It was around 6ºC today and overcast, with the clouds ripe with the promise of rain. Fortunately I beat the precipitation, which began shortly after I returned home.
Conditions were a nice mix — the trail was in good shape, there was a light breeze, it was warm enough to doff the gloves yet cool enough to keep me from heating up too much with two layers (less sweating, yay). The field was occupied with a bunch of midget women playing soccer and since the trail is a reasonable distance away from the soccer field I felt fairly safe from wayward balls — until one rolled in front of me midway through my run. Fortunately a slowly rolling ball is not much of an obstacle.
There were several joggers out, as expected on a Sunday afternoon and one was about half a lap ahead of me when I began. He was wearing a pair of brown shorts over dark tights, which to me seems to say “I don’t like the way the tights make my private bits bulge out so I’ll wear these shorts to cover up” which is fair, I guess. I just wear tights that aren’t really that tight.
As my run progressed I eventually began closing the distance with shorts ‘n tights guy (SNTG) but just as I got within reach of passing him he pulled that infamous maneuver one sees on the road: you go to pass someone who has been driving at a steady rate and just as you make your move, they speed up. He did so and I kept pace behind him. Oddly, it was at the NE corner of the trail where there is a small uphill part that I did eventually pass him. Most people slow down here but I had a good head of steam coming out of the dip before it. Once past, I kept up a good pace and he seemed to end his run shortly after, making me the winner by my own arbitrary rules. Hooray!
This little bit of competitiveness helped me post my best 10k yet — some three minutes faster than my first 10k back on December 29th.
Also, there was a new sign up on the fence behind one of the two baseball diamonds:
At first I thought it was an exhortation to join the Communist Party, what with the “wear red” and “make noise” (against the bourgeoisie, no doubt) but it looks like the City of Vancouver’s attempt to instill some Olympic pride without actually mentioning the Olympics (I assume they can’t for this kind of advertisement). So the key to showing our “true colours” to the world is to paint our faces red and run around waving flags while shouting like madmen. Seems about right.
Results:
Total distance: 10.02 km (previous: 10.03 km)
Average time/km: 5:30/km (previous: 5:39/km) <– best to date
Best time/km: 5:03/km (previous: 5:04/km) <– also best to date
