A couple more runs – Podestrians, the 2nd Thing To Consider - Weekly Results

Two more runs to round off the week – one on Friday, where instead of going straight out after work, I went out later in the evening. Being the week’s duty dog means that you shouldn’t get wildly drunk incase you have to run off and sort some problem out on a ship off some distant shore. A good thing every now and then (the bit about not getting wildly drunk I mean).

So a lap of the lakes on Friday evening, in 35 minutes 21 seconds – slower overall than last weekend’s, but with a fast ‘return leg’ along the 5 lakes. Then a repeat of Wednesday’s 14.6km run on Sunday afternoon. It is a great course, which I think will become a standard run leading up to Dublin – just over a third of the marathon distance in about an hour at the moment. This time I managed a ‘green light run’ – the entire distance without having to stop at traffic lights. There are only 3 road crossings on the course that have lights, but here in Denmark there is a 600 kroner fine if you cross on red. So you generally stop at them unless you are pretty sure there are no policemen about.

The run itself was deceptive. It had been raining all morning and showed every sign of continuing that way, but outside it was warmish – low 20’s I’d guess, and the humidity was high. As I got to Kastellet, the sun came out and the air quickly warmed up. The grass and pavements were steaming gently and it was not conducive to breathing properly.

That having been said, according to my new watch, the splits were pretty well spot on – or within 1 or 2 seconds - of Wednesday’s run, if not a bit faster. I slowed a little around the park at Østerport, and on starting the final run back along the outside of the first 3 lakes, about 2km in total, I was on exactly the same overall time as Wednesday. However the last 2km were into a headwind, and it soon started raining again – I ended up some 40 seconds slower.

Rant for the week are ‘Podestrians.’ I’ve no idea if this delightful word has been around for a while, but I first read it recently in a newspaper somewhere. It refers to pedestrians with headphones in general, and iPod users in particular. Now, Copenhageners are pretty trendy people and a huge number of them are Podestrians, or even Pod-cyclists, which I reckon is a bit more hazardous. And their sheer numbers are making them a Thing To Consider, not only while running but also when walking or cycling around town, which I happen to do rather a lot.

Take for instance a near-miss with a female Podestrian today. After the rain, puddles have formed on the paths around the lakes, and in places cover most of the path, so you have to step to one side to get round them. A finely-shaped blonde, walking in the same direction as I was running, was approaching such a puddle in front of both of us. With her favourite tunes on, she didn’t seem to see the obstacle until the last minute and, not being able to hear even my heavy footfall behind her, suddenly switched direction directly into my path to the left of the puddle and not all that far in front.

Left of the path was a tree, and it was a pretty narrow gap between puddle and tree. Before anyone gets unduly excited, none of the following occurred:

a) Lake Runner dodges left and runs straight into the tree

b) Lake Runner dodges right, through the puddle, and covers blonde Podestrian in mud.

c) Lake Runner could not stop in time and runs straight into blonde Podestrian, and has to stop to apologise and in so doing gets her phone number and a date for next Thursday.

But all of them were possible, except probably the last bit of c), which is why I try to dodge them.

I am not sure what can be done about them. Podestrians, however annoying, unfortunately have as much right to be out enjoying the open air as much as everyone else, and indeed it is to be encouraged. Copenhagen would be a much less scenic city if blonde Podestrians all sat in the safety of their flats. They are just a ‘Thing To Consider.’

So the Weekly Results – now beginning to look pretty respectable:

Distance run this week: 45.2km

Distance run to date: 201.0km

Distance cycled this week: 0km

Distance cycled to date: 139km

Distance rowed this week: 8km

Distance rowed to date: 55.3km

I’ll aim for about the same this week – I don’t want to push the leg too much yet, especially as things are ticking along nicely at the moment.