1/week

That's one run after getting home from work. It's a start. Next week I'll try to squeeze in two. The weather has remained uncomfortably warm (29C right now), which dissuaded me from taking the dog, and then guilt and laziness conspired to keep me off the treadmill.

Today was a catch up day. I caught up on sleep and then the dog and I caught up on miles, 12.8ish of them. We started a bit later than I'd wanted, about 8:45, and headed down. Our run was nearly cut short a few blocks later. I thought I made eye contact with an old lady wearing glasses and driving a deep red Chrysler 300, I think....I remember seeing an impressive grill get closer and closer for ages during a split second stretched out interminably. We were moving out of her way but we seemed so slow; I looked up and finally locked eyes with her and her eyes gaped in panic and still she rolled toward us. She had a stop sign too, and she usually stops on a dime beside it, I guess, at which point we'd be under the back seat. Fortunately, we mostly got out of her way in time and she stopped a few inches from my dog (and was going pretty slowly by that time, too), and I was so bemused to see such a sweet-looking white poodle haired granny driving so much car, plus I was actually kind of concerned that it was too much excitement for her too, that I didn't toss my water bottle at her.

There is far less traffic here than back home, but drivers here are also more complacent and distracted, not to mention decrepit. I see people walking for exercise, and a bunch of kids out, but I don't think anybody does it for commuting willingly. My "walk" to work has become a bit of a curiosity even though it's not quite a mile. That's nothing, even considering the hills.

Anyway, the dog and I escaped unscathed although I'm actually fond of the Chrysler 300. If there had to be a car to flatten me, that might be the one I'd pick. We'd rented one in Nfld and it was very comfy and also an amusingly incongruous beast to roll up into small former outports. Too bad the gas mileage isn't that generous.

We ran down a slightly different way, which made it slightly longer, but it was essentially the same route as the other recent long runs, including the large hill. This time, I found more comfort on the smaller hills and thus ran up all but two of them by the time I got to the large one. We did stop a few times for stream breaks.

The geography here is new to me: limestone rock which has been eroded in some parts, particularly by water, resulting in a bunch of hills and creeks, some ponds, etc. I haven't memorized all of the streams yet, which would be a difficult task because they wind about erratically and actually sink into and out of the ground randomly. Most of them are rather sunken, too, hidden largely from view until nearby. I've been thinking about opportunities to let the dog cool off mid-run because most shorelines in Ottawa were inaccessible or restricted or whatever, but the more I run here, the more random streams I find. I suppose many of them will dry up in the summer, but maybe we'll get enough storms to keep things fresh. After all, this is summer weather already!

This time, we'd run a bit more (and a few more hills) before coming to the big one, and it was pretty hot by that time....getting to the peak was tiring. However, there were a bunch of inspirational saying written in chalk on the pavement. Stuff like "arms strong, legs strong, you strong" or a quote from The Help "You is smart, you is kind, you is important"....some of it was written bottom up so I was somewhat mystified by stuff like "Distance the Go" but eventually it made sense. And it helped. This was promotion for the upcoming 5 trails Half Marathon, which I think I'll experience. Maybe even run. It would be my hilliest 1/2 marathon yet, and I'm kind of out of shape, but it doesn't matter how slow I am.

Fortunately, during the race, the hill is much sooner, about 3 miles in, and I was thinking about how to relax during some of it. I got to a certain point without breathing hard which I think would be a good goal during the race; I've run the hill enough times now that I can break it down into less daunting chunks. That didn't quite help as much as I would have liked today, but I was kind of put off by a guy mowing the grass along the sidewalk today at the top--the loose grass underfoot was kind of slippery, and the noise and the smell were annoying. It didn't help to see some guy motoring merrily along the path on a riding mower while I struggled up it!

The chalk messages misled me a bit. Apparently, during the race, you can ring a bell at the summit. The mown grass obscured some of the chalk and so I thought I was at the summit when I was about 20 feet shy of it. Not such a big deal.

At the bottom of the hill was yet another stream. We stopped there, and at another stream a few blocks from home, then walked the final bit.

I am now thinking of other routes for the future. Not so much races as just places.