On The Run - 2/3/9

3.42 mi(ish) / 41 min(ish) / 12 mpm(ish)

Okay, I didn't take this photo - I pulled it off the Net. But I have a good reason!

It also appears that the Nike+ widget that tracks all my stuff is irretrievably misplaced. Not "lost" mind you as I rarely ever lose things . . . irretrievably "misplaced" . . . which means it will turn up two days after I go pick up a replacement . . . and not a day sooner . . .

I didn't have the gizmo powered up this morning and to top it off, I left my watch at home . . . so I was "flying blind" as they say . . . So I ran to the point at Seaport Village that I ran to last time and then ran a little farther before doubling back to the car.

It reminded me of when I was in training in the 4th grade . . . That's right . . training in the fourth grade.

My elementary school would hold an "Olympics" for the students each year where you could qualify for certain events and compete against other kids in your grade. I wanted to do some running events and I decided I better train for them. So each morning at 6am, I would put socks on my hands as gloves and run around the block.

The next day I would run around two blocks and so on. It got to the point where I was running about an hour every morning.

The day of the Olympics, some other boys in my grade approached me and asked me to "throw" one of my races. According to them, I was going to win every race I was in and their friend David would never have a chance to get a gold medal. They wanted me to let him win.

I asked them if David had been running every morning before school for the past month and they said, "No". I thought it over and decided that the only honest thing to do was for everyone to go out and run their fastest.

After receiving my gold medal, I offered to give it to David but he didn't want it because it "wasn't the same". I didn't see how it would have been any different . . .

But I digress . . . . (again)

So I don't really know how far or how long I ran and who knows when the widget will turn up.

I will say this . . . Seaport Village was packed at 5am this morning. Normally I see 4 or 5 other runners at the most that early but this morning I saw close to 100. Everyone running every which way. I asked a couple of ladies if there was a race this week and they said it was probably all the folks from a sales convention of some sort that is in town.

Which brings me to the photo above. I had planned to discreetly get a snapshot of a throng of other runners but I was out of sorts without my watch and widget and in any case I never found a good opportunity.

What I did see though was an enormous black Hummer parked in the parking lot that was festooned with all sorts of stick on ads for a Karate business.

On the sidewalk in front of the testosteronemobile was a line of about 15 people all skipping rope with an instructor barking out orders. It looked like it was some sort of temporary out-of-towner-boot-camp-type event associated with the convention because none of the participants looked the part and they all were laughing and smiling.

"Aaaaaalriiiiigght . . ." The instructor growled . . . "Obstacle course time . . ."

And they all headed to . . . you guessed it . . . .

The Vita Course.