Tonight I decided (smog advisory and humidex be damned!) to ride over to my girlfriend's house to drop some stuff off. She's only 5 kms away so it wasn't a big deal. I made it there in 18 minutes. On the way home I decided to clock a route that I ran last week. I don't normally run but I'm terribly bored with my current fitness routine and decided to shake things up. I don't normally run because I hate running so you can see, I was pretty desperate for change. The route that I ran is mainly on a nature trail. I started out on my bike, computer dutifully recording the mileage and things were looking good. I figured I might see one of the rabbits we've seen back there but there were only birds. Then the first obstacle started: gnats. Anyone that's ever cycled or run (oh hell, even walked) through a cloud of gnats knows how friggin' annoying they can be. One wrong breath and you've got gnat-filled nostrils. After 2 kms, I made it through that part of the course.
Next obstacle: geese. Or rather: goose excrement. If you haven't had the pleasure of strolling/running/cycling through a park/path that geese have moved into, you just haven't lived. There's a good article here that captures the moment. Or rather, moments as a path strewn with goose poop leaves many memorable moments. So I was zipping along weaving, zigging, zagging, trying not to run through any goose poop, lest it attach itself to my rear tire and fling back up my back, as water is known to do. It was looking good! I was at the top of my game, sucessfully avoiding any and all poop. About 2/3 of the way through a particularly challenging stretch of path, I hit some poop. And then, some more. And more. And frankly, I pretty much gave up. It was a losing battle. I couldn't seem to move 1 inch without hitting some poop! Luckily, nothing flew off my tire and up my back.
With that, I had cleared Nature's obstacle course. Final score: 2 mosquito bites and 4 gnat carcasses on the bathroom floor. Oh, and it turns out that I ran 4 km.
