It's been a little while since I last posted. I'll blame this on two things: one, I'm lazy and busy and haven't been bothered to post, and two, base training is boring (to write and read about). That being said, as this marks the end of base training, I figured I'd write a brief highlighting of the last few weeks of training.
0. I've now succesfully run 2 70ish mile weeks in a row. Go me! Last weekend and this weekend both had a medium-long (last weekend, a half marathon, this weekend, 14 miles at 7:10 pace) harder runs on Saturday followed by easy long runs Sunday (17 last week, 20 this week). It kind of feels like I may have forgotten how to run for 3 hours, but I guess I'll get back to it eventually :)
1. I got hit by a CMU golf cart, which impeded my mileage increasing beyond 60something miles 3 weeks ago.
This is only vaguely related to training. I felt like crap for a couple of days (I was really sore and kind of bruised), but I mostly wanted an excuse to briefly write about the incident (which, in hindsight, is humorous).
I had just finished a nice run with the Bald One through Schenley park. I was off to have dinner with a friend, and hopped on my bike outside the University Center. I rode along the path between the UC and the parking garage. I was riding slowly, since there are often other bicyclists and pedestrians in the area. The path intersects with another piece of path at a 90' angle, the inside of which is full of a large, overgrown bush. I entered into the intersection, aiming to turn left, when I was attacked from the side by a vicious motorized cart driven by a red-faced Yinzer.
He hit my left side and my bicycle, which caused me to topple over with some force. I was then somewhat pinned to the cement by my bicycle and the weight of my backpack. The Yinzer immediately jumps off his cart and hears me screaming "Jesus! Holy Shit!" (I am in shock, and didn't at this point intend any blasphemies). His kneejerk response is "It wasn't my fault!" Given the fact that I was freaking the fuck out, and swearing and crying and clearly out of it, but was able to focus on what he'd said well enough to give him a death glare, he decided to shut his trap. It was all I could do to not scream at him "Well, whose fault was it, then? If I'd run into you I wouldn't be blaming you! Also I'm hurt and freaking out; do you think we can wait on making me feel guilty about this until after I calm down a bit?"
The Bald One comes sprinting over as soon as he saw what happened. There were pretty quickly about 6 CMUPD officers standing around, asking me, TBO, and the crazed driver of the souped-up gocart questions. There were pretty quickly EMT or medic-ish people there, checking me out and saying they were going to take me to the hospital. Once I'd figured out that I was banged up but likely had not broken any bones, I requested that they not send me to the hospital. I also asked if I could stand up: everyone was towering over me and it felt super uncomfortable.
I heard the driver say "There should be a stop sign there!", which caused me to throw another nasty look his way. Is that corner poorly kept and a safety hazard? Yes. Do you get to justify the entire accident on that, rather than going too quickly and not being careful enough? No. He came over towards me and (for the first time, at least 20 minutes after this all happened), said, "I'm sorry. Here, let me give you a backrub" and started rubbing my shoulders for about 1 second. He either got the impression that I was very much not ok with that, or that the police all started looking at him, and stopped. Later, TBO told me that the police officer he was talking to said to him, "If he doesn't stop touching her this second I'm going to fucking tase him." (I would have enjoyed this).
Anyway, long story long, I'm fine. But that guy's kind of a dick and CMU has some real deficiencies in its campus (for safety and aesthetic reasons, that bush should either not be there or be much trimmed back).
2. We ran Decker's Creek again!
Not much to say here, other than that it was at least as fun as last year. We went out, camped, ran, drank, and were merry. A good time was had by all. I ran an ok 1:24:05, which given the 80' heat and humidity, I'll take.
3. Real training starts this week and I'm in Seattle!
Enough said!
No comments:
Post a Comment