Only five days left until the Double Helix 5K.  Last night I decided to try out the distance and see just how long it is going to take me to run 3.1 miles.  I went over to the green way by my house after work for the run.  It is a little flatter than the course will be on Tuesday, but at least I would have an idea of what my time might be.

I have been trying out different iPhone applications to track time and distance.  Yesterday, I used the RunKeeper application.  I have used it before, but only in manual mode.  I would get the route off Google Earth and manually enter the time.  This time I let it do everything.  I also have Nike shoes with the little sensor in them, but I did not turn it on this time.  So I set up my iPhone and got my music cued up, AC/DC today.  I pressed start on RunKeeper and started my run.  RunKeeper calls out time, pace, distance, etc...  So there I was lumbering along listening to my music occasionally interrupted by a sexy voice telling me how great I am doing.

I decided not to try to kill myself this time and be a little smarter about things.  So I was going to run half a mile, the walk for about 30 seconds, run half a mile then walk, etc...  That way I wouldn't totally be out of gas after a couple miles.  Things were going pretty good, I was feeling pretty strong.  "Hell's Bells" was jamming in the headphones and Samantha (my iPhone coach) called out the first leg "0.5 miles, 3 minutes 36 seconds, pace 7.<something>".  I thought, WOW, that was pretty easy.  I didn't really think about how fast a 7 minute pace was.  I continued with my plan, when Sam (sometime I call her Sam), called out 1.5 miles, I ran a little further then turned around.  "Halfway" I told myself.  I was feeling a little less spunky as before, but still not too bad.  When my walk portion was over, I started trotting again.  Same story as before.  Run-Walk-Run, Sam calling out time and distance.  I thought "I got this!!"  When I turned the corner and could see the parking lot, my AC/DC ran out and the Black Eye Peas came on.  I guess I didn't have enough AC/DC songs in the playlist.  I crossed the finish line and hit stop on RunKeeper.  Sam called out the final stats..."3.28 miles, 24.26 minutes, average pace 7.28".  "I am going to blow them away on Tuesday", I thought.  RunKeeper poped up a message that said "Do you want to post your activity?"  "HELL YEAH".  I packed everything up and headed home.  I was very tired, sweating like a whore in church, and my legs hurt, BUT... I was not completly spent.  I actually didn't feel that bad.  Well, let's say, I have felt worse.

Later that night I was on Facebook checking things out and I noticed a message from a friend commenting on my run.  "Wow, that's fast!"  I thought, surly we can't be talking about me.  I scrolled down and saw the RunKeeper entry.  It had added the average speed to the post -- 8.04 miles/hour.  I thought, "wait a minute, that doesn't sound right".  I haven't been calibrated to think in minues/mile yet, but miles/hour I understand.  And that did seem fast, so I rechecked the route on Google Earth.  "@!$%&#, SAM LIED!!!,  That route was only 2.01 miles!!!"  (Luckily, the kids were not in the room.)  So, my pace was actually more like 12.2.  I was a little disappointed.  I pulled up the route map on RunKeeper and it bounced all over the place.  "ARRRGGGHHHHH, piece of @%$!"

Oh well, 12.2 isn't that awful at the stage I am at now.  And I feel I would have had enough left to finish the 5K at about the same pace, so it wasn't a complete disaster.  But I think Samantha and I are over.

Needless to say, I will be checking out other applications and gadgets.  So stay tuned if you are interested in my road tests.

I am going to miss Sam.