wake up? really??

I woke up early this morning to meet my running group. My goal was to meet the 6:30 group, and instead I made it for the 7:00 group. They were mostly Team in Training alumni and they were going to run 7 miles (I wanted to add a couple onto that to complete my workout.)

I did take along the trusty new Garmin (which I love) and we completed our loop. When I finished, there was another girl who wanted to get in a couple of miles, and I told her my plans and we set off towards UNC-Asheville. The road is a straight shot from the park – one mile to the end of Weaver Blvd. and we could turn around (or run another mile to Richmond Hill Inn and turn.) About halfway down Weaver, we were going over a crosswalk, when a bicyclist crossed (just behind us) and he muttered, “wake up.” Like WE WERE IN HIS WAY. I turned around to see that HE had the bright neon yellow sign for the pedestrian crossing, and to see the sign that said “YIELD” to pedestrians.

My running partner said, “really? wake up?”

Um. Yeah. Last I saw, we totally had the right of way, we were on a walking path and he was in the road.

If cars have the decency to yield to runners and walkers, I think the same goes for bicyclists who are supposed to obey the rules of the road. Needless to say, I was pumped for the rest of our run. We didn’t get run over by any cars, and the other runners and bicyclists were very nice (and courteous.)

Wake up. I’ll show him how to wake up.

In other running news, I think I’ve been sold on the Kiawah Marathon. I can raise the money for Team in Training and get a discount if they don’t pay for the hotel (I’ve also already checked into rentals near the course. I can get some pretty great deals.) My 9-mile run today has shown me that I’m not quite ready to get into the full-on training for the October race. And Kiawah is FLAT!! How awesome would it be to PR on a course like that? And without the heat (since it’s in December)? It’s like a dream come true.

I’ll keep you updated on the marathon front. I have a couple of questions for TNT and I hope to hear back on Monday.

For now, I’m going to avoid major roads and angry bicyclists.