Tuesday, February 08, 2011

So this morning I am jogging at a relatively brisk pace in this brisk cold, while listening to EPMD's Crossover. I had to volume up loud enough to I could enjoy it, but not so loud that I couldn't hear cars or someone run up next to me--or so I thought.

I was running down one street in particular, when I felt the presence of someone behind me, and I glanced back, and saw a group of about 4 or 5 runners who were clearly running faster than I was. I moved to the side of the sidewalk in anticipation of them passing me, and then I kept looking forward and running. My plan was to let them pass, and then cross to the other side of the street so I wouldn't have to look at how fast they were running. Clearly this was a group of elite long distance runners and I wanted no parts of them. But the leader of the pack had different ideas, because as he got next to me, he tapped me on my shoulder. Now in my mind, I had fully prepared for this group to run by, so when he touched me, I was legitimately started, and I swung my elbow backwards. I didn't make any contact with this guy, but he did start yelling, "What the f**k?", and eventually all of us stopped running.

The guy explained to me that he was just going to ask if I wanted to run with he and his group, and said no, I apologized to him, and then I explained that when its 6am, and dark outside, touching is not the way to go. Then he told me I needed to calm down, and it was not like we were in a bad neighborhood, and honestly at that point, I wanted to mush backhand him. I apologized to the guy again, and then I crossed the street and resumed my run..but I had questions...

1)Who goes around recruiting runners DURING a run? What kind of sense does that make, or is this a new trend I'm not familiar with?

2) Why would you think its ok to touch someone with headphones while they are running in the dark at 6am? That's how people get punched, elbowed and maimed..he's lucky my aim was bad

3)Was this my fault for having the volume on my ipod up to high? I'm answering my own question there..in the 3 years I've been running, I've never had this happen, and I keep the volume at a relatively low level. I'm blameless here...maybe I shouldn't have thrown an elbow, but hey, I didn't know what was going on..

4)Its not like this is a bad neighborhood? We live in DC, there are bad parts, and there are better parts, but no area is immune to crime--especially at 6am.

Anyway..I shall end this entry with another Kurt Elling hype session. I have sung Mr. Ellling's praises many time on this blog, and I'm pretty sure none of you have taken my advice and bought any of his work, because if you did, I'd have gotten some feedback. I forgive you all for that, because today his new work, entitled, "The Gate" comes out, and I am telling you now that it is a fine piece of work (I bought it last night). He covers a Stevie Wonder song (Golden Lady), a Miles Davis song (Blue in Green), a Herbie Hancock song (Come Running To Me), and a Joe Johnson song (Steppin' Out). It is romantic, melodic, soothing, and I think you should buy it.

2 comments:

Jazzbrew said...

I don't run but it makes NO sense to me to interrupt someone during their workout to see if you want to join them. He doesn't know where you're going, what your goals are or anything.

So no, I don't think you need to relax. I'm sure there is some cat somewhere who got robbed or assaulted and wished he had thrown elbows first and asked questions later.

Me said...

that was a seinfeld moment and I laughed.