tien mu run

i went running this afternoon, up tienmu road about 10 blocks to the river, down some hidden stairs, along a two feet wide strip of concrete above rushing brown water, out through some bushes into a park with wide tiled pathways encircling some playground equipment, across the street to the other side, where i stretched near a polished granite table etched with a chess board, and back down tienmu road, where the sidewalk gave no more than 6 inches to my pounding sneakers. listening to really, really bad American pop music, sweating through my wife beater. not surprisingly, i was the only runner on the road. i passed a withered old man wearing a worn hang ten surf shop tshirt, which made me burst out laughing.