I was running an actual semi-long run the other day and a moral dilemna arose. Here is how it came to be. I had left the course choice up to a family vote. My two sons dominated the voting and chose the 1/2 mile loop around our house. They chose this because then they can watch for me out their bedroom window and cheer for me. They also like to request various headlamp settings ("Switch to the Red Light Daddy!") and I am more than happy to oblige. The 1/2 mile loop pretty much stinks for running nine miles because it is extremely repetitive (eighteen laps) and it is all up and down a hill in the middle. None the less with the aid of the most amazing "teh wifey" in the world (who actually provided an aid station for me!) I was doing well.
I had set a goal of finishing under 100 minutes which would be about eleven minute miles, and had been extremely consistent in that. However as I started the last six or so laps I noticed that a car parked on the street had the interior light on. I had noticed some guy sitting in the car and going into a neighborhood party, and apparently he had left the light on. Thus the quandry arose. Do I
A) Interrupt my run, try and figure out which house the driver is in, knock on doors, wake people up and inform the driver of his imminent need of jumper cables, the end result of which is I won't make my goal time of under one hundred minutes OR
B) Ignore this and keep running, and make my goal!
Hmmmm. I'm afraid to admit the rationalization won. I figured it was a small light, the drain couldn't be too bad, right? So I finished the nine miles, then walked up to the house, thankfully caught a few people coming out of the "party" house and let them know about the light.
Nine miles done. Goal time met. Conscience, mostly abated. Good times.
614 1.0 in 11:14
615 9.0 in 99:49
616 1.0 in 12:54
Comments
Know what you mean about the painful laps. My street is 1/2 mile long - since it's been too dark for me to head out on the highway, I've been running this street back & forth. 8 miles today on that street. Gag.