POV: woman running by construction sites in the summer

If you live in Nashville, or have even recently visited, you’ll be well aware that the city is largely under construction. It’s expanding rapidly (some say too rapidly) and nearly every building going up is a condo/apartment complex or a couple of tall-skinnies on what used to be a single home lot. It’s impossible to avoid construction sites where ever one goes.

The lovely running trail that I frequent has several trailheads. The one that I prefer used to exit next to empty warehouses. When we first moved here, this was the darkest, scariest part of my run in the early mornings. About a year or two ago, the warehouses were knocked down and those areas cleaned out. I enjoyed this because there were large floodlights at the site during my morning runs. Then finally, construction began.

This project has been underway for over a year. Several large apartment complexes have been constructed and they’re now working on a parking garage or two. I tend to run in the early mornings when the workers are just parking their cars and heading to the jobsite. In the summer, I often only wear shorts and a sports bra.

Plot twist: I love my construction worker friends.

I smile and wave at runners, walkers, cyclists, dog walkers, etc. when I’m on my runs. It never occurred to me not to behave the same way when I ran past construction workers on their way to the site. Some of them ignore me, many of them smile back or say good morning. I’ve never, ever once been catcalled.

As I mentioned, this has been going on for over a year. I definitely recognize some of them by now and I’m positive that they recognize me also. Obviously, I’m on a mission and they’re working, I’ve never stopped to introduce myself or have a conversation, but I feel like if I needed help, they would help me. If something bad happened in the wee hours of the morning, I don’t believe they would stand idly by. It’s really nice. I think I might actually miss them when the build is complete.

They’re careful never to park their cars in the few spaces right next to the trail head so that people driving there to exercise can make use of those spaces. They’re also careful not to use the bike lane across from their site as a parking lane. They all pull their trucks up onto the grass.

Now, I don’t know if perhaps whoever is in charge gave them a talking to before they got on the job and made it clear that they weren’t to disrupt the people doing their workouts, but I like to think they’re just considerate people. They certainly act that way.

I didn’t realize this until a friend who moved from Chicago to Nashville and then back again pointed it out, but I have never been catcalled in Nashville. If someone honks their horn at me while I’m on a run, it’s either a neighbor or the bus driver of the school I run by waving hello. So perhaps the tone of the city is just different here. And maybe our culture in general is changing and the stereotypical alphahole construction dude is being phased out.

If so, I’m here for it.