Monday, April 12, 2004
Overcrowded Bunny Trail
How am I supposed to run 3 miles? I'm not talking about stamina, I just don't understand the logistics of it. I want to practice jalking (jogging/walking) 5k, and I don't know how to go about doing that.
I live in a city with traffic lights every 100 yards for as far as the eye can see. It seems stupid to just run along the busy sidewalks in town. I figured I could go to Griffith Park which has running trails, but it's still a pain to figure out how far you've gone. I have to find out where I'm going to park, then drive along the road trying to identify landmarks at different points so I can come up with round-trip runs of 2 or 3 miles.
But even that isn't simple. Yesterday, the entire population of Los Angeles was in the park having their stupid Easter picnics. The bike/running path along the side of the road was covered with parked cars, mile after mile after mile. I had to jalk while dodging pick-up trucks, baby strollers, and clouds of burnt barbeque smoke.
It got me thinking: what if one of the trucks hit me, or someone jumped out from behind a parked van and stabbed me? I didn't have any identification on me, so how long would it be before my body was identified? I was reminded of the case many years ago of the "Central Park Jogger", the then-anonymous woman who was raped and beaten nearly to death in New York City. If something were to happen to me, would news reports simply refer to me as "The Griffith Park Jogger?" I don't want to be known as The Griffith Park Jogger, that's completely against my character. "The Griffith Park TV Watcher" would work for me.
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How am I supposed to run 3 miles? I'm not talking about stamina, I just don't understand the logistics of it. I want to practice jalking (jogging/walking) 5k, and I don't know how to go about doing that.
I live in a city with traffic lights every 100 yards for as far as the eye can see. It seems stupid to just run along the busy sidewalks in town. I figured I could go to Griffith Park which has running trails, but it's still a pain to figure out how far you've gone. I have to find out where I'm going to park, then drive along the road trying to identify landmarks at different points so I can come up with round-trip runs of 2 or 3 miles.
But even that isn't simple. Yesterday, the entire population of Los Angeles was in the park having their stupid Easter picnics. The bike/running path along the side of the road was covered with parked cars, mile after mile after mile. I had to jalk while dodging pick-up trucks, baby strollers, and clouds of burnt barbeque smoke.
It got me thinking: what if one of the trucks hit me, or someone jumped out from behind a parked van and stabbed me? I didn't have any identification on me, so how long would it be before my body was identified? I was reminded of the case many years ago of the "Central Park Jogger", the then-anonymous woman who was raped and beaten nearly to death in New York City. If something were to happen to me, would news reports simply refer to me as "The Griffith Park Jogger?" I don't want to be known as The Griffith Park Jogger, that's completely against my character. "The Griffith Park TV Watcher" would work for me.
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