Run 485
Average pace: 5:51/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:31
Weather: Cloudy, hazy sun
Temp: 17ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 165
Stride: n/a
Weight: 166.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 3815 km
Devices/apps: Apple Watch, iPhone
I returned to Burnaby Lake for the first time in awhile for today’s run and in theory, the conditions were much better than the last run. Instead of cool temperatures and incessant rain, it was cloudy but an incredibly mild 17ºC (which is actually a bit above the monthly average). In practise, it was in some ways worse.
For one, the much warmer conditions saw the sudden appearance of billions of bugs. I had barely started running when one flew into my eye. Several others landed on my glasses and other places. It was thoroughly annoying. Why do these things exist? Why I ask!
Also, the dramatic shift in temperature also contributed to my energy being sapped more readily. I was about a minute slower than the last run and the difference was noticeable early on. At times it felt like a slog. At other times it felt like a slog with lots of bugs.
Still, I persisted and managed a pokey but not jaw-droppingly awful pace of 5:51/km. Despite my right heel acting up in the past week for reasons unknown, it wasn’t a factor and was only a minimal nuisance intermittently on the walk back home.
Being pleasant and Easter Sunday, the trail was quite crowded but people were well-behaved, save for the one woman who suddenly zipped past me on a bike just as I was finishing my run. I shot darts at her with my eyes but she just kept going. I like to think she suffered two flat tires the moment she turned off the trail. Then her bike exploded, somehow. Stupid cyclist.
Overall, a plodding effort but I’m glad I made it out all the same.
As for the poop, when I got to the lake I found I had to pee. No problem, I could use the porta potty. A bigger concern was I also had to go #2. You know, poop. The porta potty was conspicuously filled with a large volume of liquid, almost as if someone had poured a bucket of water in it. Splashback was a legit concern. There was also no toilet paper.
I considered my options as my bowels rumbled in warning. All of them were not good. The nature house has washrooms but it was two km down the trail. Abandoning the run would still require travel over multiple km to find a loo. Being early spring, there wasn’t enough foliage to conceal me if I wanted to make like a bear in the woods. The last option was to simply go and forsake wiping. Yuck.
But I did it anyway because every alternative was worse.
I felt much better after, then the better feeling went away as I ran and plodded (see above).
The extended forecast is calling for rain or chance of rain every single day so my next run is probably going to be both cooler and damper. Yay (sort of).
