Complaining

There, I have given you fair warning.

I woke up at 5:00 this morning ready to go, despite the fact that DVR'ed Mad Men kept us up pretty late last night. From there, the morning went downhill, and not in the good way. I got up, threw on my shorts, a tech shirt, and my not-so-fresh smelling shoes. Just as I was about to head out of the house, I realized that I was not quite ready to leave. (Somebody please tell me how to shift my "schedule.") After my pre-run pit stop, I headed out to the car to drive over to the Creek Turnpike trail. I got in and realized that I was missing something...my MP3 player! I contemplated running without it, but I have learned that that's just foolish, so I went back in, grabbed my MP3 player and a towel (which I had also forgotten), and headed out to the track. At this point, I was already considerably later than usual.

Once I arrived at the 91st & Garnett parking lot, I turned on my Garmin. As it powered up, I immediately received the "low battery" notification. (Why don't they put a battery meter on the face of the display??) I stood with my arm held out perpendicular to my body for a few minutes waiting for it to locate satellites. As I was doing so, I was contemplating the vanity of this exercise, knowing that it would fizzle well before I finished my run.

Satellites located, my fading Garmin and I stared out for 8 miles. The path was pretty well covered with standing water and mud because of the shoddy erosion control and drainage measures implemented by the city. My trail-running friends will be happy to know that my shiny white Nikes are now covered with mud. Of course, I could have avoided some of the mud and water if the path were illuminated at all. (Yep, still complaining.)

It didn't take long for me to realize that I did not know where the 4-mile turnaround point was, as I rarely run east at Garnett for my 8-mile runs. I knew where the 3-mile turnaround was, but unfortunately, this morning, I could not even see my 3-mile billboard beacon because for some reason, the power was out all along the Creek Turnpike except for the cross streets, and at that hour, it was still very dark; not to mention, I was running east, so the west-facing billboards were completely darkened. (Clearly, I have become way too dependent on my Garmin.)

I was able to figure out 3 miles in spite of the darkness, so I continued running east in hopes that I would see something that would remind me of a 4-mile mark. Didn't happen. I simply have not run 4 miles that direction enough. So I had to guess. Of course, I didn't want to undershoot, so I kept saying, "OK, at that fence, I'll turn around...at that tree line, I'll turn around...at that hill, I'll turn around." I'm not sure how far I went--I would guess maybe an additional quarter or half mile out--I will run the same distance with my Garmin tomorrow or Wednesday to find out--but I know I exceeded 4 miles.

The return was uneventful (aside from getting my shoes really muddy at 129th). I was really bummed that my Garmin was not working, because I knew that the pace was pretty brisk (for me, anyway), and I would really have liked to have known what it was. And unfortunately, I did not look at the time just before I began my run, so I couldn't even do the math.

There, that's all of my complaining.

Saturday's 12-miler was good. The pace was unusually fast for my long run. I was able to keep up with Scott for about 10 miles of it, but after the last water stop, I did slow it down some.

Next Saturday, 18!

I'll have a happier post next time. Thank you for indulging me.

9-14-09
Distance: 9.3