Monday, September 15, 2008

Oh, the shame of it! I'm going to have to resign from the Bad Girls of Running. I disgraced the sisterhood.

I really aspired to be "Bad", one tough Mama that people would think twice about messing with - Hey, my sister's got her black belt and drives a Harley!! I had a role model! (that's Linnie in the photo) I run with a big German Shepherd!

I set off this morning to run a usual 6 mi route, one I've run dozens of times before. It crosses through a London Underground Station, and the station staff just wave me through and open the gate. My station is one stop short of the farthest away from London you can ride on the underground, and its a quiet commuter stop, usually deserted mid-day.

Today when I waved at the guy in the ticket booth, this big mean bouncer-type-guy (with a Station Manager name tag), came out the back and told me I could not come though the station without a ticket! I made feeble objections along the line of "but I always do" and "but this is a public footpath", which did not convince him. Looping around the station means running under a narrow busy underpass and perhaps an additional 0.25 mile... but my sense of injustice was in the withdrawal of my entitlement!

That's when things went horribly wrong. I just said "Oh, all right", moaned... and went around. Why didn't I have the presence of mind to:
1) take his picture and send it with a brilliantly critical letter to the local paper
2) teach Nelly to knock down bad guys so I could race by him
3) at least have some clever, cutting and very Bad come-back to his parting snicker of "you're doing this to get more exercise, aren't you?"

I failed, miserably. Maybe I just needed the right T-shirt... Can I have another chance to be Bad?

7 comments:

pathfinder said...

Hey!! I love the fight.....relatively speaking, the boys mean nothing if they can't compare to bad girls!! (I think they secretly like each other)

MarathonChris said...

I think you are bad enough. Just look at that first picture of you!

Sometimes, being bad means picking your battles! :-)

CewTwo said...

Circumspection is always easy. As long as you can learn from the experience and apply it next time. Of course, it is sometimes difficult to pull a pad and pencil from what we wear when we run. Name? Who is your superior? You may not be able to do anything with the information but I bet the comment would not have come then...

Thanks, Drusy, for your comment on my blog. Your first marathon was an inspiration to me. I have dedicated one of my marathon miles to you. I hope you don't mind! It has to be a bad girl to get on my list!

Anonymous said...

I don’t know about being a bad girl, but you definitely rate as one of us Tough Chicks. I love your blogs, sis! You are always an inspiration, even in your not so bad moments!

Snowshadow said...

Hey Drusy, thanks for contributing to my blog "Twitter" post i have a good couple of bits of info regarding the subject and hopefully will be able to follow it up at the end of the week with something meaning full.

Also had some ideas al of my own...get me!

Steve Runner said...

Toni: woah...you are TOTALLY "Bad"...come on....are you kidding? The "Bad Girls" totally kick the "Bad Boys" butts, and you're a big part of that! Are you kidding me? You ARE absolutely a "Bad Girl of Running"!!!

CewTwo said...

You sounded great on the runner's roundtable!

I have thirteen days to the Chicago Marathon!