KNEE ALERT: A short way into the fourth km, my left knee began to feel stiff. I kept running, and it seemed to be okay after a bit, but I am noting it here in case it turns into SOMETHING.
I decided to flip directions and run clockwise today and did a full loop (5K run), as I want to prep for a possible 10K soon™. As mentioned above, my left knee started feeling stiff after the 4K mark, but it seemed to settle down and overall I felt fine for the rest of the run. It was a bit cooler, but still very calm and my pace of 5:38/km is, somewhat remarkably, exactly the same as the last time I did a clockwise run.
As I left for the run, it was mostly sunny. That changed to partly sunny for the run, then pretty much cloudy by the end. At least I got back before any possible showers. I took before and after shots from the dam, and they almost look like different days. Conditions were otherwise fine, with the only complication coming when I hit the second boardwalk, shortly before the 4K mark. There’s a nearby house on private property, and they apparently have a wood-burning stove or something, because the smell of wood smoke suddenly appeared and hung thick in the air for a couple of hundred meters. It’s not exactly pleasant stuff to breathe in while running, but I knew it would fade away after a few minutes, and it did.
There were multiple herons about. I have no idea why they were so prominent today, but I like to think they were quietly observing and probably laughing because we have to run and they can just fly.
While the run went fairly well, possible knee issue notwithstanding, the time before the run had three dog incidents, one minor, one major, and one incidental:
- Minor: I was heading down the trail/stairs from Hume Park to Lower Hume Park. A woman with a giant dog on leash was coming up. The dog was not acting aggressive. The woman began to make some motions to move to the side to let me pass and initially I was going to do so, but she kept fussing and something about her body language struck me as off. I stopped, gave a bit of a shrug, and turned to detour around and take the other stairs down. She said, “Don’t worry, he’s friendly” and she may have been right, but it felt weird and I wasn’t in the mood to take chances.
- Major: Walking on the river trail toward the lake. Two women are ahead of me, both with large dogs, though not as large as the pony-sized dog mentioned above. One dog is leashed. The woman with the other dog leans down and appears to be letting the dog off-leash as I approach on the other side of the trail. The dog immediately takes off directly at me. I stop. It veers away and wanders past me. The owner calls it. It ignores the owner. She calls again, it keeps meandering off. I tell her, calmly, twice, to leash her dog, then keep walking. I look back and she has caught up to her dog. I can see more people closing in the distance. She looks like she is going to just hold the dog by the collar, but then maybe moves to put the leash back on. I couldn’t tell at this point. What I can verify is that I sarcastically said, “No, don’t leash your dog” several times. I don’t think it was loud enough for her to hear. But maybe.
- Incidental: I am atop the dam, ready to take my pre-run photo. A woman is approaching with a dog on leash. I move down to where the space on top of the dam expands, so I can give them extra room to walk by. As they do, she lets the dog go to where I am to give me a good sniff, completely defeating the purpose of my move.
There were also dogs during the run, but all were leashed and well-behaved there. I grow ever less impressed with the average dog owner, though.
But the run went well!
Bonus shot!
Stats:
Run 839 Average pace: 5:38/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 10:14 a.m. Distance: 5:03 km Time: 28:22 Weather: Partly sunny Temp: 7ºC Humidity: 88% Wind: light BPM: 154 Weight: 171.1 Total distance to date: 6085 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 5 (220/411/631 km)
