in that direction. Instead, I headed down to Trowbridge and cut in to campus. I rarely just “cut in” to campus; I get this dreadful feeling that I’ll reach Grand River and only have gone a mile or something ridiculous like that. But then I realized how pretty it was out and how I could even ignore the stupid clouds. Those clouds—they’re out to get me. All the while that I’m at my desk, the sun is out, the sky is blue, everything’s wonderful. As soon as I leave to run, the clouds roll in. Bah.
This afternoon, to h with the clouds, I ran all through the center of campus. I stopped and climbed through a mini snowbank to touch the toe of the Sparty statue and swung by Beaumont Tower (no bells, but I like it anyway). It was nice to be near people. Does anyone else get the feeling that they’re running through the background of the movie that is someone else’s life? Personally, I think it would be awesome to be an extra in a movie. You know, the person drinking coffee while the main character waits for his drink order or something like that. Secretly, I like being an extra in the background of campus. I’m almost positive that people have filmed projects or things more than once as I’ve gone running by.
The 2 mile mark happened somewhere along Grand River, and I took Michigan Ave to the river trail. I haven’t been running on that trail all winter. I kind of burned myself out running on it from May to August, but today it was a nice change. As I went down the street toward Brody a runner swung out from campus and stayed in front of me. A minute later I passed a girl who’d been slightly ahead on the sidewalk. It was kind of cool to be running in kind of a row. At Harrison the person in front stopped—some younger guy, I think—and I caught up for a second. He also went on the river trail. The girl behind me didn’t last; when I got past Brody, she was walking again. I have no idea who the guy was, and we never ran together, but I saw his black shirt up ahead until I got back to Harrison. It was less lonely that way, you know what I mean?
My time today wasn’t remarkable in any way, but I felt like I was going faster. I enjoyed it a little more than usual. I’ll have to remind myself of this the next time I don’t feel like running: sometimes it’s totally cool to take a different and winding route and see where it goes.
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