On Sunday I did the Vancouver Marathon, which was a painful experience. I ran a couple of marathons over the past years, but this one was by far the wettest and coldest, and as a result my time was not great (3 hours 52 min for the 42.2 km). Until the halfway point things went very well, I managed to stay in the 3:30 pace group and at 21.1 km we clocked 1 hour 44 min. Around km 24 there was a hill where I slowed down a bit, but I could not get back to the group afterward. From that point onwards the run became harder and harder, and the last 10 km around Stanley Park were not fun. I was so cold and wet that my muscles started to cramp and every step hurt. Anyway, although the time could have been better I managed to finish.
After the race I walked over to my boat which was moored close to the finish line. I put the heating as high as possible and took a hot shower. Slowly my body temperature went back up and after an hour I felt okay again. I recharged my phone, had a lunch on board and took a short nap, before repacking my things to drive to the airport and catch a flight to San Francisco. Because I wasn’t sure what airline I was flying I wanted to call Grace from the car to check it for me, but I decided to just look at the screens at the airport. I wish I had called her, because now I only found out while checking in that I did not have my phone with me…
I checked FindMyiPhone on my iPad and noticed that the phone was still on the boat. It was too late to drive back and pick it up, so I went through US immigration at Vancouver airport without my phone. I never realized how important a phone is for my daily life, you take it as a given that you have one on you all the time. During the past 3 days in San Francisco I realized that I am sort of addicted to it. I keep on checking my jeans pockets for my phone for example, even though I know I don’t have it with me.
If I want to take pictures (which I normally do continuously, many of them end up on my Flickr photostream) I normally use my phone, but now I can’t do that. Luckily I have my iPad mini with me, but it’s different. Its camera is not as good and it feels more awkward to take pictures with it, but at least I can record some of the things that I see. I also normally don’t walk around town with my iPad because it does not fit in my pocket. Next to that my iPad does not have a data SIM card in it, so I need wifi to go online. So outside the hotel I can’t check my email, use Google Maps or upload pictures to Flickr, FB, Twitter or WeChat.
Without a phone you’re more focuses on the here & now, I realized I was less distracted during the Lendit 2014 conference by incoming mails or messages. That’s a positive thing and can of course also be achieved by putting the phone in do not disturb mode (I may actually do that more often). But the downside is that you miss your ‘second brain’. I am so used to quickly checking things on my phone during conversations, for example when talking about a person I like to find out how I got to know the person or what email exchanges we had. Or while talking about a certain company I normally quickly check their website or their Crunchbase profile.
When you don’t have a phone you notice much more that others do have phones and are constantly using them. While at the Lendit conference everyone around me was using their phones, and in a way I felt left out. During the breakfasts, lunches and dinners many of the people were on their phones at least part of the time. I normally would not notice that because it’s normal and I do it myself as well, but without a phone you suddenly realize this.
The good thing is that it’s quiet without a phone, because nobody can interrupt me with a phone call or a text. But I also feel a bit guilty, because I know I am missing a lot of calls and texts and people probably don’t understand why I don’t get back to them. In a way it was an interesting experience but I look forward to having my phone back in a few hours in Vancouver. I don’t think I will easily forget my phone another time when traveling!