The people and dogs and a horse run

Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW < NEW
Distance: 10.02 km
Weather: Cloud and sun
Temp: 9ºC
Wind: light
Calories burned: 700
Average pace: 5:33/km
Total distance to date: 1150.84 km

The weather for today’s run was a bit of a reverse from Wednesday, with it sunny to start and cloudy to finish. It remained mild throughout and a t-shirt probably would have sufficed.

Given the Good Friday holiday and benevolent sky (can a sky be benevolent? It can now!) there were quite a few people at Burnaby Lake. I counted 24 vehicles in the parking lot and roughly a million people on the trail, a mix of walkers (some in large groups), joggers and a few obnoxious types letting their dogs run all over sans leash. My favorite, though, was a pair of women coming toward me. One had a dog off leash, the other was on a bike. They occupied the entire width of the trail (off-leash dogs and bikes are both verboten as the lake is classified as an environmentally sensitive habitat). I remained polite, not even offering a dirty look. I may have muttered something unkind under my breath in passing, however. On the last stretch leading back to the parking lot I passed a woman on a horse. This isn’t too unusual, as that particular part of the trail is mixed use but it was the first time I’d seen someone on a horse that was galloping. Given that the path is not especially wide it seemed odd. Maybe the horse had to pee.

The run was remarkably similar to Wednesday’s, although I managed to shave three more seconds off my pace, a modest but welcome improvement. With an average of 5:33/km I have an unofficial target of beating 5:30. I hope to do so next week as I continue to increase my endurance.

Chart:

Apr 6 Apr 4 Apr 2 Mar 23 Mar 19 Mar 16 Mar 7
1 km 5:12 5:17 5:03 5:13 5:10 5:08 5:06
2 km 5:19 5:19 5:17 5:22 5:20 5:22 5:22
3 km 5:23 5:24 5:25 5:28 5:26 5:32 5:30
4 km 5:25 5:26 5:30 5:34 5:31 5:37 5:33
5 km 5:26 5:27 5:33 5:37 5:34 5:42 5:35
6 km 5:28 5:29 5:37 5:40 5:36 5:47 5:38
7 km 5:29 5:31 5:41 5:43 5:38 5:49 5:40
8 km 5:30 5:33 5:46 5:46 5:41 5:51 5:42
9 km 5:32 5:35 5:50 5:49 5:43 5:52 5:45
10 km 5:33 5:36 5:53 5:50 5:44 5:53 5:47

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