Good morning & happy Monday. After this week, I will be half done with marathon training. Holy cannasta it is flying by! I know I say that pretty much every week, though. I wish time would slow down a bit.
Something happened on my long run on Sunday that has surprisingly never happened before since I started running in 2005.
I got lost.
Now, this will come as no surprise to any family members reading this because I seriously have no sense of direction - whatsoever. I mean, I once got lost in a high school friend's house... and it's not like her house was enormous or anything...
I ran a familiar route yesterday but got into trouble when I tried to add 6 miles onto this loop. I had added 3 miles onto this loop when I did my 12 miler a couple of weeks ago but apparently my memory of that 3 mile addition was a bit foggy as I definitely could not find the road I wanted to run along...
So I just kept randomly running through this neighborhood in South Minneapolis, hoping I would stumble upon Minnehaha Parkway. Total fail. So I just kept running, hoping I was going in the right direction. I had a general idea of where I was, but at the same time I was pretty lost.
I saw people out on their lawns but I guess I have a little too much of my father in me as I had too much pride to stop and ask someone where I was and whether I was running towards the Lake I needed to get back to.
I will say - at one point I got on a running path that ended being part of a golf course... I contemplated continuing along that path as I had a good idea of where it would end, but I was picturing myself being scolded by a Course Marshall or something.
Luckily, it all worked out. I eventually found the lake I was looking for and made it back to my car. Being lost sort of threw me off, though, so this was definitely not my best run. And I ended up running along a road with absolutely no shade, so I was exhausted by the end of the run.
This week is another step back week, though. Thank God. I am in need of an easier week!
Do you have a good sense of direction? Are are you also missing an internal compass like me? If you get lost, do you ask for help?
*************
Training Tally:
Miles ran last week: 34
Training-to-date mileage: 212
Glad you made it out of there. I got lost on my 15-miler last week. I tried a new neighborhood and then couldn't find my way out. The good thing was it made the miles click by a little faster!
ReplyDeleteHaha, you poor thing! I'm glad it wasn't at the end of your run so you weren't running extra trying to find your way home!
ReplyDeleteI missed my turn road when I was training last winter. It turned into a blessing because I ran just over 12 and for me that was what I needed. It was my longest run before my first 1/2. Typically I have a great sense of direction and I love learning the roads around my area by running. I'm glad you were able to find your way back!! You are doing so awesome!!
ReplyDeletei don't have that bad a sense of direction but when I am running at a new place, I do worry about getting lost. I just know that I can always back track. I actually did get a little lost a few summers ago when i was running on a golf course. It was pretty fun because I still knew where I was but just didn't know exactly.
ReplyDeleteI am horrible at getting lost. I just got lost driving from class to my mom's house last week. I knew generally where I had to go, but I kept making wrong turns. Another time I got lost downtown Indy and had a kid riding his bike in circles around my car. It was really weird. I'm so glad that you were able to find where you were supposed to be!
ReplyDeletelol Oh good, I'm not the only one! I definitely orient myself by landmarks, and when I lose track of them I'm kind of done for. When I'm coming down to MN next month it'll be the first time I've driven alone, and I think for my own good I'm going to steal my Dad's GPS! :)
ReplyDeleteOh, Lisa - you poor thing! :( That is such a scary feeling!! I'm gald you were able to find your way back okay and didn't end up getting drifting away to an unsafe "neighborhood" or something!
ReplyDeleteYikes - stressful!
You may not believe this. Actually, I'm almost positive you won't believe this...But I actually have a very good sense of direction. I can almost tell where N, S, E, W is - and when it comes to navigating - I'm pretty darn good at finding our way around. However, if I'm driving - I'm screwed only because I'm a bad driver.
Like you, I have no sense of direction, but unlike your Dad, I do stop and ask for directions! I hate that "lost feeling" though - it's so frustrating! I'm glad you found your way back without too much trouble and have yourself a great week!
ReplyDeleteA woman and her son got lost a few weeks ago on a trail in a park in Eagan a few weeks ago. They had to bring in helicopters to find them. At least you weren't that lost! That must have been a bit unnerving!
ReplyDeleteI've actually done the same in my own neighborhood! Since I live near the "riverbend", streets radiate out from the curve in the Mississippi river. Sometimes a street I think is running parallel to a main street crosses it instead, or abruptly ends. And the one-ways confuse me. A few weeks ago I took a "short cut" to the river heading to the levee I run up (pretending it is hills) and I ended up about half a mile away from it.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you are halfway through your training already! That's great =)
ReplyDeleteWhen I did long runs in my area, I mapped them out in advance and made note of landmarks for myself so that I wouldn't get lost; it's not hard to get lost in the wiles of suburbia!
Are you kidding me! Directions and me do not get along!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you are at the halfway point already! You are going to ROCK in Oct!!
Glad to hear that you made your way back to your car safely! I also have a terrible sense of direction, so I know the feeling when you get lost and aren't really sure where you are heading
ReplyDeleteGetting lost can be frustrating, especially when you think you know you're fairly close to what you're looking for but just can't quite find it. My LR this weekend was kind of boring, but hard at the same time bc I was going much faster than most of my LR, but bringing down the mileage.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that I have a good sense of direction, but we discovered when we were in Europe that I definitely don't. At all! Haha. I tended to get us lost a lot and then when Eric took over the map he would get us un-lost. Lol.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever gotten lost while running though... Oh no, I did once when I was running in the trails. My favourite park to run in backs up on the PRISON in Kamloops and it was a really foggy morning and I found myself taking the wrong trail and being about 5 feet from the prison fence and a bunch of guys in red prison suits were out in the yard. I hightailed it out of there fast!!!
Your marathon training is just so awesome!!! I really admire your endurance :)
ReplyDeleteAs for sense of direction---um...did you ever read about how lost I got on the day I got engaged in PARIS? Jason had all these romantic plans for us to get engaged at Sacre Couer and have our portraits sketched so we could "always have a reminder" of our engagement day---but we got LOST trying to get there, and since we weren't French speakers, we didn't attempt asking for directions---so this is how I ended up getting proposed to after a romantic dinner at McDonalds in Paris instead one of the most beautiful areas in the city . BUT---I wouldn't change it for the world :)
I also refused to go to the LOUVRE because I was convinced I would get lost in there and NEVER find my way out :) So....my sense of direction is pretty non-existent!
Oh no. I can imagine that that would be kind of jarring!
ReplyDeleteI actually have a pretty good sense of direction, and it's a good thing because Mister is just terrible. In the car, he drives and I navigate.
i have a horrible sense of direction and could actually get lost running inside of a paper bag. The worst is when I go out on a group ride and get dropped from the group in the middle of nowhere. I end up coming out the other side of the middle of nowhere and am still lost.
ReplyDeleteI think the most impressive thing here is that you were running far enough to get lost while running! It's hard to get lost on the 3 mile loops I do haha.
ReplyDeleteI have a pretty good sense of direction but there are times when even that cannot help me haha
I have no sense of direction. What so ever. its pathetic actually. My GPS is my lifeline when I travel out of my little valley.
ReplyDeletehaha i was out on a long walk awhile ago and had to go pee bad.. it aws terrible. i was tryinb to cut through side streets to take me back to my car quicker and all i wanted to do was go up to someones door and beg for a bathroom haha
ReplyDeleteOh, gosh, I am the WORST at asking for directions. I'm hoping I marry a guy who is more comfortable with it, because I will walk around for an hour before I ask. ;)
ReplyDelete