And mostly, I've decided to recognize them. But I still have debates about it with myself every now and then...
I doubt their validity.
It's one of those internal debates that rages on. Like if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around, does it make a sound? Or what is the sound of one hand clapping?
As my schedule would have it, I didn't end up running a 5k race pretty much EVER this summer. It wasn't until this fall that the opportunity to run a 5K came up that I was setting out with the sole goal of beating my 5k time. The Run4Mercy 5k in East Nashville was that race and I finished with a clock time of 25:05.
Not a sub-25 minute 5k, but a new 5K for sure...
OR WAS IT? Because my GPS watch and the clock time did NOT agree on this one...
But do you see the other problem?
Ok, you can't. Stupid photo doesn't actually display total distance. But the total distance recorded by my GPS watch? 3.04 miles.
And last time I checked, a 5k was 3.1 miles. And my watch agrees. And as such, this does not go down in Nike GPS Watch history as my fastest 5k. Perhaps they give out trophies for fastest 3.04 miles? Is that a thing?
I knew it wasn't 3.1 as I crossed the finish line because I had looked at my watch. I was tempted to keep running until the watch rolled over and to make it "GPS Watch offical." But since this was a fun, family-friendly event, where most participants were walking, to keep running after the finish line seemed like a total jerk move. And so I stopped. And while I have decided my new 5k time to beat is 25:05 (Still aiming for sub 25 at some point this year!), my GPS watch still thinks I can be much slower. And that annoys me.
Because like on facebook, nothing is official until it's recognized by the internet.
My next big conundrum? The 10k PR. OR IS IT?!?!?
This is like a mystery novel, full of suspense. Seriously. (I may be slightly exaggerating that...)
Rory, however, had other plans.
And so we set out at her preferred speed: Fast. But as is the case when running with a dog, you don't get to run uninterrupted miles. Those miles are broken up with breaks, to poop, to pee, to sniff and to grab a drink of water from the nearby creeks.
I will admit, I also paused to use the bathroom halfway along the trail and to grab a quick drink from the drinking fountain.
And each time, I paused my GPS watch. It wasn't out of an effort to try and change my overall time, but to try and give me a better estimate of my overall pace. So when Rory and I had completed our required 6.2 miles and my watch put on an artificial fireworks display and congratulated me on my new 10k PR... Well, I was a little shocked.
Does it count if I took breaks in the middle? Can you call "timeout" during the middle of a PR and still have it count?
I'm not quite sure, actually. Although I still like the idea of having 57:29 as my 10k PR to beat, so I'm going to pretend. It gives me a more challenging time to beat for next time.