All Downhill From Here

I haven’t been able to write about Thursday night’s run without sounding like a whiny loser, so don’t read it if you don’t want to.

Thursday night I showed up at Bowness Park where the Calgary Roadrunners were to meet for their monthly social run. The plan was to meet at the skating pond, go for an hour’s run, and then roast weiners over the fire and snack while possibly getting in a few laps of skating.

I got there late (which seems to be a recurring problem with me) and the group had already left. I was a little disappointed, but hey, I was late. Serves me right.

Borrowed from Knitting Underwater - hope she doesn't mind

I had a few options: a) go home and pout, b) guess which way they went and tear off at a very fast pace to try to catch them on unlighted, deserted, icy, snowy pathways (risky, considering no one knew where I was),  c) go for a nice exploratory jog on lighted,  shoveled residential sidewalks and hope to catch them back at the park for the social part of the evening, or d) strap on my skates and hang out on the pond until the runners returned.

I chose c). It was a nice night for a jog. I made sure I was back in time to greet any returning runners, and indeed, heard a couple of friends chatting in the parking lot as I headed for the loo. Of course, when I came out, they were gone. They must have gone to the pond or their cars to don their skates, or start roasting weinies.

Nope, they’d just gone.

Well, it was still early. Maybe others would return from their run soon. I went to my car and extracted my skates, a blanket, some cooking sticks (extra, to share) and groceries. Still no Roadrunners to be found anywhere. Just families with kids, couples in love, and laughing teenagers playing pranks on each other. I felt decidedly out of place.

Well, fie on the runners and their un-social night. I had come to run and skate. I strapped on my skates and went for a lap around the pond by myself. It was a lovely night for it. Then I went home and cooked up my european weiners and sauerkraut. It was just as well I hadn’t cooked them at the pond – I’d forgotten the mustard.