Monday, May 15, 2006

Graveyard Run




On Sunday I woke up in a foul mood, because I knew it was time to do my first ever 7-miler. You know, I don't really like to run 7 miles on a Sunday morning. I like to sit on my ass and drink coffee and knit socks while watching Coronation Street on Sunday mornings.

But there's something to be said for being committed to a team, because I got my butt out the door. Man...long runs take long. Longer than my 3 year old iPod is willing to play for me, and definitely longer than my crappy shoes are willing to support me.

The good part is that I am seeing sides of Toronto that I didn't even know existed. By the time I got to the local shopping strip that I used to consider the end goal of a "far" run, I had barely scratched the surface of my run, and i was pretty much at a loss as to where to go next. North? No good - that's uphill and we don't want to make it any worse than it already is. South - also no good, because that's downtown and that means yuppies in SUVs out for Saturday shopping.

So instead I turned into Mount Pleasant Cemetary, which has a sign out front that says "Rest Assured: There's Always Space!" (classy? yes.). The cemetery is a wicked place to run. Although not as creepy as I hoped, MP has some old old old graves in it, and it's quiet, and there all kinds of winding paths on which to get lost. I got lost, but I was glad because that gave me something to think about while waiting for the run to end.

After I found my way out again I looked at my watch and realized that I was only about halfway through my stupid run. Friggety frig! But somehow between the cemetery and the train tracks, I stumbled upon a tiny, yet totally tree-hidden trail that cuts secretly though the city and spits you out in a totally different place than you would think. I think it might be a rip in the space time continuum, or something.

10 million hours later, my run finally ended and my entire body hurt, and then it started to rain and I almost froze to death as I limped home. And did I spend the rest of the day on the couch? Hells no - I went to church 2 hours before the service and lugged speakers and tables around.

Who's a superhero? Me!

distance: about 6.5 miles or so.
pace: no effing clue
song: Poe, Haunted

3 comments:

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

I hope you didn't encounter any of those scary skeleton things like in the video game. Now those are creepy. But since you are a superhero, you could have beaten them (by jumping on their heads like in Super Mario Bros?).

Joe said...

you know what you need to do after a long run to relax? knit yourself a squid hat!

Anonymous said...

That's one of the really ghetto versions of Castlevania, you should have taken one from Symphony of the Night.