Today under sunny skies and with the temperature a positively balmy 15ºC I headed back to Mercer Stadium to do one more calibration run.
My plan was to do four laps or 1.6 km and I completed the run with a corrected pace of 4:59/km. Pretty slow compared to a typical pace but being able to clock under five minutes after four months off is not too bad. The little Achilles tendon lump in my foot could be felt for the first lap or so but I didn’t notice it for the rest of the laps. My stamina felt a wee bit improved over the last calibration and this time I was able to calibrate to the actual distance I ran so in theory it should be accurate as all get-out.
The only incident of note was when a small kid (maybe 3 or 4) stood by the inner lane on the playing field. I watched as he was poised to directly enter my path. He father, a distance away, was calling for him to come over. The kid did exactly what you’d expect–he stepped off the field and into my path just as I approached. Fortunately I had expected the worst case scenario and scooted by in the next lane over without incident.
It still amazes me that any kid survives long enough to become an adult.
My next planned run is on Monday and will probably be a 2 km gate-to-gate dealie at the Brunette River trail. This will be my first official™ run of the year.
