A Late-October Run and Walk

Yesterday I spent time playing the piano, reading news on the internet, eating breakfast with Mama and the siblings, and filling out crosswords with Mama, but I have to admit that through most of it I was still feeling self-pity related to work.

That said, in the early afternoon, heavy grey clouds were hanging in the sky, and it looked like it would rain, but I saw that the chance of precipitation was only 15%. So I borrowed a pair of shorts and a wristwatch from Ge., ate a banana for fuel, put on my running shoes and a t-shirt, and did the run/walk that was on my training schedule. I've been trying to reach a point where I can run for 5 km without walking or stopping in between, and this past week was my third. The point of the whole exercise was at first to take part in a charity race. Now I just want to train the discipline to learn to do something long and arduous in a sensible way that makes it not uncomfortable — perhaps this will help me write novels in future — and just to explore the technique of running a little. Moving through unfamiliar and familiar streets in a not-too-fast way and looking at the scenery has also been a side benefit.

I went 7 km from our house, past Brandenburger Tor and along the Street of the 17th of June, around the traffic circle at the Siegessäule, and to the nexus of the Technical University at Ernst-Reuter-Platz.   A cold autumn wind blew down the broad streets; lot of trees are losing their leaves, and it was fascinating to see the smaller trees lining the parking lanes at the Street of the 17th of June, which were mostly barren except for a sprinkling of pale leaves (like stars in the night sky) in the branches that were closest to the warm street lamps. The fallen leaves were rustling on the pavements, of course, and at times crushed or ground to a fine, pale powder. Also scattered over the sidewalks were tourists, and other joggers, who often wore neon yellow or pink outfits with long sleeves, and whose leggings were also warmer-looking than what I had on.

A man in a trench coat stood in front of the Soviet memorial, figuring out how he wanted to take a photograph with what looked like an analog camera, rather like an escapee from a John Le Carré novel. A brightly painted carriage powered by foot pedaling rolled along the margin of the Street of the 17th of June, full of young people in their late teens or early twenties, singing in a language I didn't know. Whether it was Russian or not, it somehow reminded me of droshkies in tsarist Moscow, especially against the bleak, almost wintry background of the twiggy trees and the lanterns. 

Altogether I felt so fine when I reached the 6.4 km mark that I'd originally intended to reach that I decided to go what I thought was another 200 m. What I didn't know at the time is that I was actually going another 600 m. But then I did get into the U-Bahn and ride home, instead of walking all the way back. When I'd eaten a banana-and-strawberry fruit bar before the train arrived, I slowly began to feel so mellow and happy that it became clear that, instead of exhausting me counterproductively and worsening the stresses of the week, this outing was more or less the best thing I could have done.