I like daylight savings. It is great during the summer when the sun is out until 9:00 at night, but the one drawback is when I go running first thing on Saturday mornings. I like to get out on the trails at breaking dawn...oh sorry, that is a silly book...at the dawn's early light. It is awesome that a few miles from my house I can run on a river trail as the geese, ducks and other birds are waking up. I even saw a group of about seven deer the other morning. With the recent time change it means that when I head out on the trails it is still dark for about 20-30 minutes. I don't stress too much about a mountain lion mauling me for breakfast...really my only concern is about stepping in goose poop or dog feces that idiot people don't clean up after.
Now, there is a new threat out on the trails. As I headed out on Saturday I was no more than a half mile into my run when I see another person running towards me. No big deal, there are lots of runners out here, just not that many when it is still dark outside. As I approach him he immediately turns around and starts running with me. We exchange pleasant good mornings and I slow up a little bit to let him go ahead, but then he slows up, so I speed up, and then he speeds up. He then asks if it is OK if he runs with me because he is scared to run in the river bottoms by himself in the dark. I think "Should I sucker punch this freak now?" I agree and we keep going down the trail. He asks me if by chance my name is Kris. I think "who in the hell is this guy." He said he met a Chris out here last fall. I emphasized that it wasn't me because I wasn't running last fall. We continue talking and he brings up his wife and how 14 months ago she couldn't even walk, but now with this product Reliv, she is starting to run again. I don't think anything about it other than he is excited that his wife can walk again. My biggest concern is that he is slowing me way down keeping me above a 10:00 mile pace. He is gasping for air during the conversation, which is somewhat entertaining to me, so I pick up the pace to see just how fast we will need to go to get him to quit talking. The faster pace, a steep hill and the sun appearing on the horizon did the trick. He finally gasped a thank you and then offered me his card and told me again how great Reliv is for rebuilding muscles after a workout.
Seriously??? At 6:30 in the morning this guy is out peddling product. I can't blame the guy for trying, especially in these economic times, but I had to run 18 miles on Saturday and he made the first 3 miserable. Maybe I will have to throw in a sucker punch next time.
