Part 6 of 7 in the series “What Containers Reveal”
Public activity log for user “nkadri” (Nadia Kadri), joined March 14, 2020. Profile bio: “same loop, different person.” Location: Melbourne, AU. All activities recorded on the Princes Park circuit, Carlton North (5.1km) unless otherwise noted. Selected entries from 1,024 total activities. Kudos and comments preserved as recorded.
Activity #1 — March 14, 2020 Morning Run 5.1 km | 38:42 | 7:35/km Day 1. I don’t run. I have never run. My housemate left for Sydney this morning and the apartment is very quiet and the WHO used the word “pandemic” on Thursday. Princes Park because it’s close and flat. Walked twice. Everything hurts. Kudos: 4
Activity #3 — March 19, 2020 Morning Run 5.1 km | 36:55 | 7:14/km Kudos: 2
Activity #7 — April 2, 2020 Evening Run 5.1 km | 34:28 | 6:45/km Didn’t walk once. Kudos: 6
Activity #12 — April 20, 2020 Morning Run 5.1 km | 33:15 | 6:31/km Kudos: 3
Activity #19 — May 14, 2020 Morning Run 5.1 km | 31:44 | 6:13/km The old man with the cattle dog was at the north end again. Third time this week. I think we’re on the same schedule. He didn’t wave but he moved to the side, which is basically a wave. Kudos: 5
Activity #31 — July 9, 2020 Morning Run 5.1 km | 30:02 | 5:53/km Stage 3 again. 5km from home, exercise with one other person. The loop isn’t a choice anymore. It’s what I’ve got. Kudos: 8
Activity #38 — August 3, 2020 Morning Run 5.1 km | 29:18 | 5:45/km Stage 4. Can’t go further than 5km from home. Can’t exercise for more than one hour. Can’t be out after 8pm. The loop fits every rule exactly, like it was designed for this. The magpies don’t know about the restrictions. They don’t care about the restrictions. Kudos: 12
Activity #45 — August 28, 2020 Morning Run 5.1 km | 28:31 | 5:35/km I know every crack in the path. I know where the roots have pushed up the concrete near the elms on the south side. I know which bin overflows first on Sunday mornings. I know the pattern of the sprinklers. I know the exact point where you can smell the eucalyptus if the wind is from the north. I ran this loop eleven times this week and I am going to run it again tomorrow because it is the only place I am allowed to go and I am so tired of it and I need it so much. Kudos: 23
Activity #67 — October 28, 2020 LOCKDOWN OVER (same loop anyway) 5.1 km | 27:06 | 5:19/km 111 days. Could go anywhere today. Went to Princes Park. Not sure what that means. Kudos: 31 — including first kudos from J. Okoye
Activity #74 — November 15, 2020 Morning Run 5.1 km | 27:44 | 5:26/km Dog man waved today. Actual wave. Hand in the air. Eight months. Kudos: 9
Activity #89 — January 8, 2021 Morning Run with Joel 5.1 km | 30:12 | 5:55/km Joel from the running group came along. He’s fast — ran the loop in 22 minutes last week — but matched my pace without making it feel like matching. Good sign in a person. Kudos: 14 — J. Okoye, others
Activity #103 — February 20, 2021 Morning Run 5.1 km | 26:24 | 5:10/km Sub-27. PB. Joel will be annoyed I did it without him. Kudos: 18 — J. Okoye: ”🔥“
Activity #112 — March 14, 2021 Anniversary Loop 5.1 km | 27:30 | 5:23/km One year. 112 times around Princes Park. I am not the same person who walked twice and said everything hurts. I don’t know when I changed. It wasn’t one run. It was the accumulation. You can’t point to the lap where you became a runner. Kudos: 34
Activity #130 — May 16, 2021 Morning Run with Joel 5.1 km | 29:58 | 5:52/km We run together three times a week now. My pace is slower with him, which makes no sense because he’s faster than me. I think I talk too much. He says I talk the right amount. Kudos: 12
Activity #148 — July 15, 2021 Lockdown Loop 5.1 km | 26:02 | 5:06/km Again. But different this time. Not trapped. Just — returned to the known thing. Joel is in his 5km radius, I’m in mine. They don’t overlap. He’s 6.1km away. We checked. Kudos: 15 — J. Okoye
Activity #155 — August 5, 2021 Evening Run 5.1 km | 24:48 | 4:52/km Kudos: 4
Activity #156 — August 6, 2021 Morning Run 5.1 km | 24:22 | 4:46/km Kudos: 3
Activity #157 — August 6, 2021 Night Run 5.1 km | 25:55 | 5:05/km Curfew at 9pm now. Ran at 8. The park was full of people getting their hour in. Everyone running the same direction. Everyone running out of time. Kudos: 19
Activity #158 — August 7, 2021 Morning Run 5.1 km | 23:58 | 4:42/km Kudos: 2
Activity #171 — September 20, 2021 Morning Run 5.1 km | 27:15 | 5:20/km Haven’t written a description in six weeks. Haven’t run with Joel since the lockdown started. We talk on the phone. Talking on the phone is not the same thing. The loop is the same. I am running it faster than I ever have and I don’t think that’s a good thing. Kudos: 8
Activity #192 — November 5, 2021 Morning Run 5.1 km | 26:40 | 5:14/km Joel asked me to run the Tan instead. The Tan. 3.8km around the Botanic Gardens, different terrain, different people, different trees. I said I’d think about it. I’ve been thinking about it for three days. It shouldn’t be this hard. It’s a running track. But the loop is — I don’t know. The loop is where I know what happens. Kudos: 10
Activity #193 — November 7, 2021 The Tan Track — First Time 3.8 km | 21:14 | 5:35/km I went. It was beautiful — the river section, Anderson Street hill, the view of the city from the top. Joel was right. I hated that he was right. I hated that it felt like losing something. It’s a running track, Nadia. Kudos: 22 — J. Okoye: ”!!!”
