Tomorrow I will recap Saturday’s Dog Day 5k race. But for now, let’s talk about pace.

Wednesday was my last run before the race. And it was actually National Running Day! I was very sore because I took a yoga class on Tuesday. Yes, sore. It was my first yoga class in six years. {More on that in a future post.} In any case, I plugged my earbuds into my iPhone, readied my Map My Run App and pulled up my Me First and The Gimme Gimmes station on Pandora. I hadn’t listened to their punk version of hit songs in a while and definitely hadn’t listened to them running! I was in a great mood. Then, I went out for the two mile run.

WHOA! Did you hear that? I went out for a run. I didn’t write that on purpose. I typed it out and then re-read what I had written. It was all by accident that I didn’t type that I had to “do” my 2-mile run. I don’t know what is happening to me! In fact, something else happened to me on that National Running Day run. At mile one, my Map My Run App voice whispered in my ear:

Time: 8 minutes, 2 seconds

Distance: 1 point zero mile.

WHAT? This can’t be possible. Depending how far I’m running, I average 12.5 to 13 minute miles! I was flying high and spent the next mile trying to figure out if it was actually possible or what the fluke could be. I mean, a four to five minute difference? Come on!

So, here is what I came up with to possibly explain it:

1. Although I was sore, yoga really stretched and opened me up, making it easier to lengthen my stride. {Uh, but I really can’t tell when my pace is faster or my stride is longer. It all feels the same to me, really.}
2. The Me First and the Gimme Gimmes music must have more beats per minute than the usual workout stations I listen to, naturally making me go faster. 😉
3. The Map My Run GPS was “off” that day.
4. The folks at Map My Run knew it was National Running Day and wanted to make sure that runners felt good about themselves, so they shaved the time accordingly that day. HA!

While #3 sounds like the most logical, I had really wanted to believe the first two. No matter what, I felt great that day. The run felt good despite the soreness, too. According to Map My Run, my 2nd mile was only about 10.5 minutes, too. But it also told me I completed two miles a lot sooner than I had mapped out. So I just kept going to my 2-mile mark. Come back tomorrow to see how I fared at Saturday’s 5k.

If you are a runner, what strange experiences have you had while running?

What have been your experiences with Smartphone apps?

Cheers~
Carrie