Thursday, June 5, 2014

Random thoughts about today's runs

I almost got hit by a car on my morning run today. It was a clear, sunny day with plenty of visibility, and I was wearing a bright blue tech shirt. But as I was crossing a side street (running along a big thoroughfare), a compact car started to pull out into a right turn. I guess the driver was still looking leftward when she began to move forward. In turn, I should have made sure I made eye contact with her before proceeding into the street. Fortunately she looked back and saw me just in time. Disaster averted!

The rest of the run went uneventfully. Apart from the one long uphill stretch, I was running at a sub-8:00 pace without feeling like I was pressing too hard.

That bright blue tech shirt I was wearing? It was a Columbia Sportswear Omni Freeze Zero shirt, which cools you off when you sweat. (Here's the science/engineering explanation of how it works.) It hasn't been hot enough here in the Pacific Northwest to put it to a serious test, but after that morning run, I think I did feel its cooling effect. It wasn't a big freeze, more like a subtle light cooling.

Then, after several hours on campus, I headed out for a short easy recovery run before picking my kids up at school. As I was walking into the building, a mom asked me, "Are you the burger guy?"

Huh?

"You get the burger with the extra veggie patty, right?"

Ah, that burger. It turns out that she's the ex-wife of the guy who used to be the main cook at the law school cafeteria. (He's since moved on to bigger and better things, to my taste buds' great dismay.) One day after a long run, I had asked him what he recommended for lunch that day. He suggsted an off the menu item, which was the regular cheeseburger with a veggie patty added to it for extra protein. Since then, that's been my "special" lunch item. Fortunately, he taught the remaining guys in the kitchen how to make it before he left.

Small world!

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