Activity #194 — November 8, 2021 Morning Run 5.1 km | 27:02 | 5:18/km Back on the loop. Felt like coming home, which is either comforting or a problem. Kudos: 6
Activity #210 — January 3, 2022 Morning Run 5.1 km | 26:50 | 5:16/km Joel and I aren’t running together anymore. We’re still — I don’t know what we are. He says I use the loop like a wall. I said that’s not fair. He said it’s not unfair either. He’s 6.1km away and the distance is the same whether or not there’s a lockdown. Kudos: 7
Activity #211 — January 5, 2022 Morning Run 5.1 km | 25:04 | 4:55/km Kudos: 3
Activity #212 — January 5, 2022 Evening Run 5.1 km | 26:38 | 5:13/km Twice in one day. Haven’t done that since August. Kudos: 2
Activity #240 — March 14, 2022 Two Years 5.1 km | 25:20 | 4:58/km Two years. 240 loops. Dog man was there today. He has a puppy now — not a cattle dog, something small and golden. The old dog isn’t with him. He was walking slower. I waved. He waved back. Kudos: 14
Activity #298 — July 30, 2022 Morning Run 5.1 km | 24:58 | 4:54/km My housemate asked why I always run the same route. I said it’s not about the route. She said what’s it about then. I said I don’t know yet. She said “you’ve run it three hundred times and you don’t know?” I said that’s not as many as it sounds. Kudos: 5
Activity #341 — October 10, 2022 Morning Run 5.1 km | 24:30 | 4:48/km Ran past someone crying on the bench near the north end. The park holds everything. People grieve here and stretch here and walk dogs and push prams and sit on the grass with coffee. The loop takes me past all of it and doesn’t ask me to do anything about it. Kudos: 9
Activity #400 — February 14, 2023 Morning Run #400 5.1 km | 24:15 | 4:45/km 400. Strava says I’ve run 2,040km on this circuit. That’s Melbourne to Byron Bay in a straight line. I could’ve been in Byron Bay. I’m at Princes Park. Kudos: 27
Activity #412 — March 4, 2023 Morning Run 5.1 km | 25:30 | 5:00/km Ran into Joel. Not planned. He was on the loop — he moved to Carlton last month. Now it’s in his radius, he said, then laughed because there is no radius anymore and the joke doesn’t quite work but we both understood it. We ran a lap together. Easy pace. He didn’t say anything about walls. Kudos: 11 — J. Okoye
Activity #450 — May 20, 2023 Morning Run 5.1 km | 24:40 | 4:50/km The elms on the south side have been trimmed. The roots are still pushing up the path. You can fix the branches but the roots do what they do. I sounded like a fortune cookie just then. The loop makes me philosophical. Or maybe I was always philosophical and the loop gives me time to notice. Kudos: 6
Activity #500 — August 8, 2023 Loop #500 5.1 km | 23:48 | 4:40/km 500 laps of Princes Park. I know this place the way I know my own handwriting. I could run it blind. I know the camber near the cricket nets, the puddle that forms at the south-east corner after rain, the section where magpies swoop in September, the gap in the fence where people cut through to Rathdowne Street. I know the dog man. I know the woman who does tai chi at 6:15. I know the couple who argue while they walk and hold hands while they argue. None of them know my name. I know them the way you know weather — by showing up every day and paying attention. Kudos: 42
Activity #547 — October 14, 2023 Morning Run 5.1 km | 24:02 | 4:42/km Joel asked if I want to train for a half marathon together. I said yes. He said the training plan has routes that aren’t Princes Park. I said I know. He said are you sure. I said I’m sure. I think I’m sure. Kudos: 13 — J. Okoye
Activity #600 — December 28, 2023 Morning Run 5.1 km | 23:22 | 4:35/km I run other routes now. Beach Road. The Yarra trail. The Tan. I like them. They’re beautiful and different and I come home sore in new ways. But I come back here. Not because I need to. Not because I’m stuck. Because this is the loop that taught me to run, and the loop that taught me to stay, and the loop that taught me that staying and being stuck aren’t the same thing. I run it the way you’d visit someone you love. Not every day anymore. But enough. Kudos: 38
Activity #612 — February 3, 2024 Princes Park — Easy Pace 5.1 km | 27:45 | 5:26/km Ran with someone new today. She’s just started. Walked twice. I matched her pace without making it feel like matching. She said everything hurts. I said I know. Keep going. Kudos: 15
[Profile still active. 1,024 activities and counting.]