All Downhill From Here

Even though I neglected to actually announce Newbie Night on the blog, we still had a few new runners show up Tuesday night with the Calgary Roadrunners‘ 10k group near Edworthy Park. I had e-mailed invitations to several inquirers from the CRR site and posted a message on our local tpcalgary Yahoogroups board.

Jaime brought her husband Jim and their cute baby boy. Jim ran 12 x 200m repeats with the skinny-fast folks. Jaime stayed with us and pushed the baby, who rode happily and quietly in the baby stroller.

I divided my running time between Jen and Sherry, who motored along quite nicely together, and looped back for Jaime a couple of times. Looping back was easy – catching up to Jen and Sherry again was not, but the forced speed was good for me.
We ran to the Crowchild bridge and back, about 6 km. We took 1 minute walk breaks every 5 minutes. Maybe a little ambitious for a first night out? Next time we might run for time – say, 20-25 minutes out and then run back.

I had fun looping (going loopy) around trees as I ran back with Jaime at the end. Somehow I was better motivated by the trees than I was by the straight paved pathway. My trail brain is getting stronger and stronger. Later Jaime confirmed with her husband that yes, Karen IS just a little bit crazy.
We saw one of my former running buddies Linda and her husband Paul  towards the end, and had a nice visit over ice cream.
There are a couple of interested new folks who didn’t make it last night but will later in the month – I’m looking forward to meeting them, too.

I was a total slug over the weekend – beyond tortoise. My long run eluded me yet again, and I realized that if I’m going to get in long runs on weekends, I’m going to have to plan them for first thing in the morning. None of this “I’ll do it later” stuff.

Monday night I watched a soccer game. Tuesday I showed up at Gord’s and went for a walk/run with Krista. Last night (Wednesday) I watched my kids in two consecutive soccer games, one after the other, on different fields. We had some cool breezes and lots of clouds, but no rain fell on my soccer kids.

Today it rained all day, and I welcomed it – no soccer scheduled for tonight! Calgary is a fairly dry place – we have to enjoy rain when it comes. I cooked up a big pot of chili with biscuits for dinner, and then headed out the door afterwards for a quick 5k around the neighbourhood.

Rainy runs are gifts from God. Rain smells sooooo good! The sound of it falling is mesmerizing, and the moist air feels good, especially because it’s not snow.

It was a mere drizzle by the time I went out, and I enjoyed splashing in little puddles here and there. The run itself didn’t feel particularly awesome; I had niggly aches and I got tired too quickly. I don’t just run to feel good, though. I run because I like how my mind wanders, along with my body. I like thinking about how the ground feels under my feet, how the wind feels fresh on my face, how running around missing trees along the boulevards makes me think of people I miss.

I raced a fire engine for part of my run. As I was heading down into the neighbourhood two fire trucks screamed by with sirens blaring. 10 minutes later I found them stopped in front of an apartment building, with several inhabitants having been evacuated. They all looked bored, but some chuckled when I asked “Who burned their dinner!”

Dawn would have been jealous of my route tonight. Not only did I see fire trucks, but a little further along I saw a couple of police cars and some officers standing around shooting the breeze. One was having a smoke and I shook my head, “tsk”. Another officer told him he should be out running, like this one here. Ah, nice to be noticed.

Saturday I enjoyed my newest favourite trail route again as I ran past hundreds of crocuses still blooming happily on the hills. My legs weren’t very happy with the run, as they were still recovering from Wednesday, but the rest of me made them do it.

Sunday morning Little Runner and I arose bright and early, packed up some snacks and headed out to the Police Half Marathon route to cheer on some friends.

Nancy met us at the hill coming out of the Weaselhead Park and stationed herself near the top. I walked down around the corner to the bottom and put up my favourite cheering sign that says “Be Strong”. I gave out chalk to a few other folks waiting to cheer, and encouraged them to write a message on the paved path. I wrote a few of my own messages: “Up Up Up”, “Go Go Go”, and “Think Light”. A volunteer wrote my favourite message half way up the hill: “I (heart) hills”.

As the racers headed up the hill I chattered loudly at them encouraging things like:

• This is IT, racers! This is the hill you’ve been waiting for a-a-all race!
• You paid for this hill. You trained for this hill. Enjoy it!
• Repeat after me: “I GET TO RUN THE HILL NOW!” 
• Keep smiling – smiles make you lighter!
• Remember all those hill repeats you did in training? You only have to do THIS hill ONCE.
• Nothing to it racers, run right through it. 
• YOU are a HELIUM BALLOON. Float on up that hill!
• Conquer the hill, warriors!

I garnered a lot of smiles, several thumbs up, and more than a few tired dirty looks. It was fun to cheer on several Roadrunners I knew by name. Julie tossed me her long sleeved shirt – no need for her to carry it further. I even saw the Mayor grinning as he headed up.

Eventually the crowd thinned out. I cleaned up a few littered gel wrappers and packed up the snacks. I was heading back down the hill to cheer on Dawn when we saw the First Aid cyclists coming up the hill with another runner. They saw me in my bright pink fleece and told me “Dawn saw your sign – she’s right behind us.”

