RIP Old Nike Sensor...

That's right, in the middle of my run on Friday, my Sensor died. I don't think you know what a big disappointment that is unless you are a runner and don't think your runs count unless they are actually measured.

I was doing a ~4 mile loop and at about mile 2, the voice in my ear phones said something about the activity 'stopping'. What do you mean stopping?? I'm still putting one foot in front of the other, I'm still breathing heavy, still swinging my arms like a mad woman (yep, apparently I'm an arm swinger while running and it's not cute!)...this does *not* feel like stopping. I took my shoe off, spoke to the sensor in a nice voice "come on, come on!", reset my Ipod and tried again. Nothing. I finished the run, but not happy about it (also realizing the pace for that run was messed up since I kept running for a bit after the painful death of the sensor)...and of course I wasn't getting back out there until I got a new sensor.

So I went to get a new sensor and asked the guy why mine died so quickly. He said it's good for about 1,000 hours of running. Well, I didn't run 1,000 hours!!!...but I did keep it in my shoe to go to the gym classes, to walk to the doggie, to run at airports, etc...so there you have it. Lesson learned: take the sensor out of the shoe when you are not running.

I set out to run with my new sensor last night (which according to the manual did not need to be re-calibrated). What do you know, it told me my pace was in the 8s!! (8'46'' to be exact)...which I thought was crazy because my old sensor was constantly telling me I ran in the 9s. During my two races I have averaged 8'36'' and 8'26''. I thought for sure my race time chip was defective or they had miscalculated the distance...but I wasn't going to say that out loud! (hehe) .

Because I'm still in denial, I decided to use mapmyrun and backtrack to my average pace. The total distance of my loop was 5.83 miles and the time was 52'03''. Using the pace calculator it shows my pace was 8'55''...so ok, it wasn't 8'46'' as the Ipod said, but it was 8'55'!!!. What in the world?? All this time I truly thought I was a 9-ish runner (and very happy with that!) and thought my two races had been flukes. So this new sensor is definitely giving me stats more consistent to the results I see in the races.



So goodbye old sensor, I won't miss ya! I will try to calibrate this new more carefully....although it's not too far off (it marked 5.93 total distance rather than 5.8). I'm still in shock!

I am also happy to report my sister is becoming a runalholic too! woohoo! one down!

Also wanted to share that my friend Nani featured me as one of her POSITIVO stories, ahh, my 15 minutes of fame ;)