Cars and Bikes

ok, i'm an aging runner. many of my ilk have gone over to the "dark side"...they now ride bicycles. there seems to be a subtle mindshift that takes place when one hunkers down on that skinny little seat, dons the helmut and dark glasses, the tight colorful suits...and just basically says...GET THE F#CK OUT OF MY WAY! i can say this cause i've been there, done the bike thing, and didn't think much of the bodies littering the bike path. a torn rotator cuff is the only reason i'm running and not biking and swimming as backup.

running...i'm stuck with it.

but back to bikers. i respect the ones who were former runners, now forced into it. i respect the speed demons who live the tour de france in their minds. i concede that biking is a great exercise and for runners, a great cross training vehicle. what makes me crazy is the *attitude*. i've been yelled at for running in the bike path zone on the road. well...HELLO...should i run in the middle of the road? there is NO sidewalk out here. running in the pre-dawn hours, i do run in the middle of the road...and the bike veers way around me in the other lane...altho i've deliberately left the bike lane clear. i run with a red blinking light on my ankle...but fast moving bikes explode behind me with no warning...and no headlights. scares me to death. [on an aside...while recently in toronto on a bike path...all approaching bikes tinkled a little bell...it was awesome!] so bikers...learn to share the road. i'm trying. just cause you're on a bike doesn't mean you have to be a jerk.

and then there are the cars...hey, it's 5:00 a.m. why bother to stop at a stop sign? no one out here, nosiree. oops...was that a person out running at this hour?

well, maybe i'm being mean and negative, but we all have to learn to co-exist out here.

Dark Days

I came to California from a place where summers were too hot and humid to do much more than float in a pool and winters meant snowmen and ice skating and crackling fires. After 25 years of living on the left coast I have come to love the fact that the temperatures never fluctuate much more than 15 degrees all year and changing seasons are marked by a dimming of light rather than the dropping of leaves. There may be four seasons each year, but as a morning runner, I only have two - the light days and the dark days.

Well, of course I prefer those mornings where I can watch the sky turn pearlescent and with the rising sun, feel the promise of a good day ahead. But those dark days have their appeal as well. As I head out the door at 5:00 a.m., I may step into a morning that is lit by a brilliant full moon and stars that positively crackle overhead. I look for planets and constellations and falling stars as I run next to the ocean...the breaking surf like sparkling diamonds in the moonlight. I'm always a wee bit nervous out here in the dark, I read too many books about serial killers. I steer clear of any parked vehicles and small adrenaline rushes make me pick up my pace. I try to stay focused on the silhouette of a four point buck on the sand dune up ahead or the mournful cries of the owl in the woods. I never worry about my footing on this road I've traversed for nearly 30 years...it's like a groove worn in the asphalt, i know each manhole and speed bump and pothole. Mostly I try not to dwell on the resident mountain lion that moved to town about two years ago. I'm a small moving target, and it's a cat...and well...best not to go there.

It's nearly September now and soon the balmy mornings will cool and the darkness will deepen. I'll adorn my ankles with red blinking lights, mostly to alert the crazy cyclists that seem hellbent in running me over. I won't be able to run in the woods much longer, I'm not quite that crazy, but some mornings, when there's no moon and the air is thick with fog, it's like running in a vacuum, like I'm on a treadmill almost. Spooky.

The dark days are upon me once again. Funny how that just keeps happening each year...
The part of me that yearns for the light remembers that the best part about this time of year are long Sunday runs when I can come home to the four "F's"...fire, food, football and friends.

I'll go into rainy days later...