Start of the marathon and 40 miler.
BEEP BEEP OFF COURSE
"What? No!", I said to my Garmin GPS watch as I was running down the trail, at about mile 4 of the Triple Lakes half marathon.
BEEP BEEP OFF COURSE
I have run a lot of trail races, and there have been many times when I almost took a wrong turn, or doubted that I was on the right trail. So, although I have never actually gotten lost, I decided to try the "course" feature of my watch, which will guide you along a pre-recorded route. I put in the track from last years race, and felt reassured that I wouldn't get lost.
As you run, it has a neat little map of the trail ahead and an arrow showing where you are. Unfortunately, because I had my head down staring at this, I missed the big yellow arrows on the trees and ran down the wrong trail.
BEEP BEEP OFF COURSE
"Mother-&^%$!!! %$^%-damn-*^$%#* moron!!!".
Yes, I had gotten lost because of my GPS watch.
BEEP BEEP OFF COURSE
And now the damn thing was rubbing it in. I considered taking it off and throwing it in the lake, but it got lucky as I came back out onto the right trail. The little detour only set me back a few places, so I sped up to try to make up for it. But my legs were dead from the Salem Lake 30K last Saturday. I struggled the last 3 miles, ending up 2 minutes slower than last year.
Don't know his name, but it is a great picture.
Shannon took a bunch more pictures, which are here. And here (for the artful versions):
Don't know about you, but my legs don't want to work today... that was a tough course.
ReplyDeletegreat black and white picts! love lone man on road!
ReplyDeleteThose are great pics. I'm surprised I didn't find a way to get myself into any of those shots, given my lack of maturity and decency...
ReplyDeleteAh, there I am. Right in the middle. That's a cool pic. And not just because I'm self-centered.
ReplyDelete