Chinook Middle School
Run Time: 66:19 + 2:30 kick
This is my second, possibly third time running on this middle school track. It is an open, unfenced, well-kept shared space. On this day, I shared it with a youth baseball team practice on the field above the track, some middle-school football players practicing on the interior of the track, and some adult cricket players practicing at one end of the track.
The cricket players showed up after I had run a couple laps. I’m not sure why they set up on the track. There was a restroom facility that provided a backstop for them, which I can understand, but there was a second baseball field a short distance away with a backstop. It seems like that would have been a better choice, especially since the cricket ball travels so much faster on the track surface. There was a lot of chasing of the ball going on, followed by a lot of heavy breathing.
It was apparent, as I came around that end of the track while they were setting up, that I was going to impede on their practice every few minutes. The track took me behind the pitcher, or whatever he is called in cricket, then around him, and then between him and the batter. At first I just cut it short and ran inside the pitcher, but I was still going to have to run close to the batter, who would have to wait for me to clear the field of cricket play, which I think is wider than a baseball diamond.
As I said, this is a shared space. I don’t need to run all the way around the track in one direction the whole time. I just started running a horseshoe route. When I got close to the cricketeers, I stopped and turned around and ran the other way. Then when I got close to them coming from the other way, I did the same thing. The running was the same for me as running ovals. I’m not an orbiting planet — I can reverse course and still get where I want to go.
I was more concerned about getting hit by a foul ball from the baseball field. A few landed on the embankment just above the track. A walker came onto the track and started following my horseshoe pattern. It was all copacetic. I’ve run on tracks with parents sitting in the grandstands while their kids practiced football or soccer on the field. I’ve run on tracks when track teams have been practicing in some of the lanes. Be like water, some wise person once said.
Water can break an obstacle, but it doesn’t have to. It can go over, around, under, or through. It can wear down rock. It can lift and carry. It can leak through cracks. Water, like life, finds a way.
And it makes a fine boiled egg.
Don't Make It a Habit. Make It a Ritual. 