Run 531
Average pace: 5:36/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 9:39 am
Distance: 10.04 km
Time: 56:14
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 20-25ºC
Humidity: 48%
Wind: light
BPM: 155
Weight: 156 pounds
Total distance to date: 4134 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone
Given the forecast (Africa hot) I thought it might be prudent to start the run earlier in the morning and to run clockwise, as there is less canopy in the first half of the loop when running this way, meaning I would face it while it was a little cooler.
I was wise to follow this plan. It was already 20ºC when I started out and was up to 25ºC by the end of the run less than an hour later. You feel a five-degree change in temperature.
Fortunately, the humidity was low so it remained tolerable (though I did experience some dry mouth, something that hasn’t happened much this sticky, sweaty summer). I initially tried to moderate my pace after a week off from running 10Ks and indeed, I felt a stitch in my lower-left abdomen around the 8K mark. I eased up a bit and it went away fairly quickly.
I also had a weird déjà vu moment as I ran down the part of the Conifer Loop with the tree root that tripped me up last summer. At around 10:10 a.m. the sun was still low enough in the sky that it was slanting through the trees in such a way that it created a flickering effect in my peripheral vision. This, combined with the trail being cast in a dappled combination of bright and dark areas made it difficult to see what was actually coming up even right in front of me. It’s quite possible that if I was running on the same side of the trail as the tree root that I might have tripped on it again, even knowing where it was.
I did not run on the same side of the trail.
I ended up with a pace of 5:36/km, a little slower than my previous 10K, but consistent with the higher temperatures.
This is the Labour Day long weekend and it turns out that this year a lot of people wanted to spend the first morning of it at the lake, as the trail was replete with pedestrians, joggers and one horse.
But no cyclists, hooray!
However, the most annoying moment came when I approached the second boardwalk. The boardwalks only allow for two people to comfortably walk/jog beside each other and because they are elevated, it’s not possible to duck out of someone’s way. I got onto the boardwalk, which in the clockwise direction, has a corner right at the start, and was immediately confronted by a pair of joggers moving fairly swiftly. The one to my immediate left did nothing to make room for me. I had to nearly stop so I could shift and get out of the way to keep from falling off the boardwalk.
That jogger was:
- selfish
- careless
- going to get attacked by a rabid goose, if there is such a thing as karma
Really, the pair should have been moving slower and running single file. It’s just common sense given the conditions imposed by the boardwalk. Anyway, it was weird to be annoyed by another jogger instead of a cyclist.
Despite the near-collision, it was still a good run overall and the new shoes were problem-free, so yay.
