Just run in 2019 Amazing Stories!

People are such peculiar beings! So I ran a 10k this morning (which i will get to recapping in just a few) in this nearby, Norwegian-ish themed town. Also, btw, I’m super Norweigian on both sides of the family, all 4 grandparents’ parents got on the boat “because the grass must be greener in a land we’ve never explored!” and emigrated to the great USofA. ANYWHO. So ADHD. After I got to one of the nearby public parking lots by the start/finish line this morning, I walked down to pick up my race number/t-shirt. As I was walking on the sidewalk, I was randomly gazing into the shop windows as I passed them. Thinking about how awesome it is that it’s not raining, even if there’s a nippy chill in the air. And all of a sudden this old dude and his dog come up from behind me and run past me. Great, but as they were passing me, the old dude was like “Pick a side and stay with it, lady! Geeze!” First of all, ain’t no one allowed to call me “lady” in that tone of voice EVER. This is not the first time a disgruntled male stranger has used it in that tone when communicating with me. So now I subconsciously have super negative associations connected to the word.

Anyway, I guess I wasn’t walking a perfectly straight line as I was gazing into the windows. I also wasn’t weaving around like a drunk person, and I didn’t hear him or his dog coming until they were literally right there. There was no malicious intent on my part, but he was so....affected....by it. Like, can you imagine living your life that way, where the littlest inconvenience like that has you speaking to other people so poorly?

Also, after the race I walked back to the parking lot to get back in my car and warm up before setting off on the drive home. Unfortunately I picked one of the spots you first see as you enter the lot. Apparently someone saw that I’d just started my vehicle and was waiting for me to pull out so they could have my spot. This person didn’t even enter the lot to look for other places. He literally started honking at me with his car sitting half still in the road/half in the parking lot. Like what the eff is up with people today?

While on the course, a female runner got upset with a volunteer course monitor for doing her job. The course monitor stopped traffic so that this runner could cross the road. That is exactly what a course monitor is supposed to do. This 50-60ish year old lady was like “I’m not going to cross the road when there are cars here!” It was an out and back course, and I got to witness this as she was still going out, and I was coming back in.

Are all of these people just a greater representation of the area in which the race was held? A lot of old white people live in this town. It reminds me of my hometown but with more people and a lot more money. Isn’t running supposed to make people happy and appreciative of the things their body can do? I’m not one who normally is like “Damn do I have the best positive attitude ever!” when comparing myself to others, but boy were there some grumpers out there this morning.

The actual run was great! I recognized a few people from the running club on Wednesday, but I didn’t know if they recognized me, so I awkwardly avoided eye contact. If I were a more confident person, I would have reintroduced myself in a “Hey I met you wednesday at the group run!” sort of way, but I did not. There were some people from kickboxing though that I met up with, so it was neat to see familiar faces who I confidently knew that they would know who I am lol. Now I gotta got back to the group run on Wednesday feeling extra awkward in case they did recognize me.

I did get my best 10k time ever. The kickboxing really is a great workout for me and has improved my cardio. My official time was 58 mins and 53 secs with a pace of 9:29 min/mi. I’ll gladly accept that. I hope you are all having a great, patient, happy sort of day.