On the return leg of Saturday’s bike ride we happened upon an bike vs. car “almost-accident”. The cyclist was heading ewa in the bike lane on Kalanianaole Hwy and was crossing W. Hind Drive. She had the green light but a car rolled out from the side street to make a right turn without stopping at the red. Even though the cyclist saw the car and moved as far to the side of the bike lane without going into the traffic lane, the driver ran into the bike anyway.
The cyclist said she actually felt the wheels slide sideways but amazingly managed to avoid crashing and was able to pull over safely. (It turns out she also rides a motorcycle so her mad handling skills probably saved her). She could have easily been pushed into moving traffic.
While we were making sure the cyclist was okay, I saw another near miss at the exact same spot, exact same circumstances. During the morning ride I had not just one, but TWO similar close calls. In each case drivers turning right onto the highway from a side street have the red light but blow past the stop line, through the crosswalk and into the bike lane before looking to see if things were clear.
I’ve got other whole entire rants about both motorists and cyclists alike (because there are a lot of idiot cyclist out there too), but I’ll save those for future posts. Today I’ll keep it simple – when you’re turning at an intersection, please:
Stop at the line – pretty sure it’s the law and not just a recommendation. Look around – look for things other than cars (cyclists, pedestrians). I’ve also almost been run over while running.
THEN roll forward to see if it’s clear to make your turn.
The 2 seconds it takes to stop and look is infinitesimal compared to the hours a traffic investigation will last if you hit a cyclist or a pedestrian because you were lazy.
Thanks for reading.
(Admin note: I’ve added a couple plug-ins that should allow easier reading on a mobile phone as well as Twitter avatar support in the comment section.)
‘Twas the morning before the marathon
And all through the state
Not a runner was stirring
Most not even awake…
So today is the Saturday before Honolulu Marathon Sunday. Since I’m NOT running the marathon, I figured today would be a better day to get on the road since it will probably be a little too crowded to run tomorrow. Just a little…
I think during my whole run I saw a grand total of two other runners on the road, not counting eGeekette. Guess they weren’t planning on doing the marathon either.
It’s just as well, because it turned out to be a less than great run. Although it wasn’t actively raining, the recent storm soak and Kona winds made what should have been an easy run in relative cool a slog through humidity instead.
To make matters worse, I developed a maddening case of hiccups just past the midway point. Hic! Hic! Eight steps – hic! Twelve steps – hic! Three steps – hic! GAAAAAH! In case you were wondering, there is NO way to get rid of hiccups while you’re running. I made dogs bark and pedestrians jump all the way home.
Like all things, both good and bad, the run finally ended and the hiccups finally went away on their own. No matter how bad it was, I’m sure I’m feeling better than any of those folks running tomorrow.
Pretty much the only people on the road at 4:30 in the morning are drunken revelers heading home from the clubs or warped folks heading out to an endurance event. Despite our best intentions, it’s been years since egeekette and I have gone clubbing. Instead, this past Sunday morning we were driving the length of Oahu so we could run around in circles for several hours at the Runner’s HI Kalaeloa 20K.
Kalaeloa doesn’t have any street lights and the registration tent was lit by one portable spotlight so there were hundreds of bleary-eyed proto-runner zombies shuffling around in the dark. The good news is that this year there were porta-potties near the start so people didn’t have to pee in the bushes like last year. The bad news is that they were 100 yards down the road from the registration tent. If you were paying attention, you’ll have noticed that that means 100 yards AWAY from the one source of light on that end of the island. And yes, using a porta-potty in pitch blackness is just as bad as you can imagine.
This year the 20K (12.4 miles for the Americans) race was three loops instead of the traditional two. This change meant that I got lapped even earlier than last year by the race leaders and I had to step over the same roadkill (kitty I think – it was hard to tell) 2 more times than I really wanted to.
Each loop became a stage of running enlightenment, just not quite in the right order.
Loop #1: Darkness (Ignorance) – Where the hell am I going?
Loop #2: Dawn (Bliss) – Enjoying each moment. Cool morning air and pretty colors in the sky.
Loop #3: Sunrise (Awareness) – Heat. Pain. This sucks.
I can’t complain too much though. We both survived the run and PR’d the distance to boot. Best of all, we headed over to Jurison’s in Waikele for breakfast afterwards for fried rice omelet with pork adobo and kim chee. Woo hoo!
