Scenes from my Sunday Run!

I am so happy I made the decision to postpone my Saturday 14k.  The weather today is so much more enjoyable.  I headed out the door around 8:30am and just over two hours later I returned, sweaty, sore and happy.  It was a tough run but a good one.  I passed many other runners, cyclists, walkers and animals while I was out there and a few of the encounters were interesting to say the least so I thought I would share:)

Encounter 1: Passing a church and the parking attendant says "Good Morning, May God lift you up and carry you home".  A nice comment except that I have a twisted sense of humor and instantly thought "Oh what?  You think I'm going to die out here and need God to intervene".  I know that isn't at all what he meant but I giggled anyway.

Encounter 2:  Running happily along the sidewalk because there were no bike lanes and the road was quite busy I approach a heavier young man.  Probably in his 20's (not that age matters but it gives you a picture).  He has big backpack on, headphones and sunglasses.  As I'm getting closer I think he is going to scooch over to make space for me to pass by but instead he shifts right to the centre of the sidewalk and grunts as I go past.  My response?  "I hope you have a fabulous day!!"

Encounter 3:  Same street just a little farther up there is a nursing home.  As I get closer a little old lady (picture tiny frame, white hair) with her walker get to the edge of the sidewalk and she stops to wait for me to pass.  As I approach she says "They tell me running is the best exercise you can get"  I say "I'm certainly hoping they are right (with a grin)"  She comes back with "Keep going and hopefully you won't need to use one of these pieces of shit"  I nearly fell off the sidewalk when that came out.  I giggled and assured her I would keep trying:)

Encounter 4: Older gentleman sees me running in the bike lane and asks if I'm trying to get hit by a car as he steps off the sidewalk to cross the sidestreet, in front of a car. He didn't get hit but my response (inside my head) was "No are you?"  Instead of saying that I just said no.

I had a couple of other minor encounters that I think are funny.  I had a Gu gel about half way through which tastes good but at that point in the run it is harder to stomach.  As I'm gagging that down and thinking don't barf someone came along and I had to say Hi to be polite.  Then closer to the end when I decided to try to gag down a date (again because I have a hard time eating while I run) a person comes along.  This time all I could do was nod and smile.

Lastly about 1k from home I was thinking about the distance and thought "Hey I just ran 2/3 of a 1/2 and the math geek in me thought that was hilarious!!!

That folks made for an entertaining and very enjoyable 14k run on a Sunday morning.