Sincerest sign of gratitude for Beijing's new air

For the first two days of the Olympics, things looked bad on the air front. Then after two big thunderstorms and the passage of a cold front, things have been nice! Confirming my oft-expressed optimism that it would all work out just in time.

And after 25 months and zero outdoors runs in China, I've gone for four- or five- mile runs three times in the last week! All this along a reasonably nice flagstoned path along the canal that is  just south of Tonghuihe North Road, between the old Beijing Train Station and the 4th Ring Road. (Only peril is migrant workers sleeping on shaded parts of the path during the day. I barely avoided planting my foot directly on one, in a dark underpass, today. I jumped over him at the last second and he didn't wake up.)

Previously I had praised the USATF.org site as a way to map running and bike routes. It turns out that MapMyRun.com works provides the same kind of mappable routes even in China! Ah this modern age. I'll keep this up as long as the good times last.