Some Lucky Kids

Well, after two late nights, drinking and a very hot and sunny morning I went for a long run this morning. Who thinks this post has a happy ending?

Running down Hampstead Rd I ran past two teenage punks (plus girlfriend) there were three factors that saved these three (or at least one) from a severe whooping by me, 6 foot 5 inches, 270lb.
1) A am not am aggressive person by nature and have never been in or sort out a fight. I avoid confrontation.
2) I had my headphones on and only caught the last few words of what the kid was yelling.
3) I was 4km into my long run, dehydrated and my body was compensating by slowing down my thought processes. It was 5 minutes later that thoughts of physical (well verbal, the choice to escelate to physical would have been all theirs) occurred to me.

The situation, I am running towards the teenages, one of them appeared to be yelling something back and across the road (I had headphones on, and couldn’t here) as I got closer I heard words to the effect of “are you trying to lose weight! Because your diet is not working!” yelled in a jeering tone. At this time I passed them (maybe even startled the yeller who wasn’t looking my way) and I glanced across the road. There was another teenager (about the same age 15 or so) on the side of the road walking the same direction I was running, quite overweight, walking.

Now running this scene through my head (slowly for the next 5 mins) I came up with three possible reactions I should have had on a normal day.
a) Stop dead infront of the yeller and insist that he apologise to the kid on the otherside of the road (possible consequences; physical/verbal abuse both of which I could probably have taken but to what end?; 2% chance the teenager will be scared witless and apologise to the other kid but to what end?)

b) Stop dead infront of yeller and stoop to his level with verbal abuse, probably stereo typing him on his clothes and abusing him about not being able to afford good clothes, wandering the streets because his no hoper parents have split up…nasty stuff…and the least likely to happen. (possible consequences: physical/verbal abuse no real help to other kid. Become just as bad as yeller)

c) Ignore yeller, cross road, and give kid a pep talk, like “ignore those guys, you are doing great, taking positive action in your life, gaining self esteem so you don’t have to pretend you have some by taunting others with low self esteem”. (possible consequences; kid tells me to F### OFF and leave him alone cause he is just walking to the shop and I run off having tried, or the Kid continues to take positive action is his life, gets healthy and weightloss is just a side effect.)

If I had my time over, I would definately go with C, but as I say, this was after 5 mins of running-thinking and who knows what would have happened if I reacted in the heat of the moment?

Anyway, only made it to 7km today with a little waking in the last kilometer. Quite deflating for my confidence, but I have many excuses like, It was too hot (idiot didn’t take his camelbak) and I was dehydrated and tired. I was going to have a rest week with fewer kilometers this week anyway.