Why?

We're on a road trip for Steve's bike race. Since I'm not riding, I dropped him off at the start and set out to find a nice run.

As a woman, when I run alone I stay in very populated areas. Finding a relatively safe run here was a challenge. Most of the runs on mapmyrun.com for this area go through some barren locations. That's the problem with runs over 10 miles, it's hard to find a consistently good route.

I picked a route along the shoreline thinking that the beach is always nice. Fail. I ended up in what must be the most yucky beach town on the planet. Running isn't any fun here - lots of missing sidewalk, potholes and cracks, trash on the street and dog dookie on the sidewalks. I'm sure there's something nice about this place, but I'm at a loss to tell you what it might be. There was so much fog I couldn't even see the ocean.

Since mapmyrun has gone to a paid model, you must now pay to print maps. That's pretty much the end of my use of mapmyrun. Their service is adequate, but no better than some of the free services out there. I didn't print a map, but I did memorize a 12 mile route.

It was ugly, foggy and trashy, but I was strong - running hard through the beachside trailer parks. As I was at the midpoint of my run, I noticed that the same black Monte Carlo car was always behind me. After a mile or so, I realize, this guy's not looking for an address. Now we start a game of cat and mouse. I turn in the opposite direction and he takes the next turn and catches up to me. I run slowly; he drives slowly. I run though yards or against traffic, he catches me at the next intersection. Creepy. I finally lost him, but also had managed to get lost - without a map, off my memorized route and somehow on the other side of the canyon and the highway. Getting back to my truck added a few extra miles to my plan. As I got near my car, there he was again. I looked over and there was now a woman in the car with him and she snapped my picture (with flash). Why? Why do you stalk and snap a photo of a stranger running?

You annoy me creepy, cellulite fetish, Chevy Monte Carlo man and your freaky photographer girlfriend. You annoy me.