Up until mid-2006, had it been a crime to keep your time on every run, I would have received the maximum sentence, no plea bargain, guilty as charged. The sentencing phase would have gone something like this:

Judge: Robert, you have been found guilty of wearing a watch on every single run to keep your time. Do you have anything to say for yourself?

Robert: Your Honor, would you mind repeating that? I wanted to time how long it takes you to sentence me and I forgot to reset my watch.

Looking back over my detailed running log since about 1990, I would venture to say that I kept my time on probably 99% of my runs. As an example, in the last 6 years or so alone, as part of my base training I have run one particular 7.5 mile route about 600 times, more or less, and so I know exactly what my splits on an excellent, good, mediocre or bad run are at almost any point on the route. Yes, it might have been a little obsessive-compulsive, but for me it was a way to gauge my progress (or lack thereof) on every single run. I attest now that I felt more defeated than uplifted most of the time, because those "excellent" runs are few and far between, so most of the time wearing the watch was really setting me up for failure and disappointment. What's more, and those of you that have participated in numerous races will be able to identify with what I'm saying, almost all of my finish line photos never captured my face because I was looking down at my watch to stop it exactly when I crossed the finish.

Sometime in mid-2006, my watch band broke. I was too busy to go out and buy a new watch immediately (didn't have "time", imagine that), so I cut off the remainder of the band and ran carrying the face of the watch in my hand. This did not work well because I found that I was tending to squeeze it to make sure I would not drop it, and then I'd end up stopping the time by accident, and of course had to figure out when that happened and walk back a few steps and restart the watch (ok, yes, it was OCD).

Like a young child being weaned from sucking it's thumb or holding a security blanket, I finally decided one evening that I would leave the watch at home. After a tearful departure, I finally made it out the door without my wrist buddy. I immediately looked down before I took my first step to set my watch, was reminded by the bare skin of the catastrophic event that had occurred, and with one last glance at the house, took off. As I got to my first mile, I once again looked down, nothing was there, and thus this scenario repeated itself like a motor reflex at every one of my normal checkpoints. It was around the last mile of the run that I had to literally tell myself to not worry about the time, and just focus on a nice steady pace and tempo. It ended up being one of the most relaxing final miles of any run I had experienced in years. I had survived without the watch.

It's now several months later, and I am a new person. I run typically 5 times a week, and I only wear my watch 2-3 times a week now. On those days where I do not time myself, the entire focus is simply on a comfortable steady pace with no worries and no hurries. Rather than tire myself out on nearly every run because I'm focused on the watch, those runs where I do not time myself allow me to still get in the same number of miles, but in a much less stressful and tiring way.

Quite frankly, the overall results in my running have been amazing. I find that those runs where I do want or need to push myself for time are much faster than they have been for a long time because I am not spent physically and mentally from pushing myself all the time. What's more, I am even running PR's (Personal Records), beating previous PR's that were 5-10-15 years old in many cases.

The next time you want to have a good time, watch out, and leave the watch out.

ok, it took me 30:23 to type up this story... I'll bet if I try harder the next time and work on my spacebar technique I can shave a good 30 seconds off that...