Compass & Quill

Today was a great day! I went out running first thing, and logged 2.4 miles at a 10:10 pace. The route was different this morning, just to shake things up a bit. It took me through the Central Business District (CBD), by a lot of gorgeous old warehouse & loft-type buildings, all of the new buildings of the National WWII Museum, and then down to Canal Street. This is a huge weekend for football fans in New Orleans, and there were tons of tourists out already, even though it was only around 9am. I had to keep dodging Alabama fans (who tended to stand aside very politely) and LSU fans (who tended to have complete disregard for cars/bikers/runners/walkers that weren’t in their group, often dodging directly into the path of oncoming traffic without looking, then standing still and eyeing down the ‘offender’). No clue what natural conditions would spur on this ridiculous response in such a large swath of people, but I’m guessing most of them have never left the state, or else natural selection would have started taking its toll.

Even though it might sound like I’m over-exaggerating, I’m really not. Later in the day, The Man and I took a 2 hour biking tour of the French Quarter, and again the experiment held true. At any intersection where our lane of traffic had the right of way, we could be assured of being cut off by slow-walking (and even worse – indecisive and stopping) LSU fans. At least in the Quarter they were stopping for cars, but still not for bikes or other pedestrians, and they weren’t walking in accordance to traffic light changes. I had to slam on breaks a few times, just inches away from running over a girl on one occasion when she got to the middle of the street and just stopped, slack-jawed. Maybe they have more sidewalks in Alabama, I don’t know, but I do know that none of the fans who threatened my life with their incompetence were wearing crimson and white. I’m not a college football fan, and I didn’t go to either of these schools or even have an opinion about them until today, but it makes me want to consider supporting Alabama in tomorrow’s game.

Besides the gallivanting around, the other big thing that happened today was in regard to my resolution to train for 5K races and actually run them. I contacted a friend of mine who lives in New Orleans and used to be a runner, to see if he was running in the 5K at the end of the month. He wasn’t planning to, but when I mentioned it, he said he’d love to go, and that he’d start training tomorrow! I’m so excited – this will be an excellent way to also take care of my resolution to have fun. It will be great to hang out with an old friend again, and have someone around to make me want to work harder on being a runner. I’m stoked!

Time to go be a couch potato for a few hours. Catch you on the flip side!