High School

Today I headed out to the high school track again. I ran 1 mile and it was off by .01, then I ran a second mile to calibrate it again and it was off by .07. The first mile didn't bother me, being .01 off is not a huge deal, but .07 would definitely add up. I asked a woman who was walking around the track if she knew whether the track was 400 or 440 meters (sometimes tracks are 440 for some reason). She said she had no idea but she thought 400 and she asked why. I told her I was trying to calibrate my watch and that it was giving me the wrong distance. She said "oh well that's a good thing!" I thought to myself...yeah...if you hate accuracy?! Clearly this lady had no clue what she was talking about.

I decided to do another mile on the track even though I really did not want to run around in circles anymore. In the middle of my third mile, a gym class from the high school came outside. I have never seen girls more overdressed for gym class in my life. I am SO glad I'm not in high school anymore! It reminded me of the movie Mean Girls:

You would think people would learn after seeing Regina George get hit by a bus in the movie! Anyway I asked one of the gym teachers about the length of the track and he said he was almost positive it was 400. I calibrated my watch for miles 3, 4, and 5 and they were all off by .04-.07. Each of the 5 miles was also off in different directions. By this point I had ran 20 laps around the track and I was ready to go. So for future reference, I know that my watch will not be 100% accurate. I was more concerned with my pacing though because on Monday night's run, it was saying I was running 12 minute miles when I was obviously running faster than that. Today at least my pacing was more accurate (give or take about 15-45 seconds in either direction depending on the mile):

Mile 1: 9:45
Mile 2: 10:19
Mile 3: 9:03
Mile 4: 9:09
Mile 5: 9:19

While mile 3 seems fast for me for a 5 mile run, it is possible because for the first half of the last lap I picked up my speed and for the second half I all out sprinted. But since that lap was off by about .05 it's also possible that mile was more like 9:33...who knows! I really wanted to run a little on the streets because that's where my pacing was all screwed up the other night, but I figured 5 miles was enough for one day. So we'll have to see how the watch holds up on Saturday morning at Kelly Drive again when Vic and I take on TEN MILES! Then we are off to NYC for the weekend!

--Melissa