Watch the watch

Two things I can say about tonight's run: That it was an epic milestone run and I almost broke my ankle trying to mark it.

The Garmin and I have been through a lot, these past three-plus years. Garmie, as I have called him, has gone through countless stops and starts as I wait (not jog in place) at stop lights through the many cities I've passed through.

He's outlasted at least 10 pairs of shoes, collected for me 15 marathon medals, kept pace through many PBs. He's seen days when I'd do tempos, track work and put him into lap mode. We haven't played with the virtual parnter. In all but a few runs, he's accompanied me on every run, and I've even waited patiently for him to charge up if I forgot to plug him in.

Truth this, I don't often pay too much to him during my runs. If I run for 50 minutes, as I did tonight, I may glance at him a few dozen times. He prompts me to run a negative split to get the average pace lower.

Often, I will not finish a 20 miler run until his counter passes 32.2 (because I, like other running geeks, know that 32.2 kilometres will get you about 20 miles, give or take a .01.

Just the last two weeks, he's been taken on his 10th or 11th trip around Central Park, days after visiting a running path in Tobago. Funny thing about Garmins, they remember everything, like the first day I tried Garmie out, on Sept. 11, 2008 exactly, on a path on the National Mall in DC.



Truth is, all I really wanted to do tonight was to mark the 10,000 kilometre mark. Garmie has had a strap replacement, but other than that, he's probably good to go for quite a few more laps.

But like a proud parent, I thought today I'd grab a picture when he crossed 10,000 as a reminder. So unlike most nights, I kepted on watching the watch, which is why when I hit a pothole on the sidewalk somewhere around the 5 kilometre mark, I cursed myself for the stupidity of it all.

Stupid to risk spraining, or worse, injuring, my ankle all while staring at the watch while keeping my eye on the road. How silly, I thought, that I would have my first such injury while hitting the milestone. How ridiculous it would be to go on hiatus over a silly picture.

But as I flexed my ankle at a few stops, I was regaining hope that all was well.

I have a new watch that's ready to go, really. My spanking new Garmin 610 has a touch screen and other cool features I'll probably never use.

So that's why, at some random corner on Bay Street, I stopped and took two pictures.

This is the second one...

10,000 kilometres!