Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Stinky

Dan and I have been running together in the evenings again. It’s nice, and the temps are usually cooler after dark. But tonight we stepped outside and the heat and humidity hit us like a wave.

“It’ll be better at the park,” I told him. “More trees. Less concrete.”

And it was a little better. But not by much.

I started at a conservative pace, but after my first stop for water, I found myself behind a particularly odiferous person, and by now a stiff breeze had picked up, wafting everything back to me.

Lucky me.

I picked up the pace and passed him. It was faster than I wanted to go for only my second mile of what would be a little over 4 miles, but with Stinky on my heels, I had no choice but to keep my pace. No way was I letting him get upwind of me again!

So I tried to be philosophical about it. When I first started distance running, I regularly had to contend with stinky people. In some ways they inspired me. Or they at least forced me to keep going when I was tempted to slow down. I became a better runner because of the motivation they gave me.

Tonight Stinky and I parted ways at about the 2.5 mile point, when I stopped for water and he went on. I was a little overheated by this point and dripping wet. 80% humidity will do that to you. So I finished my run at a more reasonable pace, fighting down a rare bit of exercise-induced nausea. I wasn’t exactly smelling like roses myself, at this point.

I can only hope I motivated someone.

Today’s Workout
4.25 mile run

2 comments:

Rachel said...

Wow. A run is challening enough without having to deal with someone else's B.O.!

I responded to your question under the comments in the post about NSAIDs, just to let you know. Basically, herbal anti-inflammatories are going to work the same way as clinically-approved drugs but your body may process them differently. Therefore, just like ibuprofen may work better for some, something like tumeric may work better for others.

Moby Dick said...

I got on the elliptical next to some guy who had the most powerful odor of fried onion cheese and garlic that I almost threw up after about one minute. I had to get off the elliptical and walk it off (the nausea).