More on Oxford Running

If you continue running beyond the Oxford University Parks, you will find yourself amongst the Oxford countryside. Wooded trails might lead you alongside the Thames or perhaps around the circumference of an old corn field. (Wheat fields are known as corn fields in England! Don’t ask me why…). The mornings in Oxford tend to be peaceful and still. Locals walk their dogs, go for a jog, or carry tin lunch pails on their way to work. On a side note, it was so interesting to see people actually walking to work. In America, it seems that everyone drives everywhere—even a 5 minute trip to the grocery store is likely to involve a car. In England, public transportation, or better yet, your own two feet, is the best way to get you from A to B.
By running on these country trails, I am starting to get a feeling for the Oxford landscape that Matthew Arnold was referring to in “The Scholar Gipsy.” It seems that once you get outside the hustle and bustle of downtown, the landscape hasn’t changed much. There’s still the “Oxford towers” in the distance, the “punt’s rope” by the “glittering Thames,” the “light in Christ-Church hall,” and “tall grasses and white flowering nettles.” In fact, I had a little run-in with some nettles at the park. It so happens that just beyond the bridge at the park is a nasty patch of stinging nettles. My legs did not respond very favorably to the Oxford nettle greeting. Thankfully, the sting does fade a lot quicker than the itch of poison ivy.
Another interesting fact about the countryside around Oxford is the presence of cattle grids and cattle gates. If you want to run from one field to the next, you are almost certainly going to have to open and close a gate or hop daintily across a large metal cattle grid. The gates are pretty entertaining—each one seems to have it’s own special latch in order to open it. The grids, on the other hand, are extremely annoying. While one can walk across a grid with little fear of injury, running across one would more than likely lead to a twisted ankle or a broken foot. So, just like the cows, I tend to avoid the cattle grids.