Friday, July 8, 2011

Assholes

I run alone more than I run with people.  In fact, even when I run with other people, I often run alone.

I like the peace and quiet.  I settle into the groove, put one earbud in, turn my music to just the right volume, and run.

When I run, I am aware of my surroundings.  I keep one ear and both eyes open for cars.  I scan the road ahead for debris, cracks or dog poop. I stop at stop lights and I look both ways before I cross the street.

I am a respectful runner.

I move out of the way for cars and bikes and, while I do run on the road, I stay to the far left and always yield.

Last night, during my very respectful 10k run, two assholes drove by, screamed some obscenity that I could not make out and proceeded to hurl a full bottle of pop at my head.

Luckily, the thrower lacked aim in addition to lacking brains and he missed.  But not by much. I heard and felt the projectile whiz by my head.  He missed by inches...if that.

He could have caused some serious damage.  A full bottle of pop hurled from a moving vehicle is indeed a projectile.  I know how serious a head injury can be. I don't want to think of what could have happened if his aim had been true.

I prefer to think about what I would like to say to them given the opportunity.

They have made me afraid.

Well, maybe not afraid but they certainly caused a heightened awareness. I was running alone but I was running down a fairly busy street at 5:30pm.  What the hell were they thinking??

They freaked me out but they also really really pissed me off.  I did nothing to them.  They know nothing about me.  There is no excuse for what they tried to do.  It may have been a prank or it may have been downright malicious.  Either way, it's a crime and they could have seriously hurt me.

I don't need to know why they did it.  I just don't want them to ever try that again - to anyone.

Assholes.

3 comments:

  1. OMG. When I saw the title of your post I thought, this is going to be good. THIS IS NOT GOOD! This is awful.
    ASSHOLES is right. Yelling obscenities is rude and obnoxious but throwing a full bottle of pop? That's more than just harassment.
    I'm sort of really mad at this!

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  2. Assholes indeed. So sorry to hear about this. Probably just some punks and they picked on you only because you happened to be there. They weren't thinking and just showing off to their buddies. A mindless and senseless act of bullies. I've experienced similar situation as well. Not fun, and you do feel vulnerable and intimidated afterwards. Try to shake it off. Do you run with a phone? You can always take a pic of the license plate and call the cops...

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  3. Holy Crap! That is so terrible. Things like this make me so angry! Who the heck acts like this!!! Glad that they missed and you are doing ok. Keep running, don't let them bet the best of you.

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