Running What I Know

Of the five days for which I will be in Sydney for at least part of the day, yesterday (the third day) was the day on which I had my first opportunity to run.  Why did it have to wait until then?  Because I had packed in a way that my running shoes and all the clothes in which I could run were in the bag that didn’t make it on the connecting flight from the US to Australia.  So, I obviously couldn’t run on day one.  And then the luggage did not get to me and the research associate with whom I traveled until 7:30 PM on day 2.  So, I got up yesterday morning early, left just past 5, and ran.  And what a joy it was after three days (Sunday when I was traveling all day and lost the day because of crossing the international dateline, and Monday and Tuesday in Australia) to just run.

Did I run fast?  No.  I averaged nine minute miles.  I can’t think of the last time I averaged nine minute miles. Especially for the distance I ran—10 miles.  Even for a workout rather than a race that distance would normally take somewhere between 7 and 10 minutes less.

But being in Sydney and not having studied the map as closely as I might, I decided to stick with what I knew or to go just beyond what I knew in one case and to make sure that I could find my way back to what I knew.  That led to multiple “out and back” sections of my run.  The entire run was going to be “out and back” anyway.  While I don’t enjoy doing that back home any more than necessary, I find it easiest to do in Australia because I don’t have a sufficiently detailed working map of Sydney (or the suburban area where the University of New South Wales is) in my head to do a big loop.

So, aside from going down one street that I thought was parallel to something I knew but turned out not to be and I was able to recover from, I ran what I knew.  Slowly to get the legs going again after days of sitting.

And I ended up running to Coogee Beach, a bit along the promenade there, and back through Randwick to Anzac Parade.  It was a very enjoyable run. 

It was very much like the first year of my job—pushing just a little beyond my comfort zone but generally I come back to what I know.  What I know has been pretty reliable thus far, and continues to work when I need it to.  There are some interesting lessons from pushing just beyond in life.

The 10 miles puts me up to 438.5 and puts me 1.5 miles outside of Washington Courthouse, Ohio, still on US-22 headed west.  The Catholic church in the town was St. Colman of Cloyne, honoring a man in Ireland who died around 600 and who opened a monastery in Cloyne in County Cork.  Apparently he was quite a poet.  So, to close this entry, I will write a short haiku.

Moving just beyond

All I know is “brilliant”! “New”

While feeling secure.

Here is the actual course showing multiple "out and back" ranges.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/463485297