Calculated Risks
(why won't Blogger let me title this post?)

Ok ok I give up! You caught me in the act. What was I caught doing?

Was it ordering a whole pizza for myself at midnight? A pack a day habit of cigarettes? Driving without a seatbelt on? Drunk driving? Riding a motorcycle without a helmet? Speeding excessively down the highway? Dialing on a cellphone while driving? Skydiving? Putting my entire paycheck on red at the roulette table? Climbing Mt. Hood in the middle of a snow storm? Cliff diving? Shooting up heroin and sharing needles? Smoking while pumping gas? Having unprotected sex? Running naked through the streets of Baghdad waving an American flag? Oooo the possibilities are endless.

I am such a good girl that I can't even fathom all the risky possibilities that are out there.

But yep, that was me jogging down the right side of the street on the sidewalk! I agree that kind of behavior involves some kind of calculated risk.

It was 6:30 am and at least 90-something degrees in the shade.

Never mind most of the time I am Molly Mindful, careful to wear appropriate gear (I have a sun protection outfit I wear if I am running later in the day, which I am not), apply sunscrean and face traffic while running in the street.

However when it is a million degrees outside and there is a little traffic. I dare to break the rules sometimes.

Shade trumps cement.

Double bike/parking lane trumps non-existent shoulder and constant jumping out of the way for cars.

In any case said violation occured for about a mile out of a six mile run. Guilty as charged.

One of my members caught me in the act and mentioned it. The Fitness police are out in full force, it seems.

Yes I know I was breaking the rules. But sometimes it is better to break them. She quizzed me about my knees, etc. They are fine. I was running slow enough that I wasn't "pounding" too hard.

Honestly if I didn't break some rules sometimes, I probably wouldn't run. Running is about breaking the rules of convention. Most people say they don't have time for exercise. Running makes me feel trimphant over everyone else's needs of my time. It makes me feel like the boss of me even when my schedule seems to belong to everyone else's. I go when I am tired and sometimes sore (but I don't push it when I feel bad). So sometimes I am trimphant over sloth. And it is too hot to be outdoors... well almost not at 5:30 am!

The alternative would be hard on my hard, joints, mind and soul. I shudder to think!

Meantime I will continue to drink my daily (Alzheimer's causing) Diet Coke, chew my lock-jaw inducing sugar-free gum and run on an occassional sidewalk. Please leave me what "vices" I have left in my tea-totalling, early-to-rise, non-partying, salad-eating, milk-drinking, non-drug using, non-gambling, seatbelt-wearing, show up at work on time life.

It's what I do most of the time that matters anyway ;)

Run this morning -- 5.2 mostly on the road. .6 on dirt shoulder -- wore sun-protectie shirt and carried water :p