Several years ago, I was in my car attempting make a right turn onto a very busy two lane road. I was on a small side road and numerous shopping center parking lots had exits to the same two lane road I had my sights set on. Cars were in motion everywhere. Finally I caught an opening in traffic and took one more glance to my left to be sure the situation had not changed. As I let my foot off the brake to negotiate my turn, a runner ran in front of me.
My heart jumped to my throat and I hit my brakes immediately. The runner didn’t slow down but gave me a very irritated look. I don’t know where this runner came from or how I missed him, but I did. I have never forgotten the incident. I wanted to jump out of the car and throttle him. My thoughts at the time were “Make Sure I See You Before You Run In Front Of My Car, Do Not Assume That I See You.” Assumptions can be fatal, in work or workouts.
As a runner now, I will not, under any circumstance, run in front of a car at an intersection unless I have made eye contact with the driver and know that he/she sees me. This effort has resulted in me making a fool out of myself on several occasions, jumping and waving at drivers who are not paying attention but I receive a lot of smiles and gracious waves from drivers motioning me on.
The above incident was very much on my mind this morning as I headed out for my run. I left from the house and put the neighborhood behind me quickly. Looping the same route a time or two was not going to do it. Distance is what I needed today, between me and the front door. The longer the run away, the longer the run home (or the walk home if my body won the battle over my mind). A longer run also meant I would be negotiating some two lane roads and many, many intersections.
I had my iPod in one ear and my other ear listening to the sounds around me. Depending on the circumstances, I tuned into the music or tuned it out. I ran on sidewalks, through parking lots and on the road. I found a perfect dirt foot path along a very busy 2 lane road, a path I had never noticed before. I heard birds chirping, lawn mowers running and lots of traffic. I had a really good time!
Toward the end, my body starting complaining and I worried about walking but I didn’t walk. I did enjoy the stops at several busy intersections where I grabbed a couple of seconds of rest while waiting on lights and I did a few wild arm waves at drivers who weren’t paying attention (all resulted in smiles and friendly waves). Finally the reward, I made it home. My time? 1.30.10. Since I have have no way of measuring the run, we will call it 7 miles. This will account for my pace (think 100 year old runner) at the end. This is my longest run (time wise) in the past 10 years.
I did get hungry during the run and am thinking about trying some of the goo things for runs over an hour. I also got thirsty. Will have to work out something with hydration as really warm, humid weather is not too far away.
Run: 1.30.10 minutes, 12.87 mmp (maybe), 7 miles (at least)
