Run 549
Average pace: 5:23/km
Location: Langara Trail
Start: 12:32 pm
Distance: 2.62 km
Time: 14:10
Weather: Heavy rain
Temp: 5ºC
Humidity: 96%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 160
Weight: 158.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 4265 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone
With a cold front and rain in the forecast I was a bit wary about today’s run. Indeed, by the time noon rolled around it was raining heavily and the temperature had gone from 8ºC down to 5ºC. This was my first big test running around the golf course–would I let bad weather scare me off?
The answer is both yes and no.
No, in that I did indeed go out and run.
Yes, in that I only ran one loop, about 2.62 km, before abandoning the run. Why did I do that?
I am used to running in the rain. I am used to running in the cold. I am used to running around puddles and occasionally through them.
What I am not used to is doing all of these things with each condition turned up to a ridiculous degree.
It was raining so hard at times that it felt like hail. The low temperature felt even cooler because of the heavy rain assault. Adding to this was the extremely poor condition of the trail. On the east and west sides it slopes, so during rainfall you get run-off streaming down the trail. (more on the steeper west side). The volume of rain water was so heavy, though, that the bulk of the west side of the trail, spanning a length of about eight blocks, was more akin to a shallow river than a trail. At points it was so wide it was unavoidable. Puddles of water were pooling so wide and deep that they were merging together to form virtual ponds along long stretches of the trail, with no room to bypass them.
For a few moments it was almost fun to just surrender and start dashing straight through these monster puddles. But after nearly 15 minutes of the relentless storm assault I was drenched, cold and in no mood to continue.
I was actually boggled at how poorly the trail handled the rain. It’s simply not fit for use when precipitation turns heavy. I imagine all the patch work done on the gully carved down the center by previous rainfalls has been washed away.
Anyway, it sucked. It was the coldest and wettest run I’ve done since…I can’t even remember. Bleah.
I’m actually halfway considering getting some road runners (beep beep) and planning an alternate route on the sidewalks for days like these. Maybe, maybe.
