Thursday, July 29, 2010

A Thursday Run Full of Surprises

Still in San Diego, conference is going well. Good content, but last night’s usual post-session boondoggle delayed my bedtime to the point a morning run seems less likely. No worries, Rick, a coworker (pictured mid-boondoggle at right), offers to run with me later in the day. During breakfast we communicate via text and arrange for a 10:30 AM run. Time works great for both of us since the sessions at that time have little value. First surprise is we actually stick to doing the run.

We leave the Hilton Bayfront hotel and head past the airport to Harbor Island. Second surprise is Rick. Great runner. He keeps me on pace, although I suspect I slowed him down a bit. He complains about his legs from a run the day before, but clearly he has no problems keeping the pace, at least not on the way to Harbor Island. On top of that he has perfect runner’s etiquette, slowing down or speeding up to maintain a group pace and making room as we run along in narrow streets.

We both listen to headsets and exchange no more than 20 words during the entire run, using hand gestures to indicate turns. The run is awesome. Again I was worried about high temperature, but cloud coverage for most of the run keeps us cool. We end up doing 10.61 miles in 1:27:32 (8:15 min/miles). Great average for me.

Last surprise is on my song list. I run to a list generated by iTunes from my library that has rock, pop and blues between 85 and 90 BPM. Even so, there are always a few songs that don’t quite work. To my surprise, two songs I thought would not work end up being such motivation that I listen to them repeatedly to keep me on pace: Jim Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl and Elvis Presley’s Don’t be Cruel. Whodathunkit!

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