All Downhill From Here

I must say I love the Tuesday night group run. Last night Gord started us off with the usual Zen quote, which I actually remember, as it was funny. A Zen monk walked up to a hot dog stand and said “Make me one with everything.”

The sun shone and the wind blew and we took a different hilly route than usual. Krista’s away, but Tim stayed back with me and I worked hard, to not hold him back too much. Kelly ran with us too, but sometimes she would get ahead and then wait for us to catch up. I can never figure out how Kelly can look so relaxed and hardly pick up her feet, and yet cruise along so much faster than me.

 We went part way down Centre Street (easy), east up Samis Road (ran it), down the dirt path beside the Holly Park hill (wheeeeee) in front of the Ukrainian church, and along Memorial Drive west to 10th Street (flat). Kelly and Tim talked about how they really don’t like running downhill because they have to hold back, and I mentioned that I LOVE running down trails because it really focuses my attention right into the moment. 

There was a doggie obedience class walking along the pathway by the river, and it was fun to see all the dogs and owners learning to heel.  Kelly managed to say hello to every dog (there must have been 20) and still end up waiting for us before the 10th Street pedestrian ramp.

She ran with us over Memorial and up along the C-train tracks past a blooming mayday tree to show us the “Goat trail”, a little dirt path that goes down and up the escarpment below the Crescent Heights ridge. I was breathless and slowing down as we got up to the start of it, but then we went dow-w-wn (wheeeee!) and I passed them both. I kept my momentum on going at the bottom, because I knew they’d catch up, and I wanted to see how far I could get before they did. I made it almost back up to the top before Kelly passed me with some great encouraging words, and Tim was right there, too.

As I plummeted down over roots and rocks, I thought “stay really focused, Karen, you don’t need to be one with everything right now – your buddies don’t want to have to peel you off the bottom.” But as I worked my way back up I thought “oh yeah, Moose Mountain this September, baby!”

We took a little breather at the top and lo and behold, found Dawn, Kris and Brian on the ridge behind us. Dawn was snapping butt shots with her camera, so Kelly and I posed in our matching Police Half shirts. We jogged back to the store and slapped the No Parking sign (Gord’s Run ritual) with big smiles on our faces.