A few days ago, my cell phone battery died, and I spent that entire day without the phone--tetherless, as it were. Now, this usage of "tetherless" is different from the currently more common usage meaning "wireless," as in, e.g., Tetherless World Constellation; although the general meaning of "tetherless" (i.e., not tied down to something) does apply to both usages, as it also does to my usage in this post. So, let me define the specific usage in "running tetherless." Over the many years of running, before I finally got a GPS watch, I've accumulated a good number of routes of various distances, each of which has been estimated from my time and average pace. (After I got the GPS watch, these estimates of distances turned out to be surprisingly good.) Thus, on a given morning, if I want to do an 8-mile run, I'd pick from the handful of 8-mile routes. The benefit of training this way is that, even without accurate GPS tracking, I could accurately track my progress by just timing each run, because distance is a constant for a given route. The downside is that, after so many years, all 57 of the routes, ranging from 2 to 18 miles, have become more or less too familiar. I felt tethered. "Running tetherless," then, means running untethered to any pre-determined route.
What's different running tetherless? An even greater sense of freedom--to explore neighborhoods previously unseen, to satisfy on-the-spot curiosity about some inviting side street or trail, to run whichever direction just because I feel like it. In fact, this is why I so love running in a new place when traveling; it's the best way to get to know a new place!
Of course, to be completely tetherless, I'd have to leave my GPS watch at home and just run free. But, I am in the middle of a winter marathon training program (aimed at the upcoming March Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon), and I feel like I should more closely track my progress. Perhaps, between the spring and fall marathons, I'll try running free of anything--tetherless--just for the sheer joy of it!
