What's Whack on the Track?

It seems as though every time I go for a walk or jog on the indoor track on campus, I am bound to find someone who is doing something whack on the track.  It didn't happen as much in the spring and summer, but the winter seems to bring the strangeness out of people. 

It's been a week since I last ventured over there, and I had a really, really great workout - more on that in a moment!  But I thought I saw all the strange things until half-way into my jog today.

• A young woman, I think she was perhaps in high school - it'd be a stretch to say she might be a first-year student - came onto the track with a fake stuffed dog on wheels.  She starting "walking" this dog at a very, very slow pace - and of course, in the opposite direction.  As I slowed to a brisk walk, I tried to process it in my brain.  Was she training to walk a service dog? Nuh-uh.  If so, she failed, because one time, the dog fell over on its side and she dragged it like that for half a lap.  I should have asked her what she was doing... but I didn't.  Now unfortunately, I'll have no idea what that was all about.  But that was definitely whack.
• A couple weeks ago, a couple were casually jogging - and holding hands.  It was not enough for them to be enjoying a healthy public activity together - they had to make it romantic, too.  There are three lanes on the track, and they were of course right smack in the middle and taking up half of each of the inside/outside lanes.  As I was sprinting toward them and then asking them to move... nothing.  After maybe three seconds, they heard me and moved for me.  But that was... seriously... whack.
• The other thing I witnessed a few weeks ago was a man going in the opposite direction (why not?) doing ballet kinds of moves.  Perhaps he was a dance major - an aspiring movement artist.  Really the lesson is people need to pay attention to the directional sign and go with the flow of the rest of the crowd.  But I thought that was kind of whack.

That's enough of my sarcastic somewhat mean-spirited observations of people at the track.  I give everyone props who are there to truly get a good work-out and stay in shape.  But it's those outliers who don't really know what they're doing.  Or they just have an imaginative sense of humor and enjoy the strange looks from folks like me. :-)

Now for what was not whack on the track.  This morning, I jogged for the first time since my first 5K on December 5th.  And I was proud of myself today because I accomplished a feat not done since maybe P.E. class in middle school when the teacher forced you to jog like a drill sergeant would.  No, today - I finally jogged a full mile with no breaks and no walking!  And more than half of my 3 mile work-out today was jogging or sprinting.  It was my second best pace compared to the December 5K.  I did a 12'10" mile pace - total 36'27" in 3 miles.  I was a little disappointed I didn't beat my record pace, but I think this was pretty awesome considering the lapse in time since my last jog.

Regardless, I'm happy with today.  I think I could do this more often!