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The 5:30 AM Nod

We are strangers. We are also, somehow, a family.

Whatโ€™s the most interesting local custom youโ€™ve encountered?

There’s a custom on Race Course Road at 5:30 AM that nobody taught me, and that I cannot find written down anywhere. It is the Nod.


You see another runner approaching. You don’t smile โ€” too much commitment. You don’t wave โ€” too much enthusiasm for this hour. You don’t say good morning โ€” you are conserving oxygen. You simply tilt your chin upward by exactly seven degrees, hold for half a beat, and pass.


That’s the entire conversation.


The rules are unforgiving. A full smile is amateur. Eye contact held too long is creepy. Returning the nod after they’ve already passed โ€” fatal. You will be remembered as That Guy.


I’ve been doing this for six years and I still don’t know half their names. I know one runs in pink shoes. Another always has earphones in and never nods back โ€” the rebel. A third coughs theatrically near the bend โ€” possibly to scare off dogs, possibly just dramatic.


We are strangers. We are also, somehow, a family. No sir, nobody warned me about this when I bought my first running shoes.

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