Gear

ZEN AND THE ART OF WATCH-FREE RUNNING

I’ve enjoyed watch free running the past couple of decades. While a younger runner I had my Casio Chronograph that I wore faithfully. But over time I felt less compelled by the clock and more driven by the sheer joy of unrestricted and unmonitored running.

How much better it is if we can run to our own beat. While competitive runners tend to be a bit compulsive about our training and racing, I believe we are also often free spirits, and a bit less conventional than your average Joe or Jane. I, like a lot of my running friends, run to the beat of a different drummer. We don’t take direction all that well. If you say zig, we go zag. Maybe that’s in part why I’ve gone off course no fewer than three times while racing over the years.

In college, and for a few years after, I had plenty of time to train and race. I hooked up with a bunch of fast running buddies on Wednesday nights and we cruised around Harriet, Calhoun and Isles. I later learned that some of the slower runners called us the “flying assholes”. I quit racing, when it became too much of an obsession. I didn’t have adequate time to train at the level that would keep me competitive. In my 20’s I felt I would be losing it if I could no longer run a sub 2:30 marathon. The joy of running was dimmed when it became too closely associated with race results.

Time for training and racing became scarce after I was married and launched a nonprofit mentoring program. A running epiphany occurred for me in the late 1980s. I began a Get in Gear race that I felt obliged to run; however, just a mile into the race I realized my heart wasn’t into racing, and I turned around and starting jogging to the starting line. Someone shouted out “you’re going the wrong way.” I smiled and continued on my way, realizing I was indeed now going the right way for me at that time. I had decided I needed a break from racing.

Decades passed since that Get in Gear race, and I downshifted my career, so I had more time to run and race respectfully with a team.

BY DANIEL JOHNSON

I met a running friend at a race that told me about how some of the now older guys, most all in their 50’s, had reconvened and were forming the “Old Road Warriors”, sponsored by Run N Fun. Monday nights the group was meeting up at the Run N Fun store by Lake Calhoun, and guys were running, one, two or three lakes. I felt comfortable to jump back into upping my running game and began racing with the team. This time, however, I was less driven by a watch or the competition, and more by the camaraderie of being a part of a team. Following our Monday night runs we have a beer or two and catch some supper together, retelling and embellishing upon past racing accomplishments.

I was watch free running, and liking it. Still competitive, but running by feel. For me a watch now represents an external monitoring and expectations that I would generally prefer to be without. Competitive running easily becomes an obsession. Having a watch on one’s wrist only fuels that obsession. It is a beautiful thing to be unconstrained by time.

Now not only can watches keep track of the time and distance of a run, they can also alert runners to email and voice mail. Sorry, but one of the main reasons I run is to get away from such distractions. Running provides unstructured time to allow one’s thoughts to drift and think creatively.

Isn’t it great that, with chip timing and electronic results, we no longer need a watch to get a finish time? If anything, I think that a watch can slow one down at the finish line, as one is looking at their wrist, rather than running through the finishing chute.

We run and race best when we are relaxed. I believe running watch free aids in this. While running I prefer to pay attention to my own body’s signals, rather than trust a watch. Last year, at age 58, I ran a respectful 1:24 in the City of Lakes Half Marathon. Midway though running with a fast group of guys, I asked what our pace was. One of the guys, without missing a beat, or even looking at his watch, said “we’re running at a good pace.” I was fine with that, and it brought smiles to us all in the pack.

Shortly after last year’s half marathon I had the opportunity to be a Cliff Bar Pacer at the Twin Cities Marathon. Two of us pacers were given the 3:15 group. Thankfully the other runner was younger, had both better vision and a watch. He kept track of the splits and I just ran along. I’m pleased to report my finishing time was 3:14:48.

Running watch free seems to be working for me as a competitor. In this year’s MDRA 15K

STEPHEN OJALVO PLAYS IT UP FOR THE CAMERA WHILE RUNNING THE CITY OF LAKES HALF MARATHON. Photo by Wayne Kryduba

I received splits for the first couple of miles, then ran split free. I was thrilled to run a 57:47, which turned out to be a Minnesota age record.

Once again, I had the opportunity to be a pacer at the 2017 Twin Cities Marathon. This year my assigned pace was 3:25. I thought about running watch free, but felt that might not instill confidence in my group. I decided to purchase a used (Craigslist) basic Garmin watch to allow me to get mile splits. It was working out fine until around 20 miles, when it no longer recorded my running time. Technology is great … when it works.

Now that I’ve got a watch with GPS it has been interesting to see the distance of my training routes. I’m thinking in the future it could be a useful tool for interval training. I don’t however want my watch to dictate my everyday running. There is something nice about being a free-range runner.

It’s long been said that a watched pot never boils. Perhaps as runners an analogy might be that a watched watch never makes us faster. I invite others to run watch free and see how it impacts your running and times. I hope you might find it as freeing as I have.