Ran quickly over my lunch break. Had a certain path in mind. I have a lot of paths – possibly hundreds – worked out in my head of varied distances across the county where I live, based on all the thousands of miles I have run here.
Sometimes, you have to switch up your path for varied reasons – for example, today, an ornate curious looking gate that is normally closed, was open. So of course I checked it out; I was not disappointed. But then, a huge, scary looking dog was off leash – so, rather than take my chances, I turned and back tracked.
All said, it was about 5k. I recently wrote about testing my new awesome watch against my phone to see how far off they were after a weird race result. Decided to test it one more time – cuz you know, data is data.
Still a pretty close match.
Anywho – no matter what sort of run you are on today, literal or metaphorical – short or long – its good to have a plan in mind – and then – it imperative to be able to adapt and overcome when necessary.
A 60,000-word manuscript somehow found its way into a less-than-100-page, whittled-down field guide.
It isn’t perfect.
I think—constantly—about what I could have, should have, or still might do to make it better. But this was never about perfection. In fact, maybe the opposite. ref Phil 3:12
Its also not about profit. The proceeds are being donated. Hell, I might never break even.
But what I find myself reflecting on instead is purpose. Somewhat because I am in a chapter of my life where I am constantly trying to improve, and that includes emotionally and spiritually – not just professional and physical.
I wrote this because I keep seeing the same patterns of struggle all around me —and I care.
You can comment on posts. You can write blogs. You can do podcasts. I do all of that. But I wanted to try to lay it all out in one place. What started as a napkin-planning moment (refence Origin story) turned into a year of talks, which eventually evolved into the book. In some ways, I started writing it years ago—pulling from reflections I had jotted down long before. The real sit-down-and-write phase began almost exactly one year before I hit “Publish.”
There were two or three stretches of non-stop writing—what I call heats. They’re a lot like running an ultra: long periods where you’re glued in place, laptop open, doing almost nothing else for days except putting one foot in front of the other. One word at a time. I no doubt looked as haggard and intense on the couch – coffee in hand, typing away – as I often do on a trail…sweaty and maybe even bloody…still hustling.
So what will the author copies I plan to give away at future events do?
They’ll spark conversations. They’ll build relationships. They’ll help fuel Community Gravity—while also generating donations for causes I care deeply about.
I’m grateful for the notes I’ve received so far. One, in particular, sticks with me: someone told me they were afraid to do a big thing for the first time. They did it anyway—wearing a daring bright red shirt—after reading CLIMB. And they crushed it.
That’s enough.
All that said, I have a 50K in less than 80 days. It’s finally above 40 degrees outside, and I have a few minutes before my next meeting—so I’m heading out for a quick run around the neighborhood. *apparently with my dog who saw me lacing my shoes…
I’ve always known that **chip time, race clock time, and whatever device you’re carrying** will never match *exactly*. That’s normal. Margin of error, signal drift, satellites fighting clouds, whatever.
But last weekend?
Last weekend was *next-level* nonsense.
I crossed the 10-mile finish line feeling amazing — strong, fast, confident. I’d been counting how many ten miles bib females passed me as they looped back to predict a podium spot….
Then I checked my phone… and apparently I had run **12 miles**, not 10. Meanwhile, the official race results insisted I ran a pretty slow 10 miler.
So here I am thinking:
**Have all my neighborhood PRs been lies?**
Have I been delusional this whole time, believing my pace is one thing when it’s actually something completely different?
There was only one way to settle this existential crisis.
I bought the **top-of-the-line Garmin** — the fancy sapphire solar titanium, 30-day battery, multi-band, multi-satellite, multi-sun, multi-moon, multi-galaxy GPS monster.
Okay, the moon part might be an exaggeration, but honestly at this point I wouldn’t be surprised.
Today I ran one of my usual neighborhood routes — a “5K-ish” loop I’ve been tracking for ages — with both the **Garmin and my phone** running simultaneously.
**Result?**
Nearly identical.
* Time: off by **less than a minute** (47 seconds to be exact) – and keep in mind that I couldn’t screenshot my phone and pause (or take a pic of because I didnt know how to pause it yet) my watch at the exact same moment – so factor some differential there as well.
* Distance: off by **less than a tenth of a mile** (422 feet exactly)
So what happened at the race?
I’m pretty sure I took a wrong turn — probably at the lollipop section where the 5-milers and 10-milers split. Instead of a clean 10 miler, I apparently created my own hybrid course and nearly ran a half marathon.
Which means:
* Yes, I was actually running close to a **9:00ish pace** the whole time.
* Yes, my phone wasn’t totally wrong.
* And YES — if the phone’s distance were to be believed, I was about to PR my half marathon** by about three minutes.
So was it worth dropping nearly $1,000 on this new Garmin?
**Absolutely.**
Not only did it solve the mystery, but now I have a watch that could probably guide me through Yosemite, call in a rescue helicopter, and maybe even open a wormhole.
This thing isn’t coming off my wrist anytime soon.
Race chip time: 1:54:27 – 10 mile race (that’s over an 11 & change min mile)
My phone said: 1:54:19 – distance 11.78 (that’s a 9’40 min mile)
1.78 is a big deal when you’re factoring pace.
Reasonable Conclusion – I took a bit of a wrong turn somewhere – and I think I know where (there was a 5 and a 10 going on at same time). Its well marked, my my phone and the signs matched up – until they didn’t…It was also well instructed and manned – I’m just an adhd goofball and this is NOT the first time I have done this (did it on a Northface 50k AND an UROC 50k)
And no matter what the official record says – I was running happy
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