Earthmovers and Sandcastles

As usual, I dropped Gabe off for preschool this morning, dressed and ready to go in my running gear. As usual, I stood in front of his school, our church, and let my Garmin find the satellites while I selected an appropriately long podcast (Gordon, I chose you for today, and what a great race report! Congratulations!) for my six or seven planned miles. As usual, I pushed “start” on my watch and my iPod, snugged up my gloves, and I was off.

As is not unusual, by a few miles in, I felt like I could benefit from finding a bathroom. Darn cold weather; it plays games with my bladder sometimes. Happily, I had chosen a route that would take me past a gas station and convenience store in another mile, so I made a note to stop there. It was really chilly this morning, with sub-zero wind chills, so I wasn’t moving as fast as I might otherwise have gone; my “happy pace” these days for a run of that length is somewhere between an 8:15 and an 8:25 mile, and I was moving at least fifteen to thirty seconds a mile slower than that.

As I ran down the street, either a fire truck or an ambulance went past. Whatever; it was red and it had sirens. I couldn’t get a good enough look to tell the difference. In any case, it pulled into the gas station’s parking lot ahead of me. I wondered briefly whether somebody had had some trouble with a pump and had spilled gasoline. There were no people around, though a part of my mind registered the presence of a couple of police vehicles sitting empty at the parking lot’s edge. Again, no people, and definitely nobody in uniforms, so I didn’t pay it another thought as I headed for the door.

I didn’t even get a chance to pull at the handle. A man on the other side of the glass started waving his arms at me, mouthing, “No, no!” Taking that into account with everything else (I never claimed to be quick-witted while midway through a run; you should see some of the ridiculous math I do mid-marathon if you ever need a true giggle), I decided that there were other bathrooms that would probably be better bets, and I turned around and headed out.

(Tangential note: the hardware store does not have a public bathroom.)

After my run, as usual, I climbed in the van and headed home. I passed the same gas station on the way, and saw that the entire parking lot was now blocked off with yellow police tape. I tried to call Eric to see if he’d heard anything, but he wasn’t at his desk, so it wasn’t until I got home and checked the newspaper’s website that I discovered that I managed to miss an armed robbery and shooting by about ten minutes. If I’d had my “happy pace” on today, I might have missed it by a lot less…if I’d missed it at all, since I have no idea how long the robbery took.

You’ve got to love my luck. Sometimes I run into drunks (probably), and sometimes probable crime victims. Sometimes I barely miss violent scenes when I’m not running. It’s a mad, mad world out there, and some days are more unnerving than others.

Bean soup tonight. I’m in strong need of comfort food.

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