Steve’s Running Oasis

He lives…

Well, it's been several days since the infamous stray dog incident and I want to thank those of you who have expressed your concern for me getting rabies. I feel great and I’m pretty sure I’m rabies free (Yeah right…I say that as if I actually know how long the incubation period of rabies really is).

Back Up and Running…

While I was spending a few hectic days getting my stuff moved and setup in the long-term apartment, the temperature has slowly been climbing each day to nearly 40 F. So today, I finally got enough time to squeeze in my first run from my new home – wearing shorts to celebrate the “warm” weather. This run was just what the doctor ordered. One of the reasons I picked this place was it’s proximity to Parcul Titan (Titan Park). Titan is a huge park that is broken into 2 halves (north and south with a lake in both that connects under the bisecting road). It is split by a street that my apartment street runs into, 1 city block from the park, and only 1 busy street to cross.

Titan is huge! After about .3 miles from the apartment, I entered the north half of the park. I had run this once before, at night from the other apartment, and had no idea where I was going. It turns out the park has 2 levels. The upper level has walkways and playgrounds and what looks like a bar or restaurant area, while the lower level has a lake. You can get from the lower to the upper by stairs or trails. After circling the upper level, I headed down to the lake. There is a nice wide paved path around the lake. Since, I wanted to stay on the north side of the park only, I had to go up and down stairs where the lake necks down and runs to the south half of the park. Its approximately .9 mile around ONLY the northern half of the lake. Some kids were on the ice playing. Some actually had skates, while some had a soccer ball. I’m not sure if this was wise with the weather above freezing today! The southern half of the park is actually bigger, so there is a great potential for runs of all distances in this park.

It's Shoarma Time…huh?

The pavement of the park is really good, and will allow me to do some up-tempo runs under 8:00 pace, and that’s great. I still have to make the slightly longer trek to Parcul National for speedwork though. Oh and yes, the dogs left me alone today for all 3.5 miles. I had to shower quickly when I got home, as I was off to a bible study, but I did reward my effort later with a big fat Shoarma at the food court of one of the malls.

More on what a Shoarma is in a later installment….
Steve