Running Along the Trinity

Running Along the Trinity

I am no longer gasping for air, and my heart rate is finally back to normal. I ran along the Trinity River less than 30 minutes ago. I live off of Hulen street, so the Trinity River Trails are just across the street. I embarked on my night run at about 10:00 p.m. with my roommate, Luke. Luke and I try to go on runs whenever we have the time, but this school year has been extremely busy. All I nothing but time to kill during my first two semesters. But now, I feel as if there are not enough hours during the day. I am constantly going to class, studying, or working, with only a few hours – if any- of leisure time a day. Consequently, I have not been able to go on many runs recently, which is unfortunate since running is one of my favorite activities. However, I completed a lot of work during the day and had a solid hour to go for a run with Luke.

The first thing we noticed was the weather. It was a breezy 79 degrees, which felt absolutely amazing. We crossed the Hulen and made our way over to the trail. On our entire run, I saw one man on a bike and two boys accompanied by their dogs; we were essentially the only people on the trail. It was nice to be free of worry that a hardcore cyclist was going to plow into me. Once we got in stride and set our pace, Luke and I talked about various things: school, friends, etc. Then, Luke noticed a sign, which attempted to explain the construction process to those who use the trails; the signs are just a method of informing the public of future plans. This sign claimed to be restoring the river to its natural flow paths. Luke laughed at it, saying that it was false and the sign was an attempt to make all the construction efforts seem more nature friendly than it really was. The sign also noted that they – those constructing – would add to areas to prevent flooding. Luke conceded that flooding is bad for populated areas, but he also added that flooding is natural phenomenon. I’m an expert on the environmental impacts of flooding, but I know that fire is thought to be a negative environmental phenomenon even though it is actually good for the environment – not in excessive amounts of course. So, maybe floods – in unpopulated areas – every now and then are good or maybe not; I honestly do not know.

Much to Dr. Williams’ liking I’m sure, we actually talked about water. I’m actually not even sure how we got on the topic, but I told Luke about some of the discussions we’ve had in class. He was particularly surprised by some of the random statistics I remembered from The Big Thirst – numbers regarding how much water we use and waste. I couldn’t help but realize – again – how lucky we are to have such easy and cheap access to clean water. Even though the Trinity is not aesthetically pleasing or clean, many other river systems around the world are much worse. When I see picture and videos of the Ganges River, I can’t help but think, “How stupid and irresponsible of the people to pollute their river like that.” I then remembered the trash we saw on the canoe trip and thought, “How do we let this happen?” If we – Americans – don’t change the way we treat our rivers, then we may end up with water as bad as the Ganges River.

We ran to the newly built hospital, turned around, and headed back to our apartment. It was relatively dark the entire run. I have bad eyes anyway, so all I could see was the river, trees, and lights from the city. The hospital is very modern looking, and it looks pretty cool at night – see the picture. As I was running, my thirst was growing and I pondered over the terrible quality of the Trinity water. If I was literally dying of thirst, would drinking from the Trinity River actually make matters worse? It’s weird to think about because I am sure people used to drink directly from that river hundreds of years ago. Now, even considering drinking from the Trinity is absurd. I think this is pathetic.

 After finally arriving back at the apartment, my first action was to get a drink of water. Even after thinking and talking about water for the entirety of my run, I was completely naïve when I filled my cup with water from the sink. We are extremely fortunate to be so water-rich in a world that is water-poor.