Oh that stings

I went for a run along the Rio Grande on the Bosque Path yesterday afternoon and was thoroughly enjoying my run. Perhaps because it was 88 degrees, I didn’t see another runner in my 40:00 run, but saw plenty of cyclists. Cyclists and runners have a tenuous relationship because we share the same training areas and that can cause unwanted contact - either figuratively or literally. The rule is Albuquerque is “run right” and that seems to work just fine, so for the most part, we are like ships passing in the night.

Bikers rarely acknowledge runners and when they do, it is hard to know if you know them because helmets, sunglasses and colorful attire make them look almost alien. One guy on a Pee Wee Herman bike, riding in shorts and a shirt completely unbuttoned and blowing in the breeze, smiled and nodded. That was unusual and the only person out of the 20 or so that I saw to make any gesture of friendship and I smiled and nodded back. I would have loved to have seen lots more people walking, running and cycling and all of them showed some sign that, yes, we are out here working out, benefiting ourselves and our families and being good fitness role models.

But instead, believe it or not, for the rest of my run, I wondered if I had, by being friendly, made some gesture to an undercover APD officer and that I would be caught in a sting. Let’s face it, last week we learned more about what goes on in men’s rooms in airports than we should ever need to know. I travel little now and frankly it would have to be a great emergency before I pooped in an airport bathroom, but I have learned some hard lessons and wish that Senator Craig had known what foot movements can mean. I don’t know anything about him and don’t share his political affiliation but hope that he will be remembered for how well he served his electorate and not for what happened in his life last week. His family was on Good Morning America defending him and that had to have been terribly humiliating. My life could have been ruined yesterday because I nodded the wrong way to someone on a bicycle in a simple gesture of friendship…