Warning: I’m Still Being A Big Whiny Baby

Today I survived a work lunch at an Italian restaurant. It’s hard to be good in a place that serves garlic knots smothered in butter along with their fresh baked bread! So another challenge out of the way and the count down continues. After I got home I decided to go for my Thursday run. I’ve been looking forward to it because of how crappy my exercising has been and I was gung ho to get back on track. Normally I have three days off (Monday through Wednesday) and then four days on where I run everyday (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). It’s only been two weeks since I went for a run but I felt all out of sorts and tired and I ended up not having a good run today. Right from the start it started out wrong; usually as I leave my doorstep I feel happy anticipating the feeling of moving my body and being out in nature. But when I went out today I felt awkward and unmotivated. I went out of the gate of my neighborhood and went to run on the main road that runs through the master planned community that I live in which is my usual route. Our community is nice, the homes are new and the streets and sidewalks are landscaped and clean. But recently a whole bunch of new housing has been opened so now there’s way too much traffic on the main street because it’s the only way in and out of the community for hundreds of houses (it really sucks that the city didn’t plan out the streets better for this area). It felt like I was jogging along the main highway or something! For being early afternoon there was a constant flow of cars and trucks coming by, including all the big construction trucks, and it was just kind of unnerving. It’s actually gotten so busy out there that I’ve stopped walking my dog on that street because the speeding traffic just makes me nervous. In addition to all the traffic the school buses let the kids out in one spot on this main road because that road isn’t a through street and if the buses go any further down then they won’t be able to turn back around. Because of this there are a ton of kids walking down the sidewalk path and in the street. I happened to go out right when all the high school kids were walking home and ended up trying to jog around groups of teenagers. Most of the kids were fine but there was a group of about ten 16 year olds who thought it was funny to purposely block the sidewalk so that I couldn’t jog around. I’ve seen these same kids out kicking rocks into the street as cars pass by trying to time it right so that it will actually hit the cars and I hate to say it but I’m so old now that I get really pissed off when I see punk kids acting up. When I finally got around them I heard even over the blasting of my ipod some of the cracks they were making about me and it just amazes me that kids really have no respect for adults. Ok, that sentence really shows I’m old! I guess the next step is me sitting out on my front porch waving my fist and yelling, “Keep off my lawn, punk kids!” as children pass by. By the end of my run I just wanted to get home but of course that wasn’t going to be possible until I had to deal with the hooting and hollering from the construction workers and then pass the jerk off kids again. Oh yeah, that was pretty much the perfect horrible ending to about the worst run I’ve had ever! The last few blocks I didn’t even have the energy or heart for anything but a mild walking pace. To be honest, the whole thing really bothered me today. It’s silly that it actually got to me that badly but it’s because those runs are usually where I go to clear my mind and find a little peace in my stressful life. If anything, I felt worse for wear when I got home and it's killed my desire to go running tomorrow. Instead I'll probably spend some time with Steely Dan. And I realize what I had begun to think the last time I was out jogging, it’s time for me to find a new route; preferably one where I don’t have to dodge traffic, asshole kids or catcalls.