After nearly melting in today's heat, the Green Girl waited until the sun started to go down to go for a run with one of the Sole Runners, Michelle.
We headed down to the Shoreline Pedestrian Bikepath and headed east.
The hazy sky muted the sunset colors into a beautiful pastel palette.
We passed a handful of beach volleyball courts with games in progress. We saw sailboats and cruise ships.
To the west, we saw a sliver of a crescent moon.
A runner shuffled by and I commented to Michelle that I thought if she ran like that, she could probably go a little faster. We're both back of the packers but she's significantly slower than me so I usually run ahead and then take pictures until she catches up. This arrangement works well for us.
She stopped to observe his technique and then tried to imitate his movements.
She commented that she wasn't used to lifting her knees up so high. I fell in sync with her stride and compared our knee heights. It didn't seem like she was going unusually high to me.
As an experiment, we continued at this pace. All of a sudden, Michelle exclaimed that for the first time in her life, she actually felt like she was running. I looked over at her and quickly realized I'd never seen her look like this before. I blurted out, 'You look like a runner!'
Michelle's running epiphany was our primary source of entertainment and amusement for the remainder of the run.
Before we headed home, I snapped a shot of the Grissom Island off-shore oil rig for my friend, Kitzzy. I always think of her and her boyfriend when I see it because like everyone else who sees it, they couldn't believe it was an oil rig.
Grissom is one of four oil islands named after the first four NASA astronauts to die in the line of duty - Freeman, Grissom, White, and Chaffee.
The artificial islands house oil and gas production equipment. The brightly colored facades designed to disguise the facilities make them look like they could be part of Pleasure Island.
