All Downhill From Here

Thursday my LTR class ran under 14th Street through the tunnel at 24th Avenue, and we made it almost to 10th Street before we turned back. It was a scenic route, mostly on paved pathways instead of streets, but we paid for the scenery with a few rolling hills.

At the top of the first downhill I had to tie my shoe (shucks), which meant I had to run quickly down to catch up. Wheee! I whizzed past them with airplane arms outstretched and a big goofy grin on my face. Then I found a shred of dignity and trotted sedately alongside them for a while, until the next descent dragged me down into silliness again. Wheee!

Ah, well, I kept them smiling for most of the run, which is part of my role.

After class I stretched a bit with the students, and then headed out on my own up the 3-minute hill near the store 6 times. I made it up 4 times before I turned around to see Richelle running up behind me. Her coach had written “1 minute of squats” into her program,  so we, um, squatted together at the top.

I was quite happy to see Richelle on the hill – it made those last two hills much easier to climb. We lunged for a minute after her second hill, and squatted again after the last one.

This morning I got out with the Tech Shop’s halfathon group again. We ran down 19th Street from Northmount aaaallllll the way to Memorial Drive. There was a fabulously steep downhill on the way, which sucked me down like a roller coaster car. I couldn’t help but yell out a big wooooHOOO! as I careened down it. I paid for the sprint with tiredness later, but it was worth it.

The group was doing 16k but a) I didn’t feel like slogging that far, and b) I’m not training for a halfathon, so I trotted perkily near the front of the group for the first 6k or so and then peeled off back to the store on a short cut.

The short cut involved running Hospital Hill in front of the Foothills Hospital, so I didn’t get off too easy. I ran most of it, only walking the stretch with the big ol’ trees in the top half. I sucked down a yummy mint chocolate Gu at about an hour, just before running through the University campus.

The snow was falling in big, fluffy flakes and melting on my face. I love that tingly feeling! I was glad to have solid ground under my feet, and thought about all the deep, deep snow my eastern friends have endured this winter.

The route was fairly flat with a small dip between the Olympic Oval at the University and the store. I carefully avoided a couple of Canada geese, who reluctantly waddled off the path for me.

After the gel I didn’t check my watch until I made it back to the store, at 1:30:11. Perfect! I meant to do that.