Run 915: Come undone ~or~ Oh the irony

Brunette River, pre-run.

This did not go as planned.

The ironic part is I actually picked up one of my Speedgoat 6’s and looked it over, mulling whether to wear them or not. I turned it over, observed the wear in the heel, not to mention a few embedded bits of gravel, and chose to stick to the Switchbacks. You may think there is no irony in any of this, and would be correct. The ironic part came just over two km into the run when the left shoe suddenly felt very loose. I paused the run to check and discovered the lace had snapped.

Because the Switchbacks use a lacing system based on tightening a looped lace with a dial, when the lace breaks, you can’t just easily swap it out for a new lace (which I don’t carry with me when running because that would be kind of weird), but you can’t really just tie the broken lace back together temporarily, because the tension-based system would just pull apart the knot, possibly before you even started moving.

So after only 2K of a planned 5K run, my outing was over.

My pace was also quite slow, because I deliberately started out at a low pace, so I’d have enough gas in the tank for the second half, which never happened. Still, 6:05/km is fine for a run that didn’t go as planned.

The conditions were quite nice–mild and sunny late in the morning, with a gentle breeze. I was fine wearing a t-shirt and shorts. The pleasant weather saw a fair number of other people out jogging, with laces that were holding up better than mine. Alas.

Still, it was good to get out and on Friday I’ll be wearing some kind of shoes with laces that should hold together for what will probably be a 3K run, because my OCD will not tolerate having my total run distance end with anything other than a 0 or 5 (for now). But we’ll see.

Brunette River, post-run.

Stats:

Run 915
Average pace: 6:05/km

Training status: Productive
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 11:05 a.m.
Distance: 2.18 km
Time: 13:16
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 13-14°C
Humidity: 61-58%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 152
Weight: 170.4
Total distance to date: 6,412 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Switchback (these are old shoes and will not be worn again since the lacing system broke)

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