Well, that was an Erlebnis.
Rather than going to bed Friday evening, I decided that I wanted to find a new running route; that, all of a sudden, I was sick of my normal route up the mountain that was a good 300m away from my dorm. Apparently, I wanted to be difficult. And see more of the city.
I yanked out my map of Freiburg im Breisgau, all creased to death after just one month. If I took Linie 1 to the end in Landwasser, there should be a forest. Good. If I took Linie 5 to Rieselfeld, there should also be a forest. Or maybe a field. Because Rieselfeld would in fact imply a field (Feld = field) and the map key (See squiggly green lines: Wald/Feld) is rather vague. Well then. Landwasser it is.
I talked to one of my roommates Saturday morning and she confirmed my choice. “Good running paths there. I have a friend who always goes running in Mooswald.” (Mooswald being the forest in the Landwasser area.) Unfortunately for my abenteuerlich plan, Saturday was cold and rainy.
The next day, today, was sunny and cool. So I jumped on the Straßenbahn, jumped off, jumped on Linie 1 and rode. And rode. My stop was second-to-last.
Now I forgot to mention, like so many other things, that I drank a lot of water all morning. So by the time I got off the Straßenbahn, I had to you know, aufs Klo gehen. But, of course, I’ve landed myself more or less in a residential area. With forest.
I start my stopwatch and start running, hoping against all hope that there will be some sort of restroom on the way. As it turns out, I do know the Germans like I think I do and there are no restrooms along the trail. There are, however, a lot of little trails leading off the main one. And no one is on these little trails.
In my head I have:
- I’ve done this before during cross country practice. And at South Mountain. In the middle of Phoenix. Although this is Germany, I am in a forest.
- A story that one of my roommates told me involving ticks, the forest, and a similar situation.
- Damn you bladder, damn you.
After awhile I turned down one of these small trails. The sign said something about a garden, so I was hopeful. Unfortunately, the trail just kept going and going. So at twenty minutes, I stopped my watch and prayed to God that no one would come jogging by and that every tick in the vicinity would suddenly die. Or just go away. Far away.
That done with, I recommenced my run. Like I said, I had been running for twenty minutes already, which is not a long time. For some reason however, my feet have started doing this thing where they fall asleep while I’m running. Twenty minutes seems to be the breaking point. I hit twenty minutes and my right foot says, Okay, I’m done running. Good night. Also around twenty minutes, my shins decide that they’re done too (though this only happens when I have to run on asphalt). Explanations, etcetera aside, my feet fell asleep. Both of them.
I made myself keep going another ten minutes even though it felt like I had lead weights attached to my ankles. It was great. I stopped myself and my watch and untied my shoe laces. I half-smiled at the passing bicyclists and turned up the music on my ipod, walking with my untied shoes and shaking my feet. I bet I looked amazing. One of these bicyclists stopped to talk to me. He was an old man whom I had seen on my way out on the trail.
“You’re going a lot slower now, aren’t you?”
I laughed and told him that my feet fell asleep. For a minute or two we discussed how to remedy this problem and then, of course, he asked me where I was from. Luckily for me (or so I think), I haven’t met a German yet who has been able to pinpoint my accent.
We talked about the weather and about the forest here in and then he asked me if I liked writing postcards. I have his business card now. His name is Robert. (Note: There is an old multi-lingual Greek man named Christoph who has my cell number). Excellent.
Eventually I got to walking again and then, once the feeling was back in my feet, I ran back to the tram stop. It drove away right as I turned the corner. But no matter, really. I wasn’t in any hurry. And thankfully, because it was a long way back. But I made it back. Safely. And I don’t think any ticks followed me home either. Thank God.
