An interesting thing happened to me about a week and a half ago during my RAGNAR run. My phone stopped charging. It had been giving me some grief for a bit but nothing I or my friends could do could get it to charge. This wound up affecting my running...
My phone had my Strava app on it. I've been using it for a while now in conjunction with my Apple Watch. Without it, I wouldn't have my splits, my distance, my heart rate, all those things I was starting to use more of to help pace out my run. What if I went out too fast or too slow? How would I know when I was halfway done? This was starting to stress me out a little bit.
It took me a moment to realize I was getting way too wrapped up in this. Yes there is a time for training, for pacing, and for sticking to specific splits, but this was not that time. This was a time to enjoy cheering my teammates on, doing some crazy things, and enjoy running.
So I just ran. I started the stopwatch on my Apple Watch just to have some bearing of time. I figured I'd look at it a few times along the run to guess how far I had gone based on how I was feeling. But I never did. I just ran. I enjoyed the gorgeous views that were provided. I relished the Pacific Northwest air. I ran down some runners along the way too. I just ran.
In the end, I ran too hard for my first run, probably never would have made my second run if I was focused too much on time, and had injuries so I brute forced my way through my third run. It didn't matter. I just ran.
...and that was the point. Interestingly enough near the end of the second day my phone started charging itself again. I haven't had any problems with it since. I suspect God has a bit of humor, and knows how sometimes the little things can help me remember the bigger things. 8^D