Log #24: WHY ARE YOU WAVING AT ME!??!!? (Long-Run)

Ahhhh Boston. You know, I've heard this town described as "Meantown," which is a play on the actual nickname of Boston, "Beantown." Coming from Texas, the epitome of southern hospitality, I have to say that "Meantown" has some truth to it. Recently I've come up with the idea of trying to make eye contact and wave hello to every runner I see on my runs. I've been doing it for a couple of weeks, and the results are interesting.

Most male runners will make eye contact, but only a small percentage will actually wave back to me. There also seems to be a correlation between how fit a runner someone is and how likely they are to wave back. The out of shape runners who looked like they were pissed to be running almost never waved, but the tall fast guys in Harvard Cross Country shirts always wave.

Girls are MUCH less likely to wave, and most don't even make eye contact. Maybe they're conditioned to suspect every guy they see, so they just didn't want to look me in the eye.

I also noticed that groups of runners never wave at solo runners... interesting.

I did this in Paris and the results were similar, although people do seem to smile more there.

I got the idea for this in Texas because EVERYONE says hello and waves at you there. It's beautiful. I'm trying to bring a little bit more of that over here.

Anyway, last night I did NOT hang out with my friends, I did NOT drink, I did NOT stay out late. My friends peer-pressured me and made fun of me for not coming out to the bars, but I was firm. As a runner you gotta sacrifice, and luckily I'm used to it by now so the pressure didn't faze me too much.

I got up at 5:30, sore as hell from the rock show my band played Friday night (my band's shows are complete insanity... here's out site in case you're curious: Monas Myspace. I drank my morning red bull, ate a granola bar, and set out to see how my body would hold up. I ran 13 miles... HELL YEAH!!!! Here are my splits.

(1) - 8:27
(2) - 8:01
(3) - 8:10
(4) - 8:09
(5) - 8:11
(6) - 8:10
(7) - 8:20
(8) - 8:23
(9) - 8:23
(10) - 8:30
(11) - 8:34
(12) - 8:29
(13) - 8:21

Once again my sense of pace is pretty terrible. I wanted to run consistent 8:30's, but I seem to have a hard time starting that slow. Oh well, I did my 13, I feel great, and now I'm going to the beach. Progress!!!