Running Naked in 34f

Q-Less prefers to do her recovery runs without any form of garmin or watch - probably because it stops her worrying about how fast or slow she is going, and she truly gets a break from me hissing splits in her ear, every 200m.  So this morning when there wasn't even a beep of battery life left in my old clunker of a garmin, I went without and 'ran naked'.  It reminded me of a time a couple of years ago when Q-Less and I had done just that, and it ended up being a 30 mile run that took up much of the day.  We didn't know how far we were going or when we would be done.  With the entire day freed up, we just ambled our way downtown and into Manayunk, stopping for soup or muffins every ten miles or so.  Losing the timing device, really does change how you run, you stop trying so hard, and you allow yourself to enjoy the fast bits without worrying about just how fast or slow they are.   There were moments when I forgot I was running and felt more like I was peddalling in slow motion through the sun dappled trails, perhaps I was? Anyway I finished my regular 5 mile loop at about the same time of day, so it didn't seem to change the outcome hugely. Maybe this a good metaphor for life - perhaps we should all relax and enjoy more so that the whole day doesn't feel so full of effort.  It does help that my i-pod seems to have its own form of alien intelligence and is cunningly able to use random shuffle to find just the right song for the right moment - selecting Stairway to Heaven just as you ascend a sun filled slope on the last stretch was peachy; if Eminem had tried dropping the whole world at that point it just wouldn't have cut it!