Thursday 24 November 2011

How to fool a Garmin...

After a knackering week (training all weekend with the mountain rescue search dogs - which meant lots of steep climbing followed by lots of lying down - shovelling 3 tonnes of compost at Holehird, the garden where I volunteer, 8 hours of shredding at Holehird and a gym session), it was a relief to go for a run this morning. It also helped that I was in Harrogate with the lovely Mrs HF for the Knitting and Stitch show, and Harrogate was a new town for me to run in.
I did a simple loop from our B&B at about 0730 this morning as the day was lightening. The traffic was beginning to flood into the town as I worked my way uphill past substantial yellow stone houses and seemingly endless restaurants, Indian, Thai, Japanese and fast-food.  It was one of those runs where you have no idea where you're going; you just follow your nose. Luckily, at the top of the first hill was a church with a striking steeple that I was able to keep an eye on as I worked my way round the loop. I dropped down a hill, left at a roundabout and back up another long hill, following 'Town Centre' signs, until I emerged at the International Conference and Exhibition Centre from where I made my way back to the B&B.
I've no idea how far I went because the Garmin took over 7 minutes to locate the satellites. At one point it pointedly asked me 'Are you indoors?'. On answering 'No', a spark lit up its little brain and it asked 'Have you travelled hundreds of miles since last use?'. Well only sixty-something actually. All this led me to think that the poor little thing was busily scanning the heavens for its familiar Cumbrian satellites and, when it couldn't find them, started looking for Yorkshire ones!
All in all, a super little run - and another town to add to my list of places I've run in.
Smileyrating 7.5/10

2 comments:

  1. the irony is a piece of tracking technology asking you if you've moved hundreds of miles

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  2. There must be something funny about Yorkshire satellites; my Garmin can never find them either.

    Good to hear there's time to fit in some knitting conferences in amongst your busy retirement itinerary ;]

    We're just buying a new house (hence my blog holiday and lack of e-tales) - the owner is a lady textile artist - she was singing the praises of the very same conference when we visited last week. I feel like I'm missing something...

    RB

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