Just Call Me Forrest

Today I had to start working around 7am, because I had to get ready for a conference call at 9am.  So I logged onto my work computer at home, and started work early.  I didn't end up going to the office because once the conference call was over around 10am, what was the point of going in then?  So I worked from home.

I like going to the office better than working from home, just because there's other people there. But working from home has its advantages. One of them being schedule flexibility. So I decided to take a mid-day lunch break and run 3 miles around our house. There's just something cool about lacing up your shoes and just running out your front door.

It was completely beautiful today. Sunny and 60 degrees, perfect for a run. After about 10 minutes of running, I looked down at my Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS watch and discovered that I hadn't charged it recently and the battery had run out. I've been running outside with my Garmin watch for a year now. That's how I know how long I've run, both distance-wise and time-wise, and it also shows my pace. So no Garmin today. I also didn't bring my iPod Shuffle, because when I run by myself on the street, I don't listen to music for safety reasons. When I run in a group or at places like Lake Miramar, where there isn't really traffic, I put the music on. It was the most low-tech run I've had in a long time! So I just ran and ran and ran, not knowing how long it had been, or the distance. I felt like Forrest Gump. It was rather freeing in a way, to NOT know your pace or distance or time. I had my camera with me. You didn't think I would go totally gadget-free, did you? :p

Running around my neighborhood means lots of hills. This was the view from the top of one hill.


We live on the other side of the mountain.


The trouble with going downhill is that you have to go back up to go home.
Hill #1


Hill #2


After I got back home I mapped my route on Gmap-Pedometer. Come to find out I ran 4.8 miles of hills.  :-|  I had thought it was more like 3 or 3.5 miles. New motto: if you don't know how far you've run and how long it's been, then you don't feel the pain. Ignorance is bliss! :p

My friend Anne, also a runner, gave me this Beautiful Blogger Award a few days ago.

I'm supposed to come up with seven random things about myself. I thought I would take the opportunity in this running post to share seven random running things about myself. :)

1.  I started running in 1997.
2. I'm on my sixth pair of basically the same pair of shoes.  When I find a pair of running shoes I like, I stick with them.  I switch pairs after about 350 miles.
3. I ran my fastest 5k on Thanksgiving Day 2004.  I forget the exact time but it was about 27 minutes.
4. I ran the Honolulu Marathon (all 26.2 miles of it in 85 degree Hawaiian weather) on December 10, 2000.  It took me a little over six hours because I got a huge blister the size of a nickle on my right heel halfway through the marathon.  Hey I finished.
5. I can't run with sunglasses because of my Asian flat nose, they slide off my face too easily.  That's why I always wear a runner's cap.
6. I always run with my camera now.
7. Running was my escape when I took care of my mom during her illness.  I lived at her house half the time.  I would run from her house down to a nearby park, run a few times around the park, and then run back to her house.  It was what kept me sane when I was so stressed out from taking care of a terminally-ill parent.

Now I will pass the award to a few people:
AJ
Erika
Christi
Tracey
Heather