Notes
Wow, what a crazy run!
I dropped my one daughter off at school for XC practice this morning at 5:40 and just headed to work to run there since I needed to get 10 miles in and didn't want to break the run into two 5 mile runs like I did last week (http://bit.ly/bKF444).
I knew it was not going to go good when I forgot my MyTach GPS watch at home and didn't realize it till I got half way to work. I didn't know the area that well and was relying on the GPS to tell me how far I had gone so I could make sure I got the full 10 miles in. I did still have the MiCoach in my Blackberry so I still had a way to track that so not all was lost.
I got to work and turned on Pandora on my Blackberry and started the MiCoach. I got less than a quarter mile into my run and the MiCoach told me it had lost the GPS signal. I had never had that happen before so I kept running assuming it would pick it up pretty quickly. After another quarter mile I realized that wasn't going to happen so I stopped to check it. Just as I stopped two ladies came running past - they must have been stalking me :)
Just as I got the MiCoach to connect to GPS again my Blackberry locked up and then rebooted. I gave up and just started to run again figuring I would deal with it later after it finally came back up. I quickly caught back up with the ladies that were stalking me.... I mean that just passed me. I didn't want to seem like the stalker so I picked up the pace a bit to pass them and let them once again become the stalkers. (my ego feels better that way too - not very often do I get two ladies to chase me - that pleasure is usually only reserved for one lady..... my wife) They were running a good clip and there were some hills through the area so it made it a quicker first mile than I wanted it to be.
I came up to my turn and so I stopped to get my GPS going again so I knew how far I was going. The two ladies passed me shortly after I did that and it was the last time I saw them (I guess they weren't stalking me - ego crushed!) Pandora started playing again, and MiCoach synced up with GPS pretty quick. I was back at it, now just wondering how far that first part was. I was going to have to guess so I made sure I got the full 10 miles in. I am a stickler for my distances so this was stressing me out a bit.
The morning was great and it was a nice 50 degrees. The only thing is that I wished that I had not wore the long pants and long sleeves. My rule is usually 50 and up I go with shorts and short sleeve, but today I still went long/long even though it was 50 degrees. I was happy to have my gloves and kept putting them back on after trying to run without them. My fingers always get really cold when it is even marginal.
About 4 miles in my left Achilles started to get a little sore. This route was a little bit more rolling than I thought it would be and so I think it was taking it's toll on my already weak Achilles.
I ran out about as far as I wanted to (hit the first major road) and turned around. I was guessing that the first un-measured bit was just shy of a mile so I was going to try to get back to that point at about 9 miles. Based on my turnaround point it looked like I may need to add just over a mile once I got back to the office.
After running for a couple more miles and making all the correct turns (so I thought) I found myself at a road that I needed to turn right or left at. I didn't recall making a turn on the way, but it was still quite dark and I didn't know what else to do so I turned right. Next thing I know I found myself coming up to a school that I thought I had passed just over a mile earlier. Confused and bewildered I turned around and tried to head back to find where I went wrong. I thought I had found my miss-direction and this time took the right path (so I thought - do we see a trend here?) I ran for a little bit more and passed something that I knew I had seen before, but once again I knew I was even further away from my destination this time.
I was almost to the 8 mile mark according to my miCoach GPS (not including the original non-measured distance) and I realized that I was not getting anywhere. I stopped and pulled out my Blackberry and decided to pull up Google Maps to see where I was and how to get back to the office. It told me I was 2.4 miles away from my office and how to get there, but I didn't know which way to start running. I didn't want to run for a half mile and realize I was running the wrong way. Just then I saw a lady walking towards me down the street. I ran up to her, apologized for the intrusion and asked how to get back to where I was headed. She asked me to walk with her (she was trying to get a workout done and get to work as well) and she told me which way to go.
This afternoon I pulled up the MiCoach website to look at my run. I wanted to see where I had gone wrong and where I had actually gone. You can watch the 30 sec video of where I went here - http://bit.ly/9mHxjo. If you follow the video you will see where I started the GPS the second time (the green pointer) The direct path from the red pointer to the green pointer was the beginning of my run that I had techical issues with. The crazy part is that at about 6.5 miles I came right back to that same corner where I started the GPS and thought it was a different corner so I turned around.
I eventually found my way back to the office. When I finished the MiCoach gave a reading of 9.64 miles. I checked the technically challenged area and found that it was around 1.3 miles. I guessed at my pace during that time (I was being chased remember!) and then filled in the rest of the mile splits from the GPS.
At the very least I can say it was an interesting run. It was nice to run in this area, and there were a LOT of people out running and walking - much more than around home. The total mileage was just shy of 11 miles. This was only 1 mile further than I set out to do so I can't say that getting lost affected me by that much. It could have been much worse and I am sure many of you could tell me of times you have gotten lost that the outcome was not so kind to you.
Will I run it again? Probably.