February 13, 2024 - And Hit

Yesterday evening, I went on my normal Monday afternoon run. A really easy 10k loop with some strides near the end to work out some of the stiffness of the prior day's long run. I have two loops I alternate between for this run, both chosen because they leave from my house and minimize the number of roads I have to cross. I've run this run probably hundreds of times at this point, rarely with any kind of incident. Yesterday was not one of those hundreds of runs.

Yesterday, I got hit by a car on my run. I want to be clear, this was not the movie style getting hit by a car at full speed while I cross a street. But it was very close to that, and a bit of reflexive action on my part is the only reason I was not injured more than a bit of shoulder soreness this morning. 

I've had many close calls with cars on runs. And they are almost exclusively the same situation. I'm running up to an intersection or driveway or some other location where traffic is interacting from two directions. I'm running on the lefthand side of the road, the crossing street is also on the left. The driver is watching oncoming traffic from their left and forgets to check to their right for pedestrians or bikers. I've had to smack a hood, or suddenly stop, or hop out of the way on many occasions as a car slowly rolled forward getting ready to turn right while watching to the left. I've never been outright hit before, though did once kind of let myself fall onto a hood because it was a very close call and that seemed the most prudent gut reaction option. 

Yesterday was this exact situation. I ran along Military Trail in Boca Raton. I was heading north on the west side of Military. I came up to Potomac Road and stopped as there was heavy traffic and people turning off Military onto Potomac. Hit the little pedestrian crossing button and waited for the white walker man to light up. It lit up, I checked traffic, and began to cross the road. Suddenly, the car waiting at the red light to my left jams on the gas and accelerates HARD right as I'm in front of the hood! The driver must have been trying to squeeze into a too small space while turning right on red, based on how hard they accelerated out of the intersection. This was not going to be a close call, I was about to get hit! By a car accelerating hard and completely unaware I was in front of them, pushing me into a major four lane artery with lots of very fast moving traffic! 

There was no conscious thought. The car was now on me and I reflexively slammed my hand on the hood and was able to kind of stiff-arm my body around the front of the vehicle and off to the side avoiding anything else taking a hit. The driver must have heard the bang of my hand on her hood and slammed on the brakes, and I was tossed a few feet away from the car as it came to a stop. Landing on my feet and apparently uninjured and nothing taking any force except my arm, which had jammed up into my shoulder. I was okay. I had been hit (and for the first time among many close calls, I do think I can call this being hit even though I managed to avoid anything major taking a blow) and the adrenaline was pumping like crazy. But I was okay. 

The driver stared out her side window in total shock. In South Florida tradition, I shouted some expletives at her, shook my arms at her (I was not feeling ANY pain in that moment), then whipped around and continued my run since I was now standing in the middle of a very busy intersection and without any real awareness of what was happening around me. All I could see was that car, that woman's face, and all I could feel was my relief that I was okay.

I finished my run. It was a terrible run. First I ran with the boost of adrenaline bouncing me all over the place, completely unaware of pace or space or anything else. Then the adrenaline kick began to fade and I felt lifeless and dull, running a real chore. After a couple miles, I stopped to chill for a minute and regroup. That's when I felt the sore shoulder. Not significant. Not major. But definitely sore and building. I was certain I would wake up today in real discomfort. Out of some struck of luck, that was not the case. My shoulder has gotten a bit more sore throughout the day as I use it, but nothing major. My neck is a bit sore looking left, but not appreciably. I seem to have just scratched by basically unscathed.

All the close calls have conditioned me to keep an eye on every near vehicle when I'm crossing a road. Were it not for that vigilant eye, had I not noticed her moving immediately, I would have taken a direct hit yesterday. I probably wouldn't have been significantly hurt by that car, some bruising and maybe road burn is what I would expect, but getting pushed into a major intersection with lots of oncoming traffic could have resulted in pretty much any horrible outcome one can imagine.

So, I've been hit on a run. I got lucky. And I'm reminded about how vigilant I must remain while running along the roads of South Florida. Drivers are lazy. Drivers are aggressive. Drivers are only half engaged in the driving. Plenty of drivers are drunk or high at any given moment. I got luck yesterday. But that luck was in part because I was so aware of traffic while I ran. A low cost lesson reinforcing my need to stay oh so aware during every mile I run.