Running on Quayside

I just got back from my first Cambridge run and found it entirely blog-worthy. Perpendicular to the street that runs in front of Basing House, Magdalene Street, runs the River Cam. The docks and sidewalk that run alongside the river are called Quayside and it's popular hangout spot in the day for those selling rides down the river on punts and, at night, half the local and tourist population of Cambridge turns out for some harmless enough drunken revelries on the stone steps next to the Quay- or, in other words, right below our bedroom windows. I think we're all getting used to the noise that continues till 4am- it's really nothing to the garbage collectors that come to start dumping broken bottles into their trucks at 6!

Be that as it may, when I left Basing House for a Quayside run this morning at 6:30, the quay was as quiet and peaceful as could be desired. I met only 4 to 5 other runners and a few bikers heading towards work in the city center. There's a good stretch of sidewalk running along the Cam, which is nice as several silent dramas unfolded on top of the water in my half-hour or so of pounding the pavement. I counted no less that 16 Canadian Geese sailing in a perfectly straight single file line downstream, and concluded that they must be British look-alike cousins to the Canadian variety. No goose family from North America could compete with the absolute British sense or order, symmetry, and propriety with which these particular geese comported themselves. I was also accompanied by a women and men's university crew team practice, which were directed by a cheery Englishwoman on a bright orange bike who directed them from shore. Even she didn't distrub the morning peace much, though, because- as our British program director, Carol, reminds us, it is not the British way to shout.