Thursday, August 9, 2007

Passing bikers?

I went out for a quick four miler at lunch today. Nothing to report, except that I passed two bikers on the route. They were an old couple who originally passed me while I was resting at my turnaround point on the local bike path. I had a hunch I might catch them, but I hoped I wouldn't.

When I closed in on them, I seriously had to consider the etiquette of the situation. I mean how demoralizing would it be to be passed by a runner while you're pedalling along on your bike? I also had to consider whether I could continue to gain on them after passing by. I did not want to play the obnoxious guy passing bikers only to be passed myself after running out of gas. After sorting this out, I went for it. Ok, "went for it" might be a little strong. These guys were crawling to the point that I half expected them to fall over in front of me. So, I continued on, passed the woeful bikers and finished the run. It was an entertaining situation.

Here are the stats:
4.2 miles
32:41 minutes
2 bikers passed

In case I the day gets away from me tomorrow, I want to take a second to wish Agricola luck at Falmouth this weekend. Tear it up! Sub-60 baby! Looking forward to the full report.

2 comments:

Agricola said...

I think it was OK to pass the old couple, and as long as you didn't run by, stare at them and mutter something like "speed it up oldsters" or pump your fist and say "rrrrrroaaad hogggggg!" you're OK.

You do have to go for it though when you pass someone, anyone, because then you can't let them pass you again. You can always pull the old, "Oh . . . I'm turning up this street" where you can slacken your pace if you're gassed and it looks like they are going to pass you again . . . a little running trickery.

Thanks for the well-wishes.

VT Runner said...

I love the image of heckling the old folks on the bikes. Laughed out loud. Good way to start the day.