We are creatures of habit.  We shave our face in the same sequence every morning, order the same beverage at Starbucks, and walk the same routes.   These habits are accentuated in the morning, and play out during morning runs and rides.  On my Friday morning rides into the city, I can tell whether I’ve slept in based on where I see Sam’s grandmother on the bike path.  A couple years ago my timepiece was a woman who was dressed in all white. — parasol, beads and fine shoes — all the while talking or singing to herself.  Looked like something straight out of New Orleans.  I’d say “good morning” to her every time I saw her.  Among some of my biker friends, we referred to her as the “Crazy Lady”, though one surprised me by telling me that she parked near the bike path in a fine BMW.   No one knew her full story.  I was sad when one day I stopped seeing her, and she’s never returned.

A similar thread popped up in an interview on Strava of three guys who have run to work in SF every Tuesday and Thursday for the last ten years.  Their run starts at 5:15 am from the parking lot in Tennessee Valley, climbs up into the Marin Headlands, down to the bridge, then, after crossing it, down and along the waterfront.  Two hours and 15 miles (!) later they arrive at their offices in the CIty. Wow!  Of course, they are not normal recreational runners, but rather ultra marathoners who need to log some major miles during the week to and from their day jobs, and have picked a remarkable route to do it.  In short, even crazier than my Saturday morning crew of crazies.   In the article, one of them noted “We know if we are ahead of schedule based on when we see Clair, the ‘Red Jacket Lady’ riding her bike to work each morning.  Or ’Boot Camp Coach’ who is out on Crissy Field year round with the folks she is training regardless of the weather.  Or the ‘Pink Hardhat Hiker’ guy heading up the trail from the bridge each morning.”   

So true.  We give silly names and craft narratives for these people, cogs and wheels in the intricate timepieces of our exercise lives.