Evening is definitely my least favorite time to run. I will even run during my second least favorite time - morning - to avoid it. Evenings in my house are sacred. Being married to a chef, even a 'grab and growl' meal thrown together from leftovers deserves to have both of us eat at the same time and frequently involves wine. Also, regularly traveling for work has given me a guilt-complex around not being in the same room with my hubby when I am home. Plus, the treadmill just seems all the drearier when the only thing I can see out the picture window is pitch darkness.
So, I shoot for afternoons, quick-changing into running gear as soon as I walk in the door. During this time, the treadmill looks out on the woods with setting sunlight filtering through the trees. Afternoons are also the only time I can really run outside in winter. I love running outdoors, but I usually only get to do it once a week. Since I run in a nearby neighborhood - one of those cookie cutter jobs with a perfect mile long loop - it is always entertaining. For instance, last week I was sort of attacked by a dog. Really just scratched and snarled at, but I yelled profanity at the owner who turned out to be a little girl who rode her bike up to me a few minutes afterward to apologize. I was in turns terrified, infuriated and mortified - but not bored.
On another occasion, an elderly gentleman who I had seen walking around my same loop, decided to speed-walk race me for part of a lap. The funniest part, for me, was that I run so slow that he actually did outpace me. However, he only lasted for about 100 ft. until he reached his yard and hurried through his front door, leaving me to picture him collapsing in a coughing heap on the other side. Good times.
So now, with the next two weeks off work (working in the education industry does have its perks), I plan to maximize my outdoor running time. The neighborhood kids are out of school, all of the extended family members are in town. All good fodder for running entertainment. And even if my husband is fairly disinterested in hearing about my growing distances and shrinking times, he does enjoy my dog attack and elderly speed-walker stories.
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I'm proud - and more than a little envious - of you. I fondly remember ditching PE with you any time running was even hinted at. I've - sort of - begun walking 5Ks. I'm seriously out of shape and chronic back problems and migraines tend to keep me from working out (like today I can barely walk to the bathroom...) but I will look to you for inspiration, because although you were always in better shape than me and certainly grew up to be a healthier individual, I still remember our awkward, exercise-hating tween years.
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