There's no stopping an endurance athlete on a mission

As a beginner runner, one of my pet peeves is not knowing exactly what distance I've run on a training run.

When the training schedule says 3 miles, not a problem, give or take a half mile. But when the schedule says 6, 7, 10, 15 miles...I don't want to do a single tenth of a mile more. Call me a wimp, but Hal Higdon, Jeff Galloway - you're not going to get anything extra outta me!

So imagine when the NYPD had set up a road block along the 6-mile loop on the east end of the 72nd traverse. I panicked. I'd meticulously calculated which loops I would run today in order to fulfill my 7-mile assignment. What was I going to do if they cut off of my route an unknown distance? Unfortunately, my Garmin Frontrunner was on the fritz, so it wasn't reliable. (Maybe I should return it!)

I learned it wasn't only me. Several runners, cyclers and rollerbladers just went around the road block - hardly breaking pace - and sustained shouts from the police who tried to prevent us. But we kept going anyway. There's no stopping an endurance athlete on a mission.