Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Running with pepper spray


The alarm went off at 6:03am as always. I snoozed for 5min and then sleep walked to the bathroom to splash water on my face. I did not want to be up – I wanted to be in my REM sleep dreaming of Ireland (I have no idea why I was dreaming of being there BTW) warmed by down covers and luxurious multi-hundred threadcount sheets. But no, gotta run. If I’m going to do a 33k next week, I gotta run.

I laced up and looked out the window – the entire city was cloaked in fog (it’s own down cover?) and darkness. To battle the darkness, or really the jerks that come out in the dark and scare runners (there have been a few recently) I grabbed my new pepper spray – a first, I don’t know where the paranoia is coming from. I walked out the front door – eyes still only half opened – and started ambling down the 4 flights of stairs to exit the building. “You go girl! I’m so proud of you!” I heard from behind. Some neighbor I’ve never met was trailing behind me, maybe she thought I was someone else, or maybe she’s one of those cheer leaders we all love – either way, it helped crack my eyes a bit more.

Out the door – I made it. The hardest part of starting a morning run is getting out the front door. Cool air and fog spit (you know what I mean if you live in the city) smacked me in the face and my eyes were open. Opening my eyes was like pulling the string on a toy doll – the full vision got my feet going and I was off. Down to the water (still pitch black) and around the museum. There were lights by the water – lots of flashlights – weird. I kept going and saw it was a group of police. Pepper spray held tight I kept going. They were circling a homeless man saying something and he kept rocking on the wet pavement not wanting to listen to them. I turned up my Erland (new iTunes mix I downloaded) and blasted by. Pepper spray still in hand I made it up to Ft. Mason. By this point my face was covered in mist but I was too scared to wipe it off – I’ve never used the spray before and I didn’t want to accidentally shoot myself in the eyes. Instead of using my hand like a normal person, I used my shoulder in an awkward yogi-wannabe move.

Done with the run and drenched. I made it – first run with the pepper spray.

I’m sure you were waiting for the hilarious similes or jokes spinning off the spray. I haven’t finished my coffee yet, so I’m not feeling that funny and can’t do better than tie my run to an Annette Bening movie. Later.

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