If you drive a white SUV, stay away from me please

There must be target on me that people who drive white SUVs aim for.

Let me back up. I glanced out my office window at 5:15 p.m. this afternoon. It was 15 minutes before quitting time and the sun was still out. Whoa. I guess I haven't realized that the days were getting longer. And it was sunny and mercury in the thermometer was hovering around 30 degrees. With just a short 2-mile run on the schedule tonight, it's like the outdoors was calling me.

Run outside. You know you want to.

And I did. So even though I had the gym bag packed in my car and was planning on snagging a treadmill at the YMCA, I changed plans. Instead I went home, threw on the running clothes and was out the door by 6 p.m.

It was starting to get dusky when I set out for my run, but it was still fairly bright. And my bright pink jacket? It's got some reflective stuff on it so I wasn't too worried about becoming roadkill.

I should have been though.

Not even a half mile into the run I'm coming up to a little subdivision that I run though. But first I have to turn off the main road. And since there aren't sidewalks in this area, I was on the road. But I was as far over on the shoulder as possible and running facing traffic.

Apparently Mr. White SUV Driver No. 1 was a bit too impatient to slow down while the car in front of him made a right hand turn. Because all of a sudden this SUV is coming towards me. And not just creeping along. More like going 45mph on the shoulder of the road to drive around the other car. Right in my path. I kind of stopped. Got over even farther. If I moved to the left anymore I'd be knee deep in a snow bank.

I glared at the SUV driver. May have given him a one-fingered salute. And kept running.

Through the subdivision, back on to the main road, took a right turn and I was back in a subdivision. It was getting darker. Since there's sidewalks in this subdivision I ran on them. Most homeowners have done a phenomenal job with snow removal on their sidewalks. But of course there's always "those homeowners," the ones who seem to forget what a shovel is and what it's used for. But I made it.

Soon it was back to the main road. It was getting dark by now, and honestly a bit darker than I felt comfortable with, but I only had another half mile to go so I thought I'd be OK. I was wrong. Again. I no more than get to the main road I almost get smucked by ANOTHER white SUV. This time he's almost driving through a snow bank to get around a car that wanted to make a left hand turn. And almost plowed into me in the process.

I got a good look at him as he drove through the snow bank. I glared. Waited until he was gone and started running again. I might have upped the pace a bit since at this point I just wanted to make it home before I became a piece of road kill.

While running for my life I made the decision that I better not venture out for a post-work run in my neighborhood until after Daylight Savings Time kicks in. If I want to run outdoors after work, I think it's going to have to be a run that takes off from my work parking lot. Because tonight? It was just a bit too scary for my tastes.

Needless to say I'm kind of looking forward to heading back to the YMCA treadmill tomorrow. Even if it means I've got to tackle a workout of hill repeats.

*****

In other running-related news. The month of February's done. Which means the first full month of training with the Fleet Feet half marathon group is done. And looking at the numbers I can totally tell. I ran 17 times in February and logged 73.4 miles. I missed three runs this month - one due to a late night at work covering protests and two last week under doctor's orders. That's a lot of running. But I love it.