It has been several years since I put in those long miles during a run. I ran for 20 years or so and covered a lot of miles. I was reminded of this the other day as I was shopping. A person I didn’t recognize came up to me and asked if I still ran around town. It took me back to the fact that when you are one person out on the road and covering most of the city it is easy to see why so many people will see you. When I trained for a marathon my route was to run to Hunter and back; then take off down Aqua Rena Springs to the Holiday Inn; head down the access road to the Little League Ball Park; turn on San Antonio Street and head back home for a nice 22 mile training run. I never thought much about it, but when this person asked if I still ran, it occurred to me that between a county road and city streets a lot of people probably caught a glimpse of me.
The difficult part of this exchange is that he seemed to know my name, where I ran in town, and talked to me like we were old acquaintances. I am not that good at remembering names as it is and over the years knowing people’s names without some reference to where we met is becoming more of a problem. It gets embarrassing when I meet a former student and they introduce me to their parent. I greet the parent and then they proceed to tell me that they had me as a professor when they were in school. It is bad enough that I may not remember the student, but when you can’t remember the parent you know you are getting old.
It is easier now that I do more walking than running. That gives me a chance to see who is honking, or yelling, at me as they go by since I have more time to glance up at the person. When I recall my running days and a car drove by, a honk on the horn, a wave of the hand out the window, and a “Hey, Moe”, and I tried to catch a quick glimpse of the source. If the car is distinctive and I recognize it I have a good idea of who was calling my name. But, it seems to me that there are a lot of cars that look very similar and most have those darkened windows.
It got tougher when you were several miles into a run on a hot day and your eyes are down looking for pennies imbedded in the asphalt of the road. You hear this honk and try to catch a quick glimpse of a speeding car with this hand stuck out the window waving to you. Now that I do more walking, and my eyes are usually looking ahead, my chance of seeing the car from some distance away helps and there is a good chance I might see who is driving. The hard part is that in the hot summer months most cars have the windows rolled up with the air conditioning on and those tinted windows still make it difficult to identify the driver.
Hopefully I will meet them at some location and they mention that they saw me walking the other day. It is then that I know who the driver was that honked at me. Once in a while you get a runner who has shared the same problem of trying to identify a driver as they pass by and they understand to problem. They will roll down the window, slow down, and give you time to return the greeting. Some of them even roll down the passenger side window, lean over a bit, and let you catch a glimpse of them as they drive by. I am not quite that energetic to lean over a bit, but I will roll the window down and slow up as I honk at the runner or walker.
I guess it really doesn’t make much difference if you recognize the driver as long as you wave back and give them a friendly smile and try to remember what the back end of the car looked like for future reference. It helps when you meet them at some location and they start a conversation. At least you have a topic to talk about since they saw you out running or walking and are runners themselves.
The problem is not as bad as it has been in the early days of my running because with the stay at home advice there are not as many cars out on the road. With fewer cars, the chance of meeting someone who knows you is not as great.
And if it wasn’t for that chance encounter, and a question about my running, the memory of past running days and trying identify drive by cars would not have happened.
