Run: Day 39

Wanted to test my 5k speed, so caught Liz's taxi to Danshui (had to go out to make a transfer anyway), ran to Zhuwei, ran through a drizzle, caught the MRT back, waited around for the bus, peeked at Christmas decorations, walked the back streets through the rain, caught the bus, froze on the bus, walked up the hill to our house, made it in one piece.

5:00 PM in autumn was an extremely pleasant time to run. I passed one enthusiastic jogger and we were both quite pleased to see each other on the path. It's mostly cyclists, walk-ists and an occasional slow-runner or two.--And NO foreigners, yet, on my two stints on that well-used path.

Cozy-ly sitting here showered with my pretty twinkly Christmas lights and Christmas music making me happy.

Sigh.

So, 5k in 26:59:40. I have a sneaky suspicion that distance is just under 5 kilometers, but pretty okay for gauging my speed, which, so far, is consistently about 6k per minute.

Noticed that my start-off speed was pretty speedy, all that energy and anticipation. Slowed it down to a regular pace after about a kilometer. Started getting weary, if measuring by the focus put into my step, at about 3.5 kilometers. For the last 3/4 of a kilometer, when I knew I was almost at my destination, kept a pretty speedy clip.

So, I feel pretty confident in getting through a 5k relay, should the opportunity ever arise. I can probably train a month in advance and perform moderately fine, as far as feeling mentally fine goes. :) Still not very speedy, but knowing I can do that reasonably okay gives me a bit of incentive to work on the speed and strength of at least my 5k.

Today's out-of-this-run experience: A pot-bellied pig waddling his way along the bike path. His "pot-bellied" was about a meter from spine to hanging bottom part. Eek! I have no idea who he belonged to, as no one else was on the path, along that stretch, but it must be a regular thing for his owners to let him go for a stroll. I wonder if pot-bellied pigs are intelligent enough to go for a walk and find their way home. I also wonder if he hadn't just escaped. :)

Forgot to relay my other out-of-this-run experience that left me quite aghast, a couple Sundays ago...

It was on that long run along the bike path. I was running along minding my own business. Had just passed the temple area when my eyes moved upwards and met with the following sight:

A tall, lanky man on the second story porch of an apartment building, walking away from my direction, talking on the phone, porch wall hitting at about upper thigh height, clad in nothing but net/mesh Speedos. Aaack! It's quite alarming when you're not used to viewing such things!!! :D He turned around on his way back from the end of the porch and I could see that the front of the Speedos looked pretty normal -- that is, real Lycra, NOT MESH!!

Well, it's a good thing I had my sunglasses on.