Yesterday evening, I set out on a master plan to get from my office to church. For those of you unfamiliar with the Memphis Area Transit Authority, MATA buses follow an east/west route. If you need to go North or South anywhere, it is nearly impossible by the bus system. So this is what I did...
6:15pm: Change from work clothes into running clothes in employee bathroom. Note that spandex can make anyone look good.
6:25pm: Stash drivers license in arm zip-pocket of running top, tie office key and file cabinet key onto shoelace, grab Blackberry and bus pass, and lock all other personal items (including clothes worn to work, wallet, and all other keys) in office file cabinet.
6:35pm: Catch bus. Ask nice bus driver where to pull the cord to get off at a certain intersection, and nice bus driver agrees to drop me off at said intersection even though there is not a stop there. (I ride the same bus everyday, so we have a relationship.)
6:50pm: Get off bus. Start running.
For the next several minutes, I learned the following: it is waaaaaay darker at this time of night that I thought it would be, cat-calling is not dead (grrr), running in grey clothes - even on sidewalks - is not recommended after the sun sets, and part of my running route does not have a sidewalk.
7:11pm: Arrive at church. 1.84 miles in 21 minutes - about an 11 minute mile if you take off the time taken waiting for stop lights.
Will I try this again? If it were not for the lack of sidewalk for about a quarter mile of the trip, I would probably do it again. That was the only part of the run where I was seriously concerned for my safety, because cars were coming off of a turn going faster than they should, and I was wearing grey. I think I will definitely try it again when it is light out at 7pm, but I am not sure I will repeat this trek during the fall and winter.
1 comment:
I commend you for doing it! And I'm glad you survived. :) We can definitely try to work something out next week that works with both of our schedules. I went tonight and got caught by a train and the 10 minute wait cost me a mile since it got dark too quickly. When the time changes next week, it'll definitely be Bartlett for us. It's really disappointing how poorly lit this city is!!
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