Night Moves

This post was inspired by my bike ride today.  Like most triathletes, I train in the morning; when all of you normal people are sleeping.  I’m talking early – 4:30 am.  So obviously it’s dark out.  Depending on the day of the week, or the workout, I have various routes – safety being my #1 criteria of my route selection. 

When I used to be a gym rat, I found myself always wearing cute tops, pretty colors and sometimes all black.  That wardrobe changes the minute you start training outdoors in the dark.   Now my tops are all either white or the brightest (obnoxious) yellow I can find.   See below for a sample of my shirts.

The other thing that is a must are lights.  I’ve been told that I look like a Christmas tree when I bike in the morning.  I have 6 lights on me, 2 in the front (so I can see where I’m going) and 4 red blinking ones on my back and saddle so people can see me (this on top of the obnoxiously yellow reflective shirt).  My husband says I look ridiculous, but I will gladly thank a stranger if they tell me I look ridiculous cause that means they saw me and that’s my #1 priority – BE SEEN – NOT HIT.

Which brings me to the motivation for today’s post.  My ‘weekday’ bike route is in a residential area, with  1 steady  no stop sign loop.  On a typical 90 minute ride, maybe 6 cars pass me.  Great for biking.  There is a stretch of it with no overhead lights, where I become highly dependent on my front lights, the stars and peoples porch lights. 

It’s on this stretch where I run into the idiots of the morning – the Amateurs I call them.   They insist on wearing dark clothing, no lights and walk ‘4-wide’ on the wrong side of traffic.  Countless times I see them just at the last minute: like this morning.  Which prompts me now to the following statement:

WILL YOU PEOPLE GET A CLUE FROM THE CRAZY LADY YELLING AT YOU ON THE BIKE AND WEAR SOMETHING REFLECTIVE?  FOR PETE’S SAKE A BLINKY LITE IS $10!!!!!

If I can’t see you, cars can’t see you!  If you want to exercise outdoors in the morning like the ‘big boys’, start acting like them and dress appropriately!

How about you bloggers – any idiots on your routes?  Please share with us!