Emoticon

One thing I always hated about New York and Brooklyn was that no one smiled at you in passing. I understand that this activity would become completely exhausting when passing by the millions of commuters and daily pedestrians but one place where I never understood it was while running around the park in Prospect Park or Central Park.

Smiling, for me, is the life force of my running habit... it keeps me going and energized to finish, reminds me that we are in this together, brings out some friendly competition and all in all renews my belief that deep down everyone is genuine and decent. As a frequent runner in Prospect Park for 3 years I can tell you there are exactly two people that smile at you in that park, one woman I nicknamed "Smilie" because she was nothing but smiles and another guy called "ball guy" who used to kick two huge rubber balls around the park, like the ones you used to play handball with in elementary school, while saying "go ahead, kick 'em! you can kick my balls!" whilst chuckling and laughing until his heart was content. I was never able to fully deduce if we should have changed his name to "crazy homeless ball guy". Anyways, crazy or not, I loved them. I would come home after a below freezing run and report back to Ben, "Saw Smilie out there today, she is so nice" and "Ball guy was out there laughing away, one of these days I may just kick one of his balls".

Which leads me to my run today in Griffith Park... in which EVERYONE smiled at me, except 2 people. Literally everyone acknowledged my existence, gave me a nod or a brief smile... it was like my running utopia. I have been running out there for a couple of weeks and people have their own friendly styles, one hippie looking guy throws a low peace sign, some of the super fast elite runners do a nod in unison, the other women my age give me a sweet and enduring smile (rather than sizing me up and comparing strides) and some of the older gentleman give me winks and lick there lips (OK, I made that up, even the old guys are sweet).

I had a painful run today as I have been experiencing some rough blisters of late... but i didn't stop, not even once. I was so energized by the spirit out there. I know I sound all preachy and weird, but I live for the kindness of strangers, its just the most humble and honest thing someone can do...

Anyways, after I finished my run, I looked down to stop my watch and some random guy, whose name is Sergio (that's right, I don't have to make up a name for him, we actually exchanged names) said "How'd you do" and I told him my mileage and time and then we just talked about what races we were training for... it was just really genuine. After which he said "I'm Sergio" and I said "I'm Nancy... (OK I didn't... jeez I have a prepencity for cruel humor)". So he gave me a high five and said... "has anyone showed you the runner's high 5?" So what can I say, I am in the club... finally.