Since the other princesses ran their long run on Saturday.. I had to make my effort and make sure I did the same, especially with the Chinook that blew in and brought us some pretty spectacular running weather. In order to make up those kilometers I chose to run to work. No for those Calgarians that means running from 17th Ave and 14th Street to the to the airport for those who are not, it means a 18.36km run. Now this is not an endeavor one wants to do in the dark of morning and especially not by themselves. So in casual conversation, I asked my friend Chuck to run with me, not expecting him or anyone to say yes… but he did and thank God for that.
So after some serious planning (leaving cars and clothes at work the day before, arranging rides home, etc) I started the morning by picking Chuck up at 6am then bringing him back to my place for our starting point. Running wear was the second most serious plan to organize so made sure we had the running belt filled with Gatorade, the headlamp on for the dark parts of the trail and luckily most of the run took place on city running trails so we avoided traffic and hit the trail within the first kilometer.
Now as we started our run, Chuck mentioned that he had segmented the run into 5 segments so that it wouldn’t seem so long – My place to Memorial Dr - Memorial to Deerfoot - Deerfoot to the pedestrian bridge - Bridge to 19th - 19th /McCall to WestJet.
Segment 1 My Place to Memorial – A few hiccups during this leg including the river overflowing under Centre Street and me totally wiping out on the ice then after picking myself up and wiping myself off, the ice started cracking under our feet.. Chuck actually went through the ice and soaked his foot. This lead to us having to jump on the fence and shimmy our way to the other side of the now cracked ice. Kinda scary..
Segment 2 Memorial to Deerfoot – down one segment onto the next. Our only hiccup here was that fact that it said that that path was closed on the other side of the bridge, we figured it was due to high water (aka ice) so not wanting to repeat our last series of events, we crossed over St. George’s bridge, climbed the hill to the zoo then made our way through the parking lot, construction and snowbanks to the path by Deerfoot…
Segment 3 Deerfoot to the Pedestrian Bridge – this segment there was nothing but figuring how far we’ve been, how far still to go, oh and of course how to get up the big long hill by the golf course. This is usually where Chuck would leave me in his dust on his bike, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when he did it while we were running too. Oh well, I had to save something for the last 6km so let him go…
Segment 4 Bridge to McKnight (INDUSTRIAL) – this was the least favourite part of the run. The path took us all the way to 19th, then it was running on a four lane road (two each way), without a sidewalk and no streetlights just before dawn with reflective gear but nothing the semi’s and cars could actually see. This was terrifying and closer to the end so it seemed never ending.. but it did end, finally on McNight!
Segment 5 McKnight to Campus! – Legs are getting heavy by this point, but campus is in sight! We finished our 18.36kms at the corner at Barlow and walked it in! So excited to have finished this monstrous run and celebrated with a ½ hot shower at campus before heading out for the day!!
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