Swamp Monsters and Such

My husband bought my a Nike+iPod for my birthday last year. Overall, it's pretty cool because you can just hook it up to your iPod and it tracks your distance, time, and pace while you run using a footpod you attach to your shoe. Well, as great as it is for road running and asphalt paths, I've discovered my Nike+iPod is completely inaccurate on any soft surface. On any run I've had in the snow, (which is inevitable in Ohio,) it is completely off! I've run some courses that I know are 3 miles and looked at my iPod only to have it say 4.99. Yeah right! Then once I went running on a track that had some snow on it. After 3 1/2 laps, it said I completed a mile! Uh...last time I checked, 4 laps = 1 mile. Grrrr. Well, I've had it today. I needed to run an LSD run of 7 miles and decided to try a new trail. The trail wasn't marked, but as long as there wasn't any snow on it, I figured I'd be fine. Well, after a mile or so into the run, I found the trail to be very wet and soggy, extremely soft in spots. I didn't think much of it. I decided to run until my iPod said 7.4 miles just to be safe. Well, I just got home and checked on some trail maps only to find out that I only ran 6.6 miles! WTH! That's almost a full mile off and I did NOT reach my goal today because of it! I am fighting mad. I have my 10-mile race in a few weeks -- I can not afford to be wasting my once a week LSD run on just 6.6 miles. That's not enough! (Yes -- you've probably figured it out by now -- I am insanely anal about numbers. 6.6 is NOT close enough. As far as I am concerned, 6.99999999 is not close enough! I wanted to do 7 miles!) GRRR.

And to top that off, my run was not fun. I tried the Towpath since so many people I know seem to like it. Well, I'm not one of them. First, the trail was so soggy, I felt like it was going to suck my shoe off in spots. Then I ran about 3/4 mile past this marsh like swamp thing. It was scary! I kept imagining some swamp like creature straight out of some Scooby Doo episode jumping out and chasing after me. Then once I got past that, the trail led under a highway overpass that they were doing some heavy construction on. I felt like I should be wearing a hard hat! After that, the trail led into some pretty open land. I thought, "I haven't seen a person or any living thing in miles. Where AM I? Wait...what are those things? OMG, there are vultures circling over me. This place must be where animals come to die!" That thought alternated with, "OMG, if someone were hiding out, just waiting for an innocent, unsuspecting little person like me, I'd be a goner. Nobody would even hear my screams!" I couldn't wait to reach the safety of my car. But now I find out that all that terror was for not! Oh, I am so mad. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to try to redeem myself next weekend as I attempt 8 miles...on my normal, asphalt path! No swamp monsters for me, thank you!