Running in someone else's hood

August 31  Plan: 5k steady  Actual: 5k slow

As mentioned in my last post Micheal and I spent the long weekend (starting Saturday as my sister had guests Friday night) with said sister and her family in Waterloo. I knew I needed to get a 5k run in there somewhere so packed all my running gear and brought it along for a Sunday morning run.

We were pretty tired from the day before so I decided to sleep in a bit longer than I might for a normal Sunday run.  I took the dog out for a pee when I woke up around 7.  The skies were overcast so I wasn't worried about being beaten by the sun and the temps were supposed to say somewhat low so I figured I was good.  Which means I went back to sleep for a bit. 

Yeah. 

Should have just put my shoes on and gone at that point, because of course, as luck would have it, when I was finally ready to go around 9, the skies had pretty much cleared and it was as humid as Hades outside. 

Well done, Shannon.  Well done.

I know her area reasonably well but had no clue how to determine a route for said 5k run so it was Map My Run to the rescue.  They have a neat feature that allows you to use your current location and scan other routes that people have logged nearby.  I found a 4.93 route someone else had done starting a block or two away and figured it would be easy enough to round it up to 5k knowing what I knew of her immediate vicinity.

Well.  All I really have to say is that I'm very very glad I don't do all of my running in this neck of the woods.  And that I'll never complain about hills around me ever again.

I reversed the route from my original intent because I knew there was a long and gradual hill that I much preferred to go up than down. Which of course meant that I had a massive uphill climb on my first loop but that couldn't be avoided and was much better than the alternative, trust me!

I had to run with my phone in my hand to ensure that I stayed on track which was a bit distracting for me but gave me that sense of control so I dealt with it.  Was following along quite nicely, my wee blue dot tracking the red lines of the route in Map My Run.  And then it was time to leave the roads for some park trails.

I love running on trails.  No cars, flatter pavement, nice scenery, all that good stuff.  BUT...they don't show up properly on all maps.  Especially this one.  Which is cool, 'cause hey - it's a trail.  Follow it and all is well.

Unless you're running on park trails in Waterloo.  Trails that go every which direction over and over and over again.

It was like a choose your own adventure book at times.  I got to one split and had two choices.  Based on the direction the red line was going on the app I was reasonably sure that I needed to stay right.  So I ran for a bit, watched my blue dot, and just hoped it followed the red line on the screen.  Huzzah!  Success!  Trails won't foil me!

Then my mind nearly exploded as I rounded a corner and saw not one, not two, not even three but FOUR separate trail options unfolding in front of me.  And what made matters worse was that one was almost stacked up on top of the other...wtf was I supposed to do now?

So I did what any reasonable human being would do in similar circumstances.

I guessed.

Thankfully I guessed correctly and after an insanely steep uphill climb I popped back out on to the road, right where I should be.  Phew!


A few extra loops around the block and I was finally at my 5k mark. Knee got a bit twitchy a few times but all and all I was pretty happy with how it felt.


Thus marked my last run for the month of August.  Final tally was 86.5k which isn't too bad, considering I was on vacation for a week then sick for a portion of it, too.  Wonder how many kms September will bring???