People get really into trail running (gorgeous scenery, but the bugs and the tree roots keep me an occasional rather than regular trail runner).  People are passionate road runners.  No “dread-mill” for them!

Well, I’ve found my passion.  I’m a sidewalk runner.  I have that luxury, because I live in a place with lots of beautiful sidewalks, not just downtown, but places where I can go for miles without dodging walkers and feeling guilty for running on the sidewalk instead of in the breakdown lane.

And I love it.  I get so nervous running in the breakdown lane that my hands start sweating.  (Ok, maybe it’s from running.)  I’m the type of runner who pushes the walk button at intersections and waits patiently.  Perhaps too patiently (so nice to have a break!).  I laugh when Greg gets really worried about me buying another dark running top because it’s not visible enough to cars.  I have to remind him that a) I seriously do mostly run on sidewalks, not that much faster than people walk on them, and b) I wait for a walk signal before crossing busy intersections.

When I’m not running on a sidewalk, I try to remember to run on in the opposite direction as traffic, so I can react better to cars.  If there’s a steep hill, you’re technically supposed to run in the direction of traffic while going up the hill and then carefully cross back over, because oncoming traffic over a hill won’t have much time to see you and react.  I’m always very careful crossing intersections, because cars sometimes take a right on red without looking for pedestrians and I’ve almost been hit by a car that was doing so illegally.  If I hadn’t stopped to give myself the time to assess the situation before crossing, I might have been roadkill, even though I had a walk sign.  Yikes.

Be careful and have fun wherever you run!

I recently signed up for a twitter account (@iamrunningthis), and immediately started following some of the big names in running and checking out hash-tags related to running.  I have no idea what I’m doing on twitter, yet, but when I sign in I’m flooded with tweets about running, mostly from expert sources that are significantly far removed from my own running experiences.

One of my favorites was a little back and forth between runners on #RunChat about how great it feels to power up a hill past a cyclist doing 7 something minute miles.  Umm, right.  Maybe I’m following the wrong people, here.  I’m all about being inspired by the greatness of others, but this is a bit much.

It inspired my cheeky little photo edit, above.  (Will doesn’t mind being exploited for my running blog.  I asked.)

It also made me think about what would be on my running bucket list, if I had one.  It would be pretty cool to run up a hill past a cyclist.  It would also be cool to run through an unfamiliar city on vacation, beat my 30 minutes in a 5k while pushing the double jogger, and do a New Year’s Day race with a friend in tutus.

There are a lot of really fun things I’ve done that felt crazy the first time but are seeming more and more normal:

I have:

• Run a 5k pushing both kids in the double jogger
• Had half a bottle of wine and still made it through a five mile run the next day (ill advised, but it says something about my dedication to running)
• Run while on vacation in another country
• Driven somewhere just to go for a scenic run
• Gotten up at 5 a.m. (multiple times) to go for 9 and 10 mile runs
• Gone running with a group
• Headed out for a family run with my husband pushing the double jogger
• Run with a teddy bear in one seat of the double jogger to make my toddler and other passers-by smile

Yup, that’s my latte this morning.  Greg recently descaled and thoroughly cleaned the espresso maker, and now I look forward to non-running mornings more than ever because I have some time to sit down with one of these!