Archive for January 16th, 2009

No Pickle!  Less than an hour after I write the entry below I get this email:

“Due to the extreme cold and unsafe running conditions, this weekends Pickle run will be postponed until January 24th”

Well, that’s a pickle!

Oh well, I’m glad I was game for it anyway, I would never have even signed up for a January race last year.  That’s progress.

Tomorrow is that Pickle Prediction Run.  Definitely one of the weirdest running experiences I’ll have had to date.  Besides the nature of the race (pick a time and try to hit it), Weather.com tells me it’ll be 5 degrees windchill.  The cold doesn’t scare me (very high giggle factor, actually), but I have to wonder what effect it’ll have on pacing.  What should I predict?  I’m stymied.

Not that it really matters what I choose – hitting my prediction correctly isn’t the feature for me – it’s pacing myself so that I don’t burn out right off the bat, but at the same time, I don’t want to think I’m going all speed-of-lightening and find out I was dawdling.  So my one real goal tomorrow is to run it like a normal race, as if I had a watch on.

As someone who’s depended so completely on my Garmin since the beginning, when I was still in run/walk learning mode, this will be an all-important lesson in self-awareness.   My, how I need this race.

In the meantime, today’s run should be fun, I’m looking at 2 degrees windchill right now (record cold for me) and it doesn’t look like it’ll get any warmer.  Hey, that means tomorrow will be downright balmy!

OK, see you back here tomorrow with a full report on my picklish hijinks.  Have a good Friday.