Did you know I have magic powers?
Magic powers I can’t control but I have them.
I can only do one spell, but that’s what counts right?
And what is my magic trick?
I can turn street lamps off just by my mere presence.
Seriously.
Let me explain…
When I head out to run in the morning; it’s dark outside. AGAIN.
It’s not the, “oh I can kinda see in front of me” dark. It’s the “holy crap, did I wake up in the middle of the night and run” dark. You can’t see a thing.
Luckily for me, my entire morning route is brightly lit by streetlamps. They bathe the path in front of me with light so I don’t have to worry about either a) tripping on some crack or root or something and fall on my ass or b) not being able to see some unfriendly character lurking in the bushes.
Ok, maybe I’m being a tad overdramatic. I can see ok when the lights are dim, I’m not really in any danger. What I can’t see is the readout on my Garmin watch which as numbers obsessed as I am is a problem. I was going to get over it until I started to use the street lamps as a marker.
When I started this whole running shindig back in 2004 (I was technically still a walker then) I used the striped poles dotted along the San Francisco Embarcadero to get myself from walking to running. I started by running between every other pole (they’re only about 500 yards apart) and slowly worked my way up to full on running by adding a pole each time things were getting to easy. It took me a while but one day I ran the whole route.
I’m a pretty good runner now. No need for walking between poles any more. What I’m not is a FAST runner. I want to become a faster runner and everything I’ve read tells me I need to add short sprints to my runs and slowly work up. Sound familiar?
Hence the lampposts in Golden Gate Park…
I decided to sprint between the lights on the last mile of my morning run.
Then the buggers started going out.
Of course a lamp that’s out doesn’t count does it? I have to keep sprinting until I hit a streetlamp that’s on.
Of course the only ones that went out were the ones marking the end of my sprints.
I even switched up my “starting lamps” when I went out the next day.
No luck.
My mere presence turns off lampposts.
Anyone know a spell to turn them on?
Sheesh.
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