Archive for March 1st, 2008

Yesterday, I did an easy 8. About a mile into my run, I was passed by a homeless-looking guy wrapped up in thick layers of non-running apparel, none of it fit and his sweatpants were about 6 sizes too big, so the crotch hung well down below his knees. Once he passed, we kept the same pace going, so I was able to watch him for about a mile, until he peeled off to stop and deal with his clothing.

It was so sad/weird the things that went through my mind as I followed him. First off, right after he passed, I thought I smelled him, so I dropped back a little, watching him keep a sure pace despite those insane sweatpants that fell lower and lower as he progressed. After he pulled them up for the nth time, I just wanted to cry.

Here was a guy doing what I was doing, but while I had fancy aerodynamic tights, the finest, lightest wicking fabrics and would never dare to wear even cotton socks, this guy’s outfit was cobbled together by whatever he could find – obviously uncomfortable, cumbersome and not even suited to standing still.

Later that day, I thought about what if I’d had money on me? I’d have liked to have given him some money towards some running pants or even a smaller pair of sweatpants, but how do you say something like that to a stranger?

Well it just so happens, there’s an incredible group in Philly called Back On My Feet to give guys like that the shoes, clothes and motivation they deserve. It was started by 27-year old Anne Mahlum, who passed a group of homeless guys every day on her run, and thought, “I am cheating these guys. Why am I just running past them and leaving them there?’”

She was voted “Person of the Week” by ABC news back in December and if there are angels in this world, she is certainly one of them. Watch the video or read the ABC article here or better yet, if you have some dough to contribute, go to their website http://backonmyfeet.org and send them a few bucks…they’ll even send you a calendar.

The other thing that happened on my run was pretty strange. About 4 miles from home, there’s a huge cemetery across the street, very high up above the road, almost like on a mini-cliff. There were two “somethings” on the cliff part yesterday, squawking or screaming, either fighting or simply trying to keep from falling straight down to the road.

I call them “somethings” because my first thought was they’re huge birds, they were red like roosters, but they couldn’t have been roosters (roosters in an urban cemetery?), but since they were the same exact color, it had to have been a species of something, who knows…maybe a couple foxes?? But I’ll never know because I kept running on.

As I glanced a few times back behind me, wondering what in the world they were and worried they might plop onto the busy road, I realized how ridiculous it was that I didn’t feel I could stop my run to understand what I’d just seen.

So perhaps it’s time to make my runs a more Zen-full experience, relaxing my self-imposed “running rules” (ie. must not stop during a run) to better enjoy the journey, not just the destination (a.k.a. the pursuit of PRs).

Easier to say than do, because I’m a results driven person, but taking a moment to see if there are indeed crazy roosters in the cemetery somehow seems worthwhile and was certainly an opportunity I missed.