Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Another slug run

Yet again I got out the door late, which never bodes well for me, I'm definitely an early morning runner. I did 6 miles at a really slow pace, but I did manage to do them. My legs have been really sore lately; could it be possible that I already need new shoes? It seems like just a month or 2 ago that I bought this pair.

I had a truly interesting encounter with a woman in a parking lot recently. I was getting in my little Mini Cooper (it's a real Mini, not the faux BMW modern Mini). The lady was a tiny little elderly lady, perhaps in her late 70s, early 80s. She just said "nice car" as she walked by. I get that occasionally with our cars, so I didn't think much, just said thanks. Then she said "I really like the Mini Lites-they look better than the originals". This stopped me in my tracks. This was not your average grandmotherly lady, this was someone who knew enough about cars to realize we have after market wheels on the Mini, and she knew what brand of wheels they are.

I talked to her a bit, and found out that she and her husband raced cars all over California in the 50s and 60s, the heyday of the "drive it to the track, race it, drive it home" era. She raced an Austin Healey Bug Eye Sprite, and her husband raced Corvettes. It turns out she lives in the apartments right next door to where I used to work, and often saw my little Bugeye in the parking lot. What a nice lady, with such an interesting life. She invited me to her apartment to see some of her pictures and momentos from all her races, and I'm going to take her up on the offer.

3 comments:

BeachRunner said...

Nice job with your run. Your Mini/Old Lady experience is totally cool.

Sarah said...

I always love it when I meet strangers who share an interest of mine. :)

Lily on the Road said...

How cool is that!!

She was (is) a pioneer of the motorized vehicle. That is so cool.

you live a very interesting life, that's for sure!