People Watching

I love to watch people.  It's a guilty pleasure.  I often get caught staring at someone because I'm trying to figure them out just by their facial expressions, the way they carry themselves and their appearance.  A college friend used to share this joy with me, except she took it one step further and would create fake conversations between these people we were observing.  (Yes I'm talking about you LLL)  Her fake conversations for these strangers would leave me laughing so hard I'd be in tears.

Anyway, since I love running, my eye is often caught by other people who are running.  I live in a great neighborhood for running and a lot of my neighbors run quite frequently. 

There's my daughter's friend's mom who looks like she is sprinting every time I see her.  She runs 3-4 miles when she runs, so I would love to know what her pace is.  All I know is that she's FAST!

Then there's my neighbor who annoys me with the way she and her family screw up the parking in the neighborhood.  (That's a whole different topic but parking is a pet peeve of mine.)  Anyway, she is tall and skinny and reminds me of a fishing bobber because all she does is bob up and down when she runs...I don't know how she covers any distance because all her effort is going up and down.

I have been working odd hours recently because work has been so hectic.  I've been leaving earlier in the mornings and coming home later in the evenings.  So I'm seeing a whole new set of runners. 

There is one guy who I noticed because he's a minimalist runner...he wears what looks like a glove on his feet.  It even has toes! I couldn't imagine running in a shoe like that.  He is Asian, which I only mention because there are a lot of Asian people in my neighborhood but very few that I see running. 

I also notice his stride...he always looks extremely at ease when he's running.  I'm sure every ounce of the effort I am making shows on my face when I'm running.  If you just saw this guy's face, you'd never know that he was running.  And I can never tell if he's just starting out or finishing up a long run.  He also wears really bright colors which is what caught my eye at first. 

So it seems like every day for the past week I've seen him running.  It didn't matter if I left the house at 6 am...I would pass him running up the main hill in the neighborhood.  Or I would be meeting Clara at the gym at 5 pm...there he was trucking up that same hill.  Then one day I came home mid afternoon.  Guess who I saw - yep, brightly dressed Asian minimalist runner man.

So I started wondering about this man.  How much does he run?  Is he training for something?  Does he have a family and is just trying to fit in workouts whenever he can? 

People watching can be fun but it definitely is frustrating in this instance.  I want to know more about why this man seems to run ALL the time!