Glances and Glazed Eyes

I've been noticing something while I'm in Washington DC over the summer, and it was probably true before this I just never realized what was going on.

So, back story/explanation:

I live about a mile north of the Capital building, and my typical base run has been to make a B-line straight for it, loop around the back and run along the hard-packed dirt path around the Federal Triangle/National Mall. Depending on how I come back, it's between 7 and 8.5 miles, and I usually do it around 9pm. Great.

Now, I don't do this specific run over and over and over because I want to see all of the sights. Don't get me wrong - the Smithsonian buildings and Federal monuments are beautiful at night, and with the fireflies along my path it really is gorgeous at times - it's just that the loop has an extended period of non-pavement, it's relatively flat, and there aren't many times I have to stop for cars/traffic lights like I would have to do literally anywhere else I ran in this city.

But there's always one constant thing I can count on when I do that loop - throngs of tourists. Plethoras of cameras, accents, languages, and bewildered expressions. I'm not being degrading, I've only lived here a month so I identify more with the tourists than with the DC residents, it's just something I've noticed.

And with the masses of people on the Mall at all hours of the day and night, the number of people who look at me changes drastically when I run vs when I do not (in the same areas).

Now, I don't mean take a nonchalant glance my way then continue on. This is deer in the headlights, OMG-that-guy-has-a-gun, Do-I-know-him blank empty stares. Shit that could make Sauron twitch. LOTR reference? Check.

I thought this was simply because I was running, and most of the time with very little clothing, moving at a pace around 10mph as I don't even glance at the monuments. Odd right? BUT YOU'RE WRONG.

See, I bike everywhere. DC is small, and the metro is expensive. When I'm biking furiously around the Mall, I get the EXACT same stares.

BUT (and this is the super interesting part), when I'm biking very slow, i.e. walking pace, NOBODY gives me more than a glance.

Thus, in summation my hypothesis is:

Velocity of movement is directly correlated with how long people stare at you, or at least how long tourists do.

I'll be testing this in the weeks and months to come. Stay tuned. This is important stuff.

For science! *bow