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Breaking the law!

October 10, 2018 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I learned today why I never see anyone in Sarajevo walking around wearing headphones: it's illegal! Seriously. The police, I'm told, sometimes hang out downtown waiting to pass people and give them a fine. They will also do this for J-walking even if there are no cars around. This, in a country where people don't wear seatbelts... in fact, the taxi drivers sometimes have a little plastic insert they stick in the buckle to trick that car into thinking the seatbelt is buckled so that it won't start beeping at them. Really? Really? I feel like driving without a seatbelt is much or dangerous that cross the street (or walking down the sidewalk) with headphones in your ears. In any case, I'm going to continue to wear my seatbelt and on runs at night or up in the hills where the police aren't around, listen to audiobooks and podcasts on my runs. On tonight's run I listened to The Power by Naomi Alderman, a recent bestselling novel set in a future where women have gained the power to send electric shocks from their hands, resulting in a complete reversal of the patriarchy from girl gangs to female dictators and CEOs and men who are submissive and deferential... a fitting choice to read while breaking the law. (And a good read during the Kavanaugh hearings). This is probably the third books I've read this year in which a female science fiction writer uses a future or alien society to explore gender constructs.

The streets were pretty deserted throughout my run, probably because it was between midnight at 2 in the morning. I had to stop early on because I had a skype phone scheduled with former GDS runner Julia Ernst, who is in Colombia on a Fulbright fellowship researching the how the healthcare system treats amputees. We talk every few weeks, mostly about research advice. I also called my parents briefly since I had forgotten to last Sunday (that's our weekly calling day). By the time I started running again I was feeling kinda ready to go to sleep, so I told myself it would be 30-40 minute run. But you know me. I saw an interesting street I'd never been down, then another, then found myself at a familiar landmark, looked at the map to see how I could make into a loop... and before I knew it 9 more miles had flown by. I was pretty worn out by the end though as if I'd run closer to 15. I decided even though it was the middle of the night that my body deserved to be treated to something good so I made an entire box of pasta, ate about 2/3 of it, then discovered that the water in the city had been turned off so I left the dishes for tomorrow (i.e. today, it was 2:30 am) and went to bed.