Silent Seven

Today's run
Time: 1 hour
Weather: Coldly-mild (or was it mildly cold?)
Traffic: featuring Steve Winwood
Mood(y): Blues

I love running alone in the silence of early morning. I savor the quiet before the noise starts in. Traffic. Copy machine. E-mails. Phone. Before 6:00am none of that exists yet. The world is so still when I leave my warm house for a pre-dawn workout. Running early gets my head in the correct space for the rest of the day. Two months from yesterday is marathon day.

Recently I am hyperalert to traffic. When I bike and run and walk I am on in a way that I am not the rest of the day or night. The only thing I need to be doing (besides moving toward my destination) is to stay alive and not get crushed by someone who made the Choice that Pollutes. The Pause that Refreshes. Yesterday I scolded my dear wife for walking in the middle of our low-traffic street as a car approached. She thinks I overreact. I want her and I and the rest of our allies who walk and bike and run to keep healthy and keep living.

Some good news from today's Columbia Missourian is the plan for more bicycle boulevards in Columbia is advancing. Whether you drive or not how can you not support more infrastructure that takes bicycles off busy streets and puts them on low-traffic parallel roads. The Windsor Bike Boulevard is amazing for how low-traffic is is but more for how it makes me feel special as a bike rider. The Windsor bike boulevard shows that we have some transportation planners and federal funders who understand the need to create dedicated space where those who don't roar around town in gas-guzzlers feel and are safe.