When Spring Comes...

Rude people take to the streets.

Okay. Maybe "rude" is the wrong word, but all the aloof runners have definitely come out of hibernation.

It wasn't like this in the dead of winter. Then, whenever I'd pass other runners, we'd make the effort to greet each other. "Good morning" or "Good evening". Sometimes a smile and a "Hey". At the very least, a nod or a wave.

Now? Next to nothing. I passed by eleven runners during my last long run. Only one greeting.

I have a theory regarding this, and it all has to do with the camaraderie that develops between people who are under duress, or who have experienced similar hardships. To people who don't run, it may all seem like suffering. But there are levels. Running outside on a sunny, calm, 16°C day isn't quite the same as running through snow, or rain; or a humid, 33°C day. (Some of us are kind of like mailmen that way.)

The percentage of greetings goes up the worse the conditions get. I vividly remember a run back in late December 2007. We were running in heavy rain and lashing winds, in temperatures that were just a touch above where we would have had an ice storm on our hands. We got a response from every single person we passed that morning. Three for three. Granted, the sample size was a lot smaller (and is always smaller during hostile conditions), but that's the point.

In the Spring, all the fair-weather runners have come out.

I don't always initiate the contact with passing runners, and the ones that run by without a acknowledging me either don't really bother me. But when I say, "Hi." and they just ignore me?

Maybe "rude" was the right word.