A jogger who stopped near the Strand beachfront promenade at approximately 7h20 on Sunday morning to “catch his breath for a moment and just think” has, as of press time, not resumed running. He is still there. He is sitting on a low wall. He has the look of a man who started with one question and arrived at several larger ones before his heart rate had fully recovered.
Passersby have given him a respectful distance, as one tends to do in these situations along the Strand promenade, where the sea and the mountain and the morning light occasionally collaborate to produce an effect that makes stopping feel entirely reasonable.
He arrived in running shoes, a technical shirt with a small logo on the chest and earphones, one of which has since been removed. His app, which tracks his route, has recorded 3.2 kilometres run and then a stationary period of what is now approaching considerable length. The app has sent him two notifications asking if he has paused his workout. He has not responded to the app.
A woman walking past asked if he was all right. He said he was fine, thank you, just thinking. She nodded and continued walking. He watched the sea for a while. Then the mountain. Then the sea again. There appears to be no resolution imminent. His car is parked nearby and he will presumably return to it when something shifts, internally or externally, though the sea has not indicated it is in any hurry.
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