This is one of the first posts from the original blog, June 10, 2012. Enjoy.
This week I am in San Antonio for the American Society for Engineering Education conference. I got here Saturday night which meant my distance run needed to be done here. Not knowing the area (i.e. where I could run and where I should run) I asked the hotel information desk. The concierge pulled out a bike map and asked how far I wanted to run. “Nine miles.” He stared at me. “Uh…normally I just tell people to do this route and if they want to do 3 miles they can do it twice.” The map had a route of about 8 miles that I decided to follow.
Sunday morning I have a workshop starting at 9 am so I had to start early. The alarm went off at 6 am. I looked at the dark sky and went back to sleep for a half hour. I managed to get onto the street by 6:50 am. There were a few miles on the start of the run I wasn’t too sure of (is graffiti tagging a good thing or a bad thing?). There were no people up yet. But there was a dog. It was in the middle of the road rolling in something. Which I thought was kinda cute until it saw me, and I realized it was an strange dog without an owner or a leash in area that was unknown to me but which he probably thought was his. The cone of silence on his neck was also a nice touch. I ran by him watching him out of the corner of my eye without actually making eye contact. And then I heard him cross the street and start trotting behind me. Sorry, it didn’t get any more interesting than that. I didn’t turn around and he stopped following me after a few seconds.
The route led to the Brekenridge park area (where there is the zoo and a golf course). Next to the golf course I found a newly paved bicycle path and started following it. It hooked up with the start of the Riverwalk trail. The trail follows along the San Antonio river through town. The entire length of it is landscaped with flowers, gardens, and waterfalls. There were also some fish in the river, ducks, and a couple pointy beaked stork type birds. And squirrels without ANY fear of people (I had to practically shove one out of the way to use the water fountain). That early there were only a couple other people out on the trail so it was a nice run back to downtown. Have you ever noticed that people who run, walk, or walk dogs on trails always say good morning? Except for the ones doing a long run. When you meet one of them you each just raise a hand with fingers spread as if saying “Good morning. How are you? I can’t talk because I can no longer breathe.”