Browsing Brownie’s Blog, I found that the Pikes Peak Road Runners have an annual 2 mile race (Nielson Challenge) that rather than cancel they transformed it (epidemiologically, it mutated) such that anyone running 2 miles today can participate. The sun was out and the weather warm and what-the-hell, right? My best two miles on the route were those from Jesson Park to the convenience store at the north end where I bought the Corona out of a sense of irony before continuing the route. 15:37.8 was all I had in me for the deuce, and I was quite a bit slower overall (6.1 miles total by the end of it). As of this moment I’m typing this, you still have time to enter your effort at this link.
I picked up some more canal accoutrements along the way before heading off overland using the rare sun to guide me home. The bits herein are Walsall Road seen above behind the large Corona bottle and, below, the bridge from which I shot that photo (but the name on the bridge is blurry in the pic, so I’m just calling it Friar’s Park until I run past again):
The canals were busy and I paused to let some middle-age pot heads (pot…kettle) pass under the Crankhall Lane Bridge while admiring the primitive cock graffito highlighted:
Overtaking said stoners, I crossed a footbridge:
and, an aqueduct before tumbling down a hill to race under it and make my way back home. Excellent hour out … mostly for the beer and the contact high.
Endless British Pub Crawl (Part 3) 