cars & runners

My feet have found my running shoes once again.  It's been nice to get in a few runs here and there.  I'm still pretty sporadic, but I'm also trying to slowly build back up so that I can train for an EPIC relay that my cousin got me into.  (More about that another day.)

I'm going to vent for a minute.  I am so tired of people in cars who DO NOT LOOK for pedestrians/runners!  Earlier this week there were probably about 5 cars that did not see me.  I was definitely in their line of sight, I make sure of that, no they just weren't paying attention.  One of the cars that day was driving south, I was running north, and I definitely had the right of way to finish crossing the street (I was 3/4 of the way across the intersection) and the driver veers over onto the shoulder and cuts the corner barely missing me.  (Seriously????)  This morning I was right in FRONT of a woman who decided to keep turning her corner.  I had my arms up waving at her, and had to run into the middle of the street.  Still not sure if she saw me or not.

When I run, I don't run on the sidewalk and hide from the cars.  I run on the shoulder in-between the sidewalk and the bike path.  I also run AGAINST traffic.  If I see a car approaching a corner that I am coming up to, I slow down, make eye contact and then decide if I can proceed or not.  So my question is, who are these people who SEE me, have slowed down enough, looked in my direction, made eye contact with me, can see that they might have to wait 7 seconds before turning a corner, who STILL decide that they are going to go when I am in their path?

People, OPEN your EYES!!!  Get OFF of your PHONES!!!  One of these days, one of you is going to hit a runner like me.  I don't need to be given a heart attack each time I go out for a run.

I have now stepped off of my soap box.

THANK YOU to each of you who sees the runner, waits for the runner, waves the runner on, and is AWARE of your surroundings.  I appreciate each of you.