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As I left my house and started to run down the sidewalk, I said to myself, “Yes!  I am BACK!”  Then I thought, how many damn times have I been back?  Is there a point where one ought to be sheepish rather than triumphant?  Perhaps so. In any case, here is a Running Commentary in lieu of my usual Tired Tuesday.

I have observed many times that people who go on about their health ills are tiresome. I was feeling tiresome today, and tired of being tiresome.  I have many things I need to accomplish, some of them before tomorrow, but I decided to run anyways. I need to be physically active.  I need to lose weight.  I sternly told myself to do this one thing for me.  I know, that’s kind of a crock.  I do a lot of things for me, which is why I’m behind on all those other things I need to accomplish.  Still, I made up my mind to run.

One reason to run is that it was BEAUTIFUL!  The temperature was at least in the 50s.  I didn’t check, but it was delightful to be out running in shorts and short sleeves. Even my hands didn’t get cold. Most of the sidewalks were bare.  I leaped over or ran around any mud.  I soon attained a comfortable pace.  I felt it was slightly faster than my usual shuffle.  I pretended to myself it was the gazelle-like lope I sometimes see the young people do, but I knew it really wasn’t.  No matter.  I was enjoying it.

I decided where to run based on avoiding pedestrian and not crossing busy streets.  I turned one way rather than run into two teenage girls.  I wanted to avoid that awkward   feeling of do I go left or right?  Should I say hello? I almost always say hello. I found myself a block and a half behind a man.  Then a block.  At half a block he got to a corner.  I thought, “If he crosses the street, I’ll turn.  If he turns, I’ll cross the street.”  He crossed the street.

This had me headed down Main Street.  Lots of people on Main Street.  Why was I feeling so unsociable today?  I don’t know, but I turned onto Church.  It was really not a problem to run. Breathing was OK, legs didn’t hurt.  I didn’t use these words at the time, but I see now that I was rocking it!

As I ran down Caroline Street, a boy passed me on a bicycle.  As I was looking at his chubby legs and thinking it would be unkind to mention their chubbiness in the blog, the little jerk turned around and gave me the finger!  As I stared at him, flabbergasted, he did it again, with a big nasty grin, making sure I saw it!  Now I know enough not to take these things personally.  He probably had just learned the gesture and was trying it out.  I wondered if possibly he was psychic and knew I was thinking he had chubby legs.  Now I think maybe he had gotten picked on at school for his chubby legs and this was his way of making himself feel better. At any rate, you see that I have gotten my petty revenge by mentioning his chubby legs in my blog post.  How unkind of me.  He had chubby hands, too.

Two young men were a couple of blocks ahead of me as I turned down Park Avenue.  They turned around and looked at me. Was I making that much noise?  I didn’t think I was huffing and puffing.  A few minutes later, they looked back again.  What the hell?  Did I look weird?  They crossed the street to go through Meyers Park.  I had intended to go through the park but turned up Bellinger Street instead.  I didn’t need those guys giving me the finger as well.

A man was doing yard work.  I was just about to say I had to do that too, when he said, “The weather sure is cooperating for a run!”

“Oh, it sure is,” I said. “I’m loving it!”

I was loving it.  I hope the weather cooperates again on Thursday so I can repeat the experience.  Perhaps without the rude chubby-legged boy.