Marin #3

Thursday pm, 7.6 miles in 1:05

After work last night I took Silas, full of pomegranate seeds, out for
another attempt at Marin Ave. We took a different approach that usual
since I needed to stop by the library to pick up a book that was on hold
(by the way, the Berkeley Public Library website is pretty awesome, and
includes contents and excerpts of books in the catalog.) From the South
Branch, we proceeded northward on Milvia and The Alameda (passing the
Central and North Branch libraries).

We hit the circle and headed up. Today's course was 3 blocks, up to San
Benito. I was concentrating so hard that I almost missed the best yard
art of the run, a rusted iron skeleton holding a brass saxaphone.
Appropriate, since I was breathing hard and tasting blood by the time I
hit the top of my run. From San Benito to downtown was a pretty steep
downhill, to boot, so I kept a slow pace for much of the return. I was
able to get my footing enough to pick up the pace a little bit by the
time we hit the Cal campus, and wandered up and down a bit to tack on
some distance on the way home.

The route is here. I'll have to do some more planning to design a course
that includes the Claremont and West Branch libraries as well. Or maybe
not.

The book? Born to Buy, about how Silas is meant to serve as a conduit for
advertisers to access my (meager) wallet. A creepy proposition, if you
ask me.