Running the Track

It's not due to be above freezing for the foreseeable future here in Boise, so I'm glad that I have access to a gym so I can run without worrying about frostbite. Not that I haven't run outside. I've run in snow before, and I actually kind of like it. Once you get started, you warm up in the core and it doesn't feel quite so cold anymore.

But it's just not as easy to get into running when the temperatures creep ever closer to the single digits. And every time I'm on the track at the gym, it seems like more people are joining in on the indoor running fun. I like that. It's nice to have someone I'm trying to catch, and even, once in a great while, to pass someone other than my husband.

If only they were literate...

I jest, of course, I'm sure they can read. It's just that they don't. There are signs clearly indicating that the inner track lane, which is the widest one, is designated for walking, and the two outer, narrower, lanes are designated for jogging and running. And yet, every time I'm on the track I see people running in the inside lane.

I guess I can understand the desire to do that. After all, the inside lane is the shortest in length, so if you're running for laps, then they would go by faster that way. So the desire to be lazy probably draws those folk to that inner lane, and I can safely look down my nose at them as they pass me because I'm taking the high ground and running on the very outside of the outer most lane.

Sometimes people walk in the outer lane, but that doesn't happen nearly as often. Actually, one time I witnessed someone doggedly walking in the exact center of the track, and that I really didn't understand.

Usually, these rule breakers have no effect on me, and while I note them, because there's very little to distract my attention when I'm running around an 11 lap/mile track, I don't dwell on them.

But the other day, I was running a fast 3 miles around the track, and I was in my last lap of running, so I sped up, and went faster and faster. In front of me were two girls who had passed me the lap before, but I was gaining on them, gaining and pulling right behind them, just a little bit farther and I would be finished with my miles, able to stop and gain my breath when --

They stopped running and fell into a walk without a glance behind themselves or a single thought of the fact that other people might be running on the track.

I gave out an inarticulate "ahhh!" and they turned so I was able to dash around them to exactly where I was planning on stopping. I swung around on the rail to catch sight of the clock for my time and then retreated off the track to remember how to breathe.

To be fair, there were other people on the track right near us, and, in fact, these other girls were running in the inside lane, thereby taking away the angle for the outside lane girls to transition before they slowed down. So, both the inside lane runners and the outside lane walkers were equally to blame.

Despite all that, it sure beats running outside.