My No. 1 Fan

Since my commute takes 1 hour each way, I don’t have time in the morning or evening to go to the gym. When I worked from home, I used to go to the gym in the afternoon, so, when I got my new job, I figured out a way to also work out in the afternoon: I run on my lunch hour.

My office is two blocks from San Diego Bay, which makes it easy for me to get in a quick run along the water. I have a beautiful view of the San Diego skyline and, during the hot summer, a nice ocean breeze. What I also have is the company of about 10 homeless men who hang out on the benches along the waterfront.

I have never had any problems with the homeless men, except for the occasional times when they are feeding the pigeons and sea birds and I have to run through a crowd of birds (gaggle? flock?) who are congregated on the sidewalk. I also once had a man throw a plastic cup at me, although I’m not sure if he was actually aiming for me, or if he was generally throwing the cup and I happened to sort of run into it.

The funniest encounter I had was with a younger man who I used to see regularly at his bench. I was running one afternoon and was approaching him as he sat on the bench. When I got close, he started clapping and cheering me on. I was caught by surprise, and started laughing. He must have noticed, because he clapped again on my way back, and for the next few days after whenever I ran by. I had my own cheering section.

He has since moved on, but thinking about his cheering still makes me laugh, which is great since, as those of you who are runners know, any sort of encouragement helps.