Finally Made the Switch

Originally posted on January 8, 2015, by cruisingrunner

After almost two years since leaving home, I made a momentous switch during my run yesterday.

I switched the unit of distance on my Garmin from miles to kilometers.

What!?!

Friends at home might be thinking that is blasphemy while my non-American friends are probably thinking, “Well, it’s about time.”

It was actually an uneventful switch, made without much thought. Basically, I was going for a trail run and the sign said it was 4.3 km to Rainbow Falls, and since the markers were in km, I figured I’d track my progress in km as well. Only after the fact did the significance hit me. I am now officially part of the rest of the world. Soon I’ll rattle off kilometers, kilograms, degrees Celsius, etc., without that awkward pause we Americans usually have as we’re mentally doing to the conversion to our crazy, yet intuitive to us since we grew up with it, system of units.

But in the meantime, while I still DO need to do those conversions in my head, I’ll take advantage of an unforeseen benefit. You see, when the pace shows up as min/km, instantaneously I have no idea how fast I’m really running, because I need to do the conversion first. And after awhile runners mush brain kicks in and I can’t even do the conversion to min/mile to save my life. This means I can’t judge myself for running too slow, even if I want to. And yesterday’s run was most enjoyable. It was along a track (aka trail) from the Kerikeri basin to Rainbow Falls passing Wharepuke falls along the way. The track is well maintained and there aren’t too many steep sections, so it was perfect for a run. The canopy was pretty thick, though, so my Garmin kept losing lock on the GPS satellites. For long section of the track I only got credit for the distance as the crow flies, but I’m trusting the signs: 4.3 km each way.

-D.