Today I ran eight miles—that is not unusual. The fact that I
ran outside shouldn’t be unusual. But so
far this calendar year it has been. The
only thing that has been more unusual so far this calendar year is running with
others. I still hope to fix that, but for right now I am just enjoying
running—even if it is by myself.
Today’s eight mile run was down my street, over to
Northwood, out to Northern, up the Alameda to Sherwood, down Regester, across
Loch Hill, down Loch Raven, around the grocery story and post office on
Meridene, back to Loch Raven on Northern, down to Cold Spring (police activity
at the corner and I could not get the speed indicator to measure me at more
than 8 MPH this morning), across Cold Spring to York, up York to Bellona, back
across Northern to York, up York to Hollen, and then winding through Lake
Walker back to my home.
What did I think of while I ran? I thought of a few things today.
First, how many places of worship I passed. Probably at least a dozen. Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal,
Catholic. Probably a few others along
the way. A Catholic High School. The many and varied ways that people worship
and believe and live out their faiths.
Second, I thought about how I feel comfortable running
through most of the northern part of the city from Falls Rd to Harford Rd and
north of 25th street. As well
as downtown. If I go back four years when I first got it in my head to train
for a marathon I ran north of where I live.
Now, I run south quite a bit through all sorts of sections of the
city. I think of the city as my “canvas”
for running. Where the patterns of
streets I run each day would make interesting designs. Where I try to find new paths that form loops
or crossing loops and avoid, like the plague, out and back when I run in the
city. And I am comfortable enough now that
even when I run to downtown or to Lake Montebello or to Druid Lake, I don’t
need to just do an out and back. And I
like to celebrate how comfortable I have become with my city.
But then I checked on where this puts me: 213.5 miles toward
my goal of 2000 miles. And where does
that put me—about a mile and a half east of where PA-136 and PA-88 intersect in
Monongahela, PA. I would have run a bit
along the Monongahela River. That is one
of the three rivers that come together in Pittsburgh where the baseball team
once had a stadium. Pittsburgh is where
my most frequent long run partner for the last three years hails from. I’ve heard they have a good marathon.
In the spirit of canvas (and I literally did not know this
before I ran today), I would have run on a street called Rainbow Run Rd. Rainbows
are many colors. I certainly passed a “rainbow”
of faith experiences today.
Google had a rainbow of colors on its main page for searching
today. Maybe a sign of protest against
the anti-LGBT issues being raised by the Olympics being in Russia.
Once again, I find an odd sense of interconnectedness. I think of the city as a canvas. I pass a “rainbow” of places or worship (at
least a Christian rainbow). I find that
I would have run on a road called Rainbow if I were physically on my 2000 mile
question. And rainbow is a symbol in the
news.
How all this interconnected stuff happens again and again
for me is a mystery. It will continue to
be a mystery. Maybe it is not so
interconnected. Maybe I just like to
interpret it that way. But if that helps
me make sense of the world, so be it.
That is ultimately what this is all about. Making sense of the world.
