Tales From The Trail

It's no secret I go running. Sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes I hate it. Whenever I can, I go to El Paseo Lineal de Bayamon. It's a nice path for walkers, runners and a separate one for cyclists. On the site it says it's a total of 6 miles. I think it's less than that, but I can't run the whole thing anyway. I did reach a goal and continuously ran from one end to the other. Now I have to work on running the whole way back. I have to stop and walk a few times on the way back.

Anyway, this is not why I blog today. I blog to share yet another random story. It takes place while I was running this morning in Bayamon. One other thing that you should know about this place is that it isn't uncommon for people to randomly greet you or to make some comment to you. Usually, it's old folks that do this. So there I was running, sweating, looking at the cyclists as they go by. By the time it takes me to run one way, I've seen the same cyclists maybe three or four times, depends on how fast they're going. I'm concentrating on jogging more than running because I don't want to burn out. I see a cyclist and as he passes by he says "Buenos dias". I've never had a cyclists greet me before (unless they're your friend). They acknowledge you're there, but never talk. So I wasn't expecting it and therefore said nothing back.

Later on I see the same cyclist. By now I've reached the point in my run where I'm battling with the snot running down my nose. Attractive I know. So I'm sniffling and at the same time the cyclist says "Buenos dias". I BARELY heard him over my sniffle and I didn't say anything back. Of course now I'm thinking the guy is weird and continue on my run.

On my way back I'm tired and thinking about stopping at the water fountain. The first two I see don't work. I know there's another one ahead at the rest stop and I'm hoping that one works. I didn't need to stop, I run with a water bottle so I had water...I just wanted COLD water. I see the rest stop, the fountain and then the cyclist leaning on the benches. My thought process: "oh crap...I should run past...but I want cold water...the fountain probably doesn't work....I should run past...I'll quickly check if it works which it won't so I won't have to really stop...I should run past". I walk up to the fountain expecting it not to work, but it does. I drink some water, fill up my bottle and the cyclist starts talking to me.

"Te iba invitar a sentarte un rato", he says.
"Como?", I said as if I didn't hear him the first time.
"No que te iba a invitar a descansar un rato", he says.
"Tengo que seguir, no puedo parar", I say as I fill my water bottle.
"Cuanto tiempo llevas corriendo?", he asks.
"En el dia de hoy? Como unos 40 min", I say.
"Es que te veo corriendo ahi con tanto deseo...", he says in a low voice to which I say nothing.
"Tienes que tener cuidado con el calor y hace mucho sol", he says.
(yeah, it couldn't have been a cloudier day today in Bayamon)
"Yo corro por las tardes, el sol no me molesta", I reply.
"Bueno, pero correr con cuidado porque el sol lastima...", he says.
"Agua, tomar mucha agua", I say as I show him my bottle and finally see my opportunity to end the conversation.
"Bueno, que tengas un buen dia", I say and start running away from the Oakley wearing cyclist.
"Igual a ti, que tengas un buen dia", he says as I'm running away.

Uhm, I'm a bit confused. After this minute long conversation, all I could try to figure out was what in the world did he see that made him hit on me. Let me describe my physical state while running. Sweat, hair in disarray, snot nose happenings and the obvious face flush from the heat and exersion. More specifically (just so you can picture how attractive I looked) my tank top was soken through with sweat in circular patterns. I looked like I was lactating. My pants were soken through with sweat also. I looked like I had pissed myself. So which one was it he liked more? The sweaty lactating shirt look or the sweaty pissed pants look? Maybe it was a combination of both. I didn't really want to find out.

Was the cyclist good looking? I think you can tell from my fountain-thought process what I thought. To each their own, really, but I'm just not into 40 something year old men. When I'm 40 I'll be into 40 year old men :)

Two other things that happened almost at the end of my run was that I saw, no...I caught another cyclist checking me out. This one was younger and cuter. Now why didn't he try to chat me up?! hahaha! He was one of those serious cyclists though. They never talk or stop and pass by the runners more than four times. Then at the end this elderly man said to me, "Por ahi voy! Lento, pero por ahi voy". This just made me laugh.

As you can see, Hay un poco de todo en Bayamon.