Current mood:

peaceful

The Fraternal (& Sororital?) Order Of Runners
After some nice warm weather up here in chi-town we're having a mini cold snap. Mid-40s for the last few days continuing into next week. All the warm-weather athletes have retreated indoors, but I can't say that I mind having the lakefront path be empty again. You know that the people who are out in the drizzle at 40 degrees are serious about what they're doing. They mean business, whether they're walking, run-walking, or running intervals. They know what they want and they're going to get it done, weather be d@#$-ed.

Yesterday afternoon I went for my run and that is exactly what I saw. A lakefront path empty but for a single cyclist and a few people out for a run or walk. About 200m before my turnaround I passed a runner going the other direction. I watched him for a minute and decided that he was moving at what looked to be just a little bit slower than my pace. By the time I turned around he was a little more than 400m in front of me. I watched him around a few turns, and slowly the distance between us lessened. I wasn't trying to catch him, not really, it was just something I watched happen to pass the time. I did catch him, and nodded as I passed by.

Now here is the thing, this guy was a runner. Obviously so. And a lot of guys would have gone on an ego trip when passed on an uphill by a female. Put on a spurt of speed and just try to stay in front of me. He didn't. He just picked up his pace and started running next to me. Not to race, or challenge. He just joined me. We simply ran together. He would outpace me for a few seconds, and then we would switch places, but it wasn't a fight. For a mile we ran this way in silence. No words spoken, and none needed. Then he hit his turnaround, and as he left we exchanged a slight nod, a little wave. That was it, but the whole interchange struck me.

Maybe I'm too new to biking to completely understand the rules, but there seems to be so much less of a bond between two bikers passing each other on a trail and two runners doing the same thing. I have never passed somebody on a bike and had them come up and start riding next to me. Maybe cyclists want to be in a line, not two abreast. But I've had people join me to suck my wheel but they never pull. And swimming, even when you share a lane, is so solitary. Your face in the water, hearing nothing but the sound of your kick, your stroke, your breath. No time to chat.

But there is something special between runners. An common thread from feeling pull of a sport so many people would consider punishment. 'Yes,' we nod to each other, 'I understand.'