I beat the Burnside this morning. I started out around 8:06 by my watch, and I found out at the end that my watch was about a minute behind the official clock, which means I had to run 5.1 miles (8 K) in at least 53 minutes to make it before the bridge went up. Translates to a 10:39 pace or better.
Well, I did it in 48:17, or a 9:42 pace. I could do better, but… I think I hurt my right heel. It’s been sore all day. I hope it’s not plantar fasciitis. I’ll start doing my stretches again this week, and I won’t run until… um… Tuesday. Late Tuesday. OK, OK, I should probably stay off it for longer but, dammit, I’ve got Run Hit Wonder next weekend.
My good mood from beating the Burnside faded as I ran into problem after problem the rest of the morning. My phone stopped working, taunting me with four full bars of signal… and a “No Access” error message. WTF? Rebooting and reseating the SIM card didn’t help. I had to walk a ways to the gym to shower and change and every single Starbucks I found had a long line – lack of food post-run (the bagel with peanut butter and the water they fed me afterward didn’t really fill me up) and my sore heel didn’t improve my mood.
Once I was showered and changed, I went to pick up the FlexCar I had checked out for the day… and realized that I had checked one out clear out in Northwest Portland. It was a “special”. I had thought it was closer. I then had to walk for another half-hour or more to get the car. I was holding out because my reward for finishing the race was to be a Burgerville raspberry shake… Mmmm.
But when I got to the car… .my card wouldn’t open it. And my cell phone was still kaput. I couldn’t call and complain or find out what was wrong. I had to traipse all over NW Portland to find a free WiFi spot to email FlexCar about the problem.. and by that time it was nearly noon, I was nearly keeling over from hunger, and thinking of all that I had wanted to get done while I had the car… and having to cancel most of it. Argh.
I then had to find the nearest T-Mobile store, to get my phone situation taken care of. The closest place was the one at Lloyd Center. Another long walk, and a light rail train ride, and more walking. However, when I approached the store, in a distant corner of the mall, I found a long line of people. Turned out it wasn’t just my phone; the network was down. The customer reps at the store apologized and let us know that if we contacted T-Mobile after our phones were working again, we would be credited for the lost time. They expected the network to be back up in several hours.
My day was shot. After I got some food (finally made it to Burgerville! Mmm… raspberries are The Kings Of All The Berries) I went to see a movie, to get off my aching foot and out of the heat.