Cute Story and Nasty Part Of Yesterday's Run

   First, the cute story part.
   In my last post, I forgot to mention a little thing that happened after the run, back at my car. Once I got back to the car after my "long" run I decided I would do a bit of a post-run stretch. I did a plantar fascia/heel stretch on the front tire of the car, all cozied up to the fender. I then did an extended calf stretch, with my hands pressed into where the driver's window meets the door frame. A couple of people in the parking lot gave me funny/suspicious (I thought) kinds of looks, but I ignored them. At the end of all the stretching, as I was digging my car key out, I looked down into my back seat and lo and behold there was a pet carrier. I hadn't brought a pet. Nor was this MY car I had just been draped all over!! It WAS a little blue Honda, it just wasn't MY little blue Honda! Needless to say, I didn't linger in the parking lot!

   The following day was a cross-training day so I headed to Goodlife and did the Fit Fix circuit. This essentially gives most of the major muscle groups a hardy workout, if you do it properly. It was the middle of a Sunday afternoon and there were hardly any people there which was cool, meant no waiting for machines.
   The next day was a run day and I had decided to explore a little more of the trail along the river, headed toward downtown. I had really enjoyed my earlier exploration of this trail a couple of days ago and was looking forward to seeing more.
   Well, if I been really thinking, I wouldn't have been looking forward to it so much.


The offending sewage treatment plant.

   I drove to the Wonderland Gardens parking lot and began my run there. This is just before my turnaround point from the previous run so I thought it would make a good start point for this one. About a kilometer into the run, the smell hits me. Sewage.


If you think about it too hard, kind of a creepy part of the river to run past.

   If I had been really on the ball, I would have realized that this portion of the run would take me right past the Greenway Park Sewage Treatment plant. Now, I guess it's cool that they can take all this sewage, treat it, and then dump it back into the river but the smell still has to go somewhere. There was an east wind today so the smell hit me before I got to the plant and then, thankfully, subsided after I ran past it. Unfortunately, I then had to run back through it to get to my car.
   In the same area as the plant is a stark reminder of what was surely the darkest day in London's history. I passed by the spot in the river where the "Victoria" boat disaster occurred, in 1881. There was a huge loss of life and it's been said that, given London's size at the time, pretty well every family in the city lost a member of one kind or another. Some of the back-in-the-day accounts are quite horrific.
   So, on this particular run, we have a smelly sewage plant and a marine disaster to contemplate. Not the best side of London to be describing, I'm sure, but it was part of the run. Hopefully future runs will be a little more scenic.
   The good part, though, is that I shaved about three minutes off the times I've been running lately for 5K so I'm pretty happy about that, with a race coming up next Sunday!
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!