I rounded the far turn thinking how good it felt to be running slowly. There was no sign of the deer now. They must have moved off into the woods. Or greener grass somewhere else.
Just a couple laps left.
Someone was kneeling in the shadows in the second lane at the end of the far straightaway. Maybe the guy who lapped me. Maybe that person who was setting up hurdles in the dark. No. It was a woman who looked to be in her late sixties. She was bent over a measuring tape. She looked up as I jogged by in lane five.
“Do you want a light? I have one I’m not using.” I said.
She stood up. I could barely make out a smile on her face.
“No thanks. I just have to measure this and one more.” She pointed to the far turn.
I stopped and walked back.
“Are you sure? It’s pretty dark out here, and I have this light.”
I pulled the clip-on LED light off my hat and turned it on. I could see that she was working with a yellow tape measure that was stretched out on the ground.
“I have a few laps left. You can use it until I finish.”
She chuckled and took me up on my offer.
She later explained that she was preparing for her morning workout tomorrow. Back from some international track meet in Brazil, she is training with a coach who has her running constant time laps starting in the inside lane and working out to lane six. She was evidently curious how much longer she had to run in each lane, wondering I guess how much faster she would have to run each lap in order to keep her time constant.
Odd time of day to be making those measurements. And how on earth was she expecting to see the numbers on her tape? And anyway, this is the kind of question that Google is good at answering.
Whatever. Who am I to say? After all, she just got back from some international track meet in Brazil, and late sixties or not, she looked mighty speedy.