Running and the Geek Factor

Yes, I am a bit of a geek. I am a word geek; you know the kind of person who knows more than just the difference between their/there and two/too/to. I also know when to use which and that & who and whom (email me and I will clear it up for you if you want to know). I also know how and when to use a semi-colon. And I know the difference between an em-dash and an en-dash.

But these days I am also becoming a technology geek. The computer, the internet, and our miscellaneous gadgets have become a part of every day life. I hardly notice them anymore. We are talking about getting an e-book reader, but are not convinced of the Kindle and there are a few more that are interesting, but do not have us sold yet. I am shopping for a new digital camera.

But one place where the geekery (Ray's favourite word) has remained at bay, for the most part, is in running. I strap on my shoes and run. Two years ago my husband bought me an MP3 player and I've been enjoying that too. And so it began... A few years back I discovered online logging. I use Running Ahead, though I have tried a few others. And long gone are the days of running, then taking the car out to drive the distance afterwards. Now I use gmaps. But my very last holdout is my watch. I have a pretty basic Timex Ironman watch. It has a chronometer, so I know the overall time of my run. I can get it to do "laps" or "splits", if you prefer, but I never do. It also has a timer that can be set to count down or up and it can do repeats or stop and has 2 settings. I use it to time 10 minutes of running and 1 of walking. And it is the simple version.

I've been holding out.

But geekery and running are egging me on and trying to meet up. I would like a Garmin:
It not only tracks the time and splits and such, but also has GPS, so it will tell you the distance you have run (while running) and the speed you are going. It has a heart rate monitor (I have one, but ditched it a while ago). And let us not forget how many calories you have burned. Plus, you can upload it all to your tracking software and obsess endlessly over your stats.

Part of me wonders if this is not too much information. While the other part of me drools endlessly over it.

So much for a "simple" sport.