[141] Lies and statistics

ORN: Saturday, May 23rd, I ran 11 miles in Brown County State Park in 1:55'54". This is kind of a big deal because I don't usually run consistently when I travel, especially when vacationing. So go me. I kept FIRST's recommended pace for about six miles, but then I just couldn't hack it anymore and did the best I could until I finished. The hills were murder. I mean, they'd go on for 3/4ths of a mile, crest, and then go up for another half mile. Then it would be downhill for 3/4ths of a mile. Wicked.

Should I mention that I did 45 minutes on a stationary bike on the 22nd? Cross training matters and is part of my FIRST plan, so perhaps I should mention it.

I just figured out that after today's 11 miles, I have run 1,901 miles since Summer 2006 when I started my life as a runner. Back then, I would have said that's a lot of miles, but from my current perspective, I see that it could have been so much more. Of course, I had to run those low mileage weeks and months to learn that higher mileages were possible. I had to come to where I am one step at a time. But as I approach 500 miles for 2009, the sudden awareness that I have only run 2,000 miles in three years makes me a little ... what's the word? Melancholy?

Then, as I think more about it, I have run much more than 2,000 miles in my life. I ran a lot in my two years of high school track and in my various misadventures in the military. And there have been false starts in my running, post-military, where the habit just didn't take. As I wonder what could be my lifetime mileage, I realize the question is unknowable. There's too much missing data. I didn't care about running back then, so I failed to take notes.

So because of bad data-gathering practices, I say that my running career started in the Summer of 2006, and I am approaching 2,000 lifetime miles. But know, dear reader, that it is a fiction of convenience.