What makes a good run?

Today as I was running on a beautiful sunny, very cold, and windy day, freezing my ass off but still having a pretty good run....I started to question "what really makes a good run?"

It seems to me that many people judge their best runs by: how fast they run, how good their legs feel, how good their lungs feel, how well they pace themselves, how many miles they run, how many people they pass, or how high or low they kept their heart rate.

But for me it is quite different. Some days it is as easy as keeping a good pace while still being able to talk non-stop, other days it is all about the distance I can cover, on some warm weather days its about seeing lots of bunnies, and I have even had fun on a run counting cigarette butts in the gutter...but today my criteria for success was getting waves from over half the people I passed on the road (in cars and on foot).

Well maybe they didn't really wave but they acknowledge my existence with all sorts of gestures that I wish to call waves. As I progressed it really became an experiment into determining what really counts as a wave and which were the best? Here are my top 10 favorite gestures of friendliness from today's awesome run:

10. The hand on the wheel, I can at least wave a finger wave
9. The passing honk - this is the audible wave from those that did not wave quick enough but want to let you know they noticed.
8. The head nod - maybe known as the headwave now
7. The one hand up wave
6. The passenger wave
5. The sideways peace sign wave that I imagine tells me to "Keep it up!"
4. The elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist wave or at least hand shaking back and forth wave.
3. The wave and smile from someone you know that says "Hey Brooke, how are you? Doing great" wave
2. The driver and passenger wave with smile

and my #1 favorite gestures of friendliness from today's awesome run

1. The stranger free hand wave and being able to read their lips as they say "Hi"

Here is what I learned about the non-wavers: many were on the phone, smoking, or driving on a busier road, and the really annoying non-wavers either try to ignore you are just stare....how rude!!!