Not So Much in Vermont

Back from a week in Texas, helping out the father. Long story, but he's OK. In my absence, Lisa acquired two Nigerian dwarf goats, which are excellent for cheese. Well, the doe is great; the buck probably won't be much help, unless I want to market Stink-to-High-Heaven cheese to the masses. We'll use him as a breeder, I'm thinking.

Too much catching up to do. But I was charmed by this NYTimes piece today. It's true; I used to run in the city and was always amazed when I made it home safely. Even in Central Park. Never got beaned with a Krispy Kreme, though:

November 6, 2008

FITNESS

Road Runner Rage

By CHRISTOPHER PERCY COLLIER

JEAN KNAACK couldn’t keep a lid on it. While on a six-mile run near her home in Maryland, she raised her water bottle and expelled its contents onto the passenger-side window of a car.

Ms. Knaack, a 115-pound runner, had been jogging on the sidewalk when the vehicle had come within inches of hitting her. The driver had blindly pulled out of an adjacent parking lot, and Ms. Knaack responded with the aggressive squirt, coupled with a few choice expletives.

She did not anticipate what happened next.

The driver pulled the rest of the way out of the parking lot and into the street, whipped around in an intersection, got out of the car, and confronted her. Amid of flurry of profanities, the motorist threatened to strike her with a beer bottle. “The fact that he was so specific really scared me,” she said. “My heart rate shot sky high. I felt like I was going to pass out.”

Even though Ms. Knaack was a seasoned runner — she’s the executive director of the Road Runners Club of America — and is knowledgeable about proper training technique and nutrition, she never got the memo on what do when an angry or negligent motorist takes a workout sideways. That’s because there really isn’t one.

While road rage between cyclists and motorists has drawn some attention lately, adversity has long existed between runners and motorists “on a low level,” says Brent Ayer, the head running coach at Hood College in Frederick, Md., who, years back, was pelted with a jelly doughnut while running.

Not that it’s always the driver’s fault. “I watch runners cut through intersections, cross in the middle of the street, and crowd cars,” Mr. Ayer said. “We are not entirely blameless.”