Need to find someplace besides Seneca for the long run

August 28, 2006

I think there’s literally something in the air that makes Seneca Park a miserable place for me to run. Since I started using the park for my long Sunday run, I’ve yet to complete the full scheduled distance.

The last couple times I noticed that breathing got very difficult, and I’m thinking it’s a combination of the humidity and perhaps the abundance of grass and tree pollens. Even with a couple puffs of the albuterol I can feel the tightening in my chest and the heavily labored breathing.

I never have similar breathing problems during the week, when I’m running downtown. Humidty downtown should be about the same as Seneca, perhaps higher because the Ohio River runs right thru downtown. But the tree and grass pollens are naturally much lower in the concrete jungle of downtown.

So this next Sunday run I’m going to plot out a downtown run and see if that helps. It will be I suspect a bit weird running thru downtown on a Sunday morning. I doubt I’ll see as many fellow runners as I do at Seneca. On the other hand I’ll probably see a lot more people sleeping off their hangovers on the sidewalks and benches downtown than I do at Seneca. Maybe the change of scenery will also help do me some good.