Date: Tuesday, June 19th
Time: 12:35 PM
Location: Near the corner of 21st St and 40th Avenue, Queens, New York. Mile 7 of 12.
Direction: Heading south, directly towards the Queensboro Bridge two blocks ahead
Weather: 85 degrees, sunny, mildly humid
Running Condition: hot, getting tired, dreading the 6-minute incline up the bridge. Already regretting having gone all the way to Roosevelt Island.
iPod musical selection: Marc Almond – ‘The Desperate Hours’ (remix, 1991)
Report: Way ahead I spot a tall woman at a bus stop, waving and gesticulating. About 200 yards away I notice she’s actually waving a large white handkerchief, and yelling in my direction. She continues as I get closer, and she’s smiling now, and acting kind of insane. What is up with this crazy lady, ‘waving like she just don’t care’? Closer still, I realize she’s smiling and yelling at me only, as she starts to look like she’s flagging down an ice cream truck.
50 feet away now, and her words are becoming clearer, and I start to think about untrained pets pouncing on me, and here’s some clearly rabid lady, frothing at the mouth already, the victim of some bridge-and-tunnel bat.
Almost there, and she’s smiling away, and then the words strike without warning:
Go, Forrest, Go! Go, Forrest, Go!
Um…. ‘thanks’. I followed that up with a weak smile and an eye roll so high that it caused temporary blackout conditions.
So after being reduced to another cultural cliché, and an old one at that, I made my way to the $%&# Queensboro Bridge.
3 comments:
Clearly, this woman is catching up on her cultural clichés from the ABC Family channel.
Hmmm...she probably saw a runner with different eyes after just watching the movie. I must say, the movie gave me a new outlook on running.
Another incident involving an urban heckler...yea, I'll call this lady a heckler. You attract the attention of rabid women, I get to deal with teenage ghetto children. I've had more than one chase me down the street with a basketball in an attempt to either show off to their respective bitches or rattle my cage. Of course, I'll get the "GO LANCE GO" while on my bike...
I don't understand how heckling runners gets people off. Clearly, yelling some simple minded bullshit MUST get something stirring in their panties, or else why do it?
Ahhhhhhhhh...people.....
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