Wild-eyed and crazy!

I was running my 5 mile route this morning by Brazoswood High School. As I neared Slade Field three guys is an old beat-up red car screamed out of their window in my direction as they passed. It scared the mess out of me because I was in my own world listening to Radiohead’s In Rainbows. I shrugged it off and kept running.

The three wise guys (not in a biblical way of course) turned around and I heard them screaming again as they approached behind me, “You better run! We’re gonna get you.”

I thought to myself “What a bunch of bucketheads.” Then I got mad as I thought about the fact that I pass other people, both women and men running and walking in our neighborhood all the time and what if these guys had been harassing them instead of me.

They told me to run so run I did; right at them as they came towards me. I started screaming at the top of my lungs and the driver kind of swerved all over the road wondering, I'm sure, what kind of crazy guy they had decided to chase and was now chasing them back. I thought for a second about throwing my ipod at them as they went by but that would have been stupid because I don’t really have $150 laying around to replace it.

So instead I chased after them, which I knew was a race I could not win, all the while screaming at the top of my lungs “STOP!” They slowed at the stop light at Dixie Drive and Brazoswood Drive and actually pulled into the Slade Field parking lot.

I started to sprint towards them and had to run about 300 yards. As I approached them they were already near the street. I ran in their direction still yelling “YOU BETTER STOP!” - all the while trying to look as wild-eyed and crazy as possible. The driver pushed on the gas and the tires screeched as they retreated toward Lake Jackson. The old red car had Louisiana license plates.

I don’t have a clue what I would have done had they stopped. I know what I did was not that smart because one of these days something like that is going to happen to me and they will have a weapon. I just wanted to freak them out a bit and let them know that not every person running down the side of the road is an easy target for their stupid games.