Day 98

I jogged for 70 minutes this morning, nice easy run on the riverwalk. I didn't make it all the way to the end but I think this will be my goal for this trip. I'm not sure how long it is, though! I will have to wake up earlier and start when it's cooler when I attempt it; I wanted to wake up earlier today but I didn't sleep well. I'm surprised that my run was as good as it was. I started off tired and stiff but loosened up. It helps that there are at least a couple of water fountains on the route (I've been carrying a water bottle too) and the air is a lot drier here. And there is a lot of shade. Though it's hotter than home, I feel more comfortable. No chafing, either!

I'm enjoying the riverwalk. Some of it is by restaurants and hotels and this gets pretty packed in the evening, but other parts remain pretty empty. And there's hardly anyone at all in the morning, mostly landscape workers and other joggers. The vegetation is gorgeous, lots of sub-tropical plants, magnolia trees, eucalyptus, some water gardens, some flowers, especially honeysuckle which is blooming now. It's lovely running in perfume! It doesn't smell the same as my perfumed runs in Florida, but it inspires a similar feeling of being on a lovelier plane. And the non-vascular parts of the path are yet organic as well--the path has straight sections, but also many gentle curves and dips and rises, and it has texture. It's mostly concrete, but a lot of it has inlays or patterns, and there is some stone of varying roughness, some grates, some pebbles. My shoes are pretty thin so I can feel the variety. It's mesmerizing and sometimes surprisingly harder running on art. A little ridge of grout or concrete sets off a flurry of sensation. I will be sad to return home to miles of asphalt; I'd forgotten how boring that is. Back to the riverwalk: there's art beside and above too, tilework, some sculpture, most memorably the suspended fish below the I-35 underpass. Going under a major highway like that can be very dismal, but someone had the vision to put a school of fish sculptures under there which somehow masks the shadows and the drone and whine of cars overhead. The city of San Antonio has done a really good job with the riverwalk. I wish that the NCC back home could have a look...some things they do really well, but there's always room for improvement. I think the underpass under the Queensway needs some floating fish!