Old Watch, New Watch, Red Watch, Blue Watch

The Regina Police Half Marathon is coming up in about six short weeks, and though I am definitely going to participate, I had hoped I'd be more prepared than I am. Alas, it's an abbreviated training schedule that must start immediately. Still, I ran Queen City last year with very little preparation, so six week's worth will be infinitely better. The acid test is seeing if I can make my goal of two hours for the 21.1 km.

I bought a watch on Wednesday: a cheap-ass $12 digital from Tickers in Cornwall Centre. I was tempted to buy the $9.99 watch I saw at Wal-Mart last week because I really wanted something I could use to time my runs. Sure, this one was $2 more expensive, but it came with the convenience of not taking a 30-minute bus ride and an awesome velcro strap which will pay for itself after only a few uses!

This is the first watch I've had since the untimely death of my old watch. Don't worry, the watch died on its own -- I wouldn't want to be accused of killing time.

I had a math prof at the U of S by the name of McLean. He's known for being a hell of a guy and for his remarkable resemblance to Santa Claus. He also pronounces the word salami as sal-A(short a)-mi. And one day in the middle of a math lab on integrations, he showed me this kick-ass watch that displayed the locations of planets, Halley's Comet, and even the dates of solar and lunar eclipses! Needless to say, I was shocked at this amazing technological display, and I raced out to buy one that very evening. That watch served me quite faithfully until 2001, when it became self-aware, contemplated the meaning of life in the face of its own mortality, realized it wasn't going to make much of an impact on the world in the form of a wristwatch, and promptly dispatched itself from this mortal coil and back to the wheel of samsara. I know this to be true: the replacement of its battery yielded no change; its soul was gone.

And I haven't worn a watch since then. While this has had its inconvenient moments, I have, by and large, thrived without a watch permanently affixed to my body. Rather than feeling like I'm constantly late or in danger of missing appointments, I instead feel unconstrained by time. The appointments still exist, but I no longer have the need to compulsively check my position in time like a coked-out OCD patient.

After years of not wearing a watch, the feeling of one on my wrist does take a little adjustment, and I'm finding that I can't wait to take the damn thing off. But the biggest problem is the constant temptation to actually check the time, now that the option exists. I really only wanted a stopwatch; so to escape this horrible feeling, I think I'll have to reset the clock randomly, making sure that checking the watch for the time will be as helpful as Bush's tips for improving foreign affairs.