Today I got in a nice, steady, short run of 6.3 miles (I know I probably over use the .whatever in my distance tracking but when you haven't broken the 10 mile mark, every step counts!) It was a good, uneventful run...no deer or horse-dog sitings. But, some random woman pulled over to ask me for directions. I have a few issues with this (yes, once again, it's list time):
1. I was at about mile 2 at this particular moment and for me, there is a very big mental aspect about my running for the first couple of miles. I hate the first two miles. Hate them. No matter if I'm on a short run or a long run or even running to the beer store, I hate the first two miles. I pretty much always want to quit. Once I get past the 2 to 2 1/2 mile mark, I'm fine and dare I say it, even start to have a good time. But before that, don't talk to me. Don't even look at me or I will either stop, cry, yell or curse. This woman not only looked at me but she talked to me AND asked me for directions!
2. There is a section of my neighborhood run that involves me running on a pretty busy street. The path just stops and you have to run in the street for about a 1/2 mile until the path starts back up. I don't like this part of my run for the already mentioned reason of it taking place during the first 2 miles and because the cars fly down this street. It's pretty stressful so I typically try to run it pretty fast. Well don't you know that this is when the woman pulled over to ask me for directions.
3. I don't care if I'm at mile 1, 6 or 8, please don't make me stop. If I stop, I run the risk of not starting back up again. She made me stop, remove my ear bud (and for all the head shakers out there, when I am running on this part of the street, I have my music turned way down and am making eye contact with every driver so please don't tell me I'm going to get plowed over because I have my iPod on.) and say "Wha???" so she says "Were is the hospital?" Guess what? If she had looked in her rear view mirror, she would have seen this very tall building and a large red sign that reads EMERGENCY and she would probably have even been able to see the freaking helipad. So. Because of already mentioned reasons, I snapped "There! Geesh!" while pointing at the hospital behind her and shoving my ear bud back in and resuming my shuffle/sprint down the street.
About a minute later, once the path started up again and I could slow down and I was past that very important 2.5 mile mark, the guilts kicked in. I felt like crap. Maybe she was going to see her sick mother! Or her sick kid! She didn't look particularly worried or rushed or anything, but it's possible! Why did I have to be such a sow? The guilts went on and on but guess what? Next thing I knew, I was at mile 4! Excellent.
3 comments:
OH MY GOSH YOU ARE SO RUDE!!!! No, seriously, I hate when people do that. Can they not see by the grumpy red sweaty face and the huffing and puffing that it is not the time to stop you for some pleasantries? And besides, what made her think you even knew where the hospital was?
Good job on the 4 miles. (Was it 4.something? Or exactly 4?)
I'm with you on this!
I've noticed it's always women who ask (not that it's a major revelation that mostly women ask for directions). I think female drivers concerned about safety think a woman running is the least likely to do a lost driver harm. Little do they know!
ha ha, that's so funny! don't talk to me either while i'm running. and i always say it takes my body 3 miles before it realizes it's OFF THE COUCH.
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