Better Marathon Weather?

It's not that I necessarily hate BMW drivers.

In fact, some of the most fun, most generous people I know drive BMWs. However, it seems like the vast majority of the time I find myself cursing a driver (whether I'm on foot or in the next car over), the car on the receiving end of my ill will is either a Lexus, Mercedes, or BMW, and most are that last one.

Perhaps it's something about the cars themselves, or that reckless people just like to drive cars that say, "I'm fun, but stay the heck away from me." Whatever the reason, I've grown to be especially cautious of anyone in a luxury car, BMWs in particular.

So, in the interest of fairness, I felt the need to relay this story today. On most of my runs, I pass a McDonald's restaurant, and their driveway is a little weird. It empties out on a sharp downhill into a very busy intersection, and as a result, there almost always seems to be someone waiting to get out of their parking lot. Sometimes they'll see me coming and wait in the lot until I've passed. Other times, they just sit there, blocking the sidewalk, forcing me to run around them and vault over the landscaping in order to continue my run.

Today, as I neared McD's, there was a BMW sitting across my path, and I had my usual moment of exasperation, when suddenly the driver looked up, saw me, and put his car in reverse so as to clear the sidewalk.

In addition to my looks of distaste at drivers who stop on crosswalks and make blind turns without regard to pedestrians, I do try to thank anyone who does it right. Any time someone stops before the sidewalk, or lets me cross, or really in any way acknowledges my presence on the road, I give a wave and mouth the words "Thank You" since they probably wouldn't be able to hear me anyway. My friend in the BMW today had his window down, so I made sure to give a strong vocal, "Hey, thanks!" as I went past. He smiled and waved.

There is nothing quite so wonderful as a pleasant surprise. This wasn't my only one for the day. Predictably, my first mile was full of stiffness and slight aches from Saturday's adventure, but wonderfully, all those cobwebs were worked out by the end of the first mile. Even more exciting was the fact that I was able to maintain my pace through my last mile, despite the fact that it was already getting too warm. I got to bed a little late last night, so I was a little later out the door this morning, but you can bet that I'm going to be up as early as possible for the rest of the week. With temperatures not expected to get below 70 at any time, I can't afford a late morning run, let alone anything in the afternoon.

I've got to do some research this week about Seattle. I want to get together a course profile, including when to expect hills, how many turns we've got, and what kind of weather I should be expecting. This heat has really got me wondering about how I should be training, since I'd like it to be as close to race conditions as possible. As of right now, I'm guessing cooler with rain, but that's just what I've heard about Seattle. I've got no actual data to back that up, so I want to put it together and hopefully have a course profile post on Thursday.

Up early on a Monday morning means that I've got a great deal of momentum for the rest of my week, and I've got plans:
1) Run all my miles
2) Work all my hours
3) Make all my rehearsals
4) Sleep as much as possible given 1, 2 and 3
5) Course Research!

Oh, and smile at BMW drivers.

Monday's Run:
72 Degrees / Humid
5.05 Miles
36 Minutes, 42 Seconds