The short, late and still Africa hot run

Average pace: 4:46/km

Location: Burnaby Lake, CCW
Distance: 5.14 km
Weather: Sun, hot
Temp: 30ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 349
Total distance to date: 1710 km

Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops.

Today it rose to about 32ºC by mid-afternoon, which is silly-hot for this area and way too warm to run in. I decided to wait until about 6 p.m. to head out, starting my run around 6:45 p.m. By then it had cooled all the way down to…30ºC.

But with the sun lower in the sky, it made enough of a difference to make the run bearable. The air was still thick and heavy and my mouth started drying out almost immediately. I think I could have done a full loop around the lake but without any hydration it would have been very uncomfortable. Instead, I opted for a brisk 5K jog, running along the north side of the trail to the midway point then coming back using the three optional side trails, forming a nice pseudo-loop. Even nice, the side trails were not crowed with groups of people. I had forgotten how much busier the main trails were in the early with packs of joggers, walkers and the occasional dog (sometimes even on a leash!)

At the end of the run Lance Armstrong congratulated me on my longest workout ever, which was nice. And completely wrong. It wasn’t even my fastest 5K (that one–23:16–was tucked inside an 11.5 km run on July 2nd).

I’m going to be busy during the days for a bit so my next batch o’ runs will be in the evening unless I switch to doing one or two on the weekend instead. We shall see how or if this affects my pace.

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