Emptied Beauty

Run: 3.3 miles in :24:13 min. @ 8:30 a.m.
Pace: 7:20 min./per mile

Weather: Mostly Cloudy, 22°F, 78% Humidity, Wind: S @ 7 mph; feels like 13°F
Course: From Erie Canal Lock 33 on Edgewood Avenue to Clinton Avenue and back.

I tried a few things differently when setting out for this morning's scheduled two-miler, including taking the short trip to familiar training course--the Lock 33 access point to the Erie Canal Trailway. I had not been on the trailway in a few weeks and during my absence the canal's water levels had been significantly lowered, giving the canal bed what could possibly be described as post-apocalyptic "look."

Strangely beautiful, all the the waste that canal-goers had carelessly deposited was visible on the bad, as were the usually submerged portions of the lock walls and barge hulls. The stark grey day (despite the weather person's on-line declaration of the weather as "Mostly Sunny") added to the desolate scenery. As is so often the case, the most obvious saving grace were the birds. Though the waters had receded, the presence of a wide variety of birds remained: gulls, robins, geese, as well as the occasional duck dipping butt-over-tea-kettle in an effort to find something below the very shallow remaining waters, which had puddled toward the center of the canal bed.