Run 641 Average pace: 5:50/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 11:35 am Distance: 10.05 km Time: 58:44 Weather: Rain Temp: 8ºC Humidity: 92% Wind: light BPM: 181 Weight: 165.7 pounds Total distance to date: 4810 km Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8 Shoes: Saucony Switchback ISO (170 km)
I once again planned to run Saturday and ended up running Sunday. The weather today was predicted to be cats and dogs so I arranged the day before to have Jeff gently push me to head out in the morning when it would likely be pouring and I’d likely be thinking about how warm and dry it was inside.
This is exactly what happened. After about half an hour of gentle persuasion I changed and headed out into the rain.
I wore shorts and two layers up top–a sleeveless t-shirt with the long-sleeved Nike short over top, as it was an unseasonably cool 8ºC. This turned out to be a good choice. Yay for dressing for the weather.
As per the forecast I didn’t expect the rain to stop and it didn’t, though it varied in intensity over the course of the run. Luckily the wind was nearly calm, so it didn’t feel even colder. I had a surprisingly sluggish start, with the first km coming in at 6:01/km, and finished strong at 5:40/km, with an overall pace of 5:50/km. This is a bit slower than the last run, but given the weather and slow start, pretty decent overall.
There was a running event earlier in the morning and they still had their tents set up on the south side of the dam, so rather than starting over by the 9K marker, I began on the other side of the dam. This meant my run went “long” and I didn’t hit 10K until I was actually running across the dam. If I’ve finished a run on top of the dam before, it’s been long enough that I don’t remember. The top of the dam is always covered in puddles when it rains, so it was a splashy end.
Speaking of puddles, this was definitely a run where I had to dodge and weave frequently around puddles large and small. At the athletic fields, the usual part of the trail that floods was flooded as usual and after a quick assessment I realized there was nothing to be done but to go straight through, so my feet got dunked good just shy of the halfway mark. They seemed to be fine after. I would have liked to have seen how the runners in the race handled that part. It’s not an insubstantial puddle (the parks people should really fix the whole stretch one day, there is essentially no drainage at all).
Speaking of parks people, I encountered a putt putt car on the Conifer Loop, something I wasn’t expecting. Maybe the driver was trying to avoid the main trail out of courtesy to the other runners. And speaking of people, for the first few km I encountered far more than expected. A few were running, a few had dogs, but most were just out walking, many without umbrellas, and all very wet. As I exited the Conifer Loop I saw a pair ahead of me that I’d have to dodge, then another pair approaching from the other side, so I had to navigate between all four. I was not expecting this on such a crappy day. Why were these people not home, safely warm, and getting drunk while playing cribbage? I don’t know.
For most of the run after, people were few and far between, and my pace picked up toward the middle of the run, then see-sawed after until a strong finish on the dam. The one area of concern was my BPM, which shot way up to 181. That is high, but perhaps just reflecting the cold and wet. As I get used to the conditions I should see that come back down. If not I will be alarmed and consider staying home and getting drunk while playing cribbage.
Overall, this was a good run for a couple of reasons. I experienced no issues during the run, and just as importantly, I did the run, knowing how bad the conditions would be.