• Not youse. Themz. •
[1½ MIN READ]
Go on as one might about that which is not sticks and stones, names really can hurt. They might not cause physical injuries, but the emotional scarring could really be lasting. I haven’t done the research on post-traumatic stress disorder as it relates to name-calling, but I’m confident it exists. As far as running, many runners complain about being slow, but the idea of being called a turtle feels truly offensive.
On the other hand, it’s only as a runner that I’ve come across turtles on the trails: Literal turtles. There was the one BB Betsy and I encountered in Abington’s Alverthorpe Park that gave every validation about moving being the chore many of us feel running to be sometimes. That was a few years ago and no one would make the assumption that there’d be other pokes on the trail equally as slow.
Then My-Oh Maya and I encountered one on the Canal Path in Manayunk. This one wasn’t as sizable as the earlier, but that earlier was loitering along the shore of the pond where one could see it making its way and enjoying the sunny conditions. Canal-path Turtle someone how made it up from the water and navigated to the boardwalk itself. It was in no more of a rush than the earlier trail user, though, and seemed to wear its pokey name equally proudly.
(2) My-Oh Maya with Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina), Canal Towpath, Manayunk, Philadelphia, PA, 2022’05’28’S.
(3) Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina), Pennypack Trail Extension, Huntingdon Valley, PA, 2023’06’19’M.
Finally, there was the most compact one (to be size-ist) that had clearly done speed conditioning BB Betsy and I met on Pennypack Trail Extension. This competitor would absolutely have given the earlier 2 a run for the money as it executed an admirable fartlek segment even as we passed it doing our own leisurely pace.
-CtCloser (Calvinthe) “Negative Split or Positive Splat” #dothedue
FINE PRINT
*A bit of feedback on recent Ruminations is that they’ve lost some of their overall lightheartedness. Hmm, really? Well, I have one in the hopper about turtles. Ooh, turtles: That sounds good. So here you go. ¶Text and photo by Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Cross-published: Facebook Shawmont Running Club (ZY Weekly Newsletter 10/21/23), Shawmont Running Club website, Ruminations by CtCloser.
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