The Stinky 5.5

James, Zack and I went for a run today. We started out at the baseball fields, and ran along a portion of "The Loop," which is a path that eventually will create a loop all the way around Tucson. Anytime that I've ran on this portion of the loop with James, we've gone to the right. Today, we went left. James has done this portion of the loop a few times on his own during his marathon training and has never had anything wonderful to say about it. But, since he likes taking me on runs where I've never been before, we went left at the baseball field.

The run started out pretty ugly. We were in between 2 chain link fences. What they were fencing off I'm not sure (it looked like a huge, random assortment of junk/stuff). After running about a half a mile through these chain link fields of glory/whoknowswhat, the path lines up with I-10. There were approximately zero trees (give or take zero....), 18 different species of desert weeds, an assortment of random bicyclists and dirt. And man holes. Or, as they were labeled, "Sanitary Sewer." When we stopped to stretch we were greeted by a horrible stench. Then we noticed one of these lovely sewage stank traps nearby. We stretched for about 8 seconds before the stink caused us to forgo being loving to our leg muscles.

We continued along our run and continued be greeted by bursts of sewage stink every so often. James only complained about the smell making his eyes water once.

Then, we got to the halfway point, and turned around to be greeted by a breeze in our face. This breeze wasn't too noticeable when it was at our backs. But, when you are pushing a jogging stroller, breezes feel more like gusty winds that want to push you over backwards. These breezes also helped to transport the sewage stink to us far before we actually reached the man holes. Picture this for a moment. Me running, pushing the jogging stroller into the wind using only one hand, and using my other hand to pull my shirt up over my nose and hold it there in an attempt to keep some stink out. Did I mention we were going uphill, too? Barefoot! In the snow!!

Ok, so there was no snow, only a few hills, and I was surely wearing shoes. But this area of "The Loop" needs to be renamed "Sewage Row." I will avoid it in the future. Peeee-uuuuuuuuuuuu.