I checked my watch. Cool! She was 15 minutes ahead of my estimated schedule for her! I started hooting my Woohoos as I hurried down the hill, hoping that she’d hear them before I got to her. Dawn ran up the whole hill, and continued on to a fantastic finish.

Tonight both my kids had soccer practice on fields next to each other at about the same time. The fields were within walking distance of home, so I walked the kids to the field and then took off running.

Like Sunday, I slalomed between trees on the boulevards en route to the hilly parks. I added in a different park in Ranchlands this time and was encouraged by hundreds of prairie crocuses. I guess they bloom for a couple of weeks, not just a few days. I made it up to the Hawkwood-Edgemont bridge over Sarcee in 32 minutes, and then turned around and headed back to the soccer fields.

When I got back after 56 minutes of running, the coaches and kids were still going strong. There was a chilly breeze and I wasn’t dressed for standing around, so I ran three more laps around the soccer/baseball plateau while the kids finished up.

At the end of the teenage boys’ practice, Coach got the parents out on the field for a kind of scrimmage. He had the boys play in their designated positions, and we parents tried our best to be moving obstacles. Every now and then Coach would blow a whistle and point out a flaw in their positioning strategy. It gave us parents a break, too.

I enjoyed running out on the field with the team, but it was very apparent to me why I’m a runner, not a soccer player (…yet. never say never). I don’t deek, unless I’m avoiding a stationary tree. Oh, and I can’t receive a soccer pass for the life of me. When one of the parents passed directly to me I managed to catch the ball between both my feet and fall right over it. You know you’ve been trying hard when you have grass stains on your knees!

It’s been a busy week and I still haven’t blogged Sunday’s run. I didn’t have much time, as I was cleaning house and had a birthday dinner to prepare, but I did get out for an hour of mostly trail type running.

In my neighbourhood we have grassy boulevards with trees planted between the sidewalk and the street. Instead of running on the straight, hard sidewalk, I zigzagged between the trees on the boulevard whenever I could. There were a few blocks here and there between hilly parks where I had to run on pavement or concrete, but I spent much of my hour climbing up one side of a prairie hill and careening down the other.

Since last week had been so cold and wet, there were still a few prairie crocuses out blooming way up on one of the Hawkwood hills. I ran up and across the bridge over Sarcee Trail and then made my way home again.

Soccer season is now in full swing, and we’re spending at least a couple of evenings a week on windy fields. Both of my kiddos have practices on the same fields at the same time tonight, so I’ll see if I can work in a run while they’re out kicking.

Yesterday it tried to snow much of the day, but it turned to slush when it landed. It was still sleeting sideways when I showed up at the Key West Bar & Grill for Roadrunner’s Club Night at 6:30. I realized the turn-out would be low, but I figured there might be at least one other crazy runner showing up, and we crazy runners have to stick together.

What do you know? Jason and Ken were there, and Ken had brought his friend Ed. I wasn’t the only crazy one.

We hit the river pathway at a tempo pace (for me) and did a token 5k between 14th St. and Prince’s Island Park. We probably could have gone further, but the fast strong guys were happily tapering for big events this weekend, Ed’s knee was acting up, and I was contentedly soaking wet enough for bragging rights. There is something about claiming the run together, especially in rough weather, that adds to a group’s sense of accomplishment.

After the run I changed into warm fuzzy clothes (aaahhhh) and ordered a beer (sorry, Ron, no Leffe at this place). We visited in between watching hockey and wondering what was taking the nachos so long to arrive.

After I got home I tuned in to catch the last half of Survivor, and still had time to watch the final period of the Flames game after that. My underdog Flames tied the series up nicely. Go Flames Go!

The last couple of days we’ve had some beautiful weather, and I was able to wear shorts to run with the group from Gord’s Store last night. We ran down the hill in front of the Ukrainian church, past the homeless center, then west to 10th St. and back up the curling club hill.

Attendance was still sparse, but luckily for me a new guy showed up and kept me company on the medium distance. Darshan used to run with the Gord’s group several years ago, but has recently returned to running, so my pace was comfortable for him for now. Since the weather was so nice, there were all sorts of interesting folks hanging around the Langevin Bridge, and I was grateful for the company.

* * *

I listened to the Flames game on the way home, and continued following it on t.v. once I got there. I tried to remain relaxed and detached as I watched (to avoid painful disappointment), but our team played hard and I found myself talking animately at the players half way through the game. My son frowned and scolded me, but I told him that it is a Canadian tradition to cheer hockey games out loud, wherever you are. Ask my dad.

The Flames won. I happily went to the closet, dug out my car flag, and affixed it to my car. Okay, NOW we’re in the playoffs 🙂

I really should check the news before I post random jokes.  My heart goes out to all those affected by yesterday’s tragedy at Virginia Tech.

I’m trying to read a book called Hare Brain Tortoise Mind, but the first part of the book keeps emphasizing how important the unconscious mind is, and I keep falling asleep.

Funny conversation I had Saturday:
I went to retrieve Little Runner from a neighbour’s house to go look at the wild crocuses and told the neighbour what I was up to.
“You’re going to WHAT?” said the neighbour.
“Look at crocuses with my daughter.” says I.
“Oh, for a minute there I thought you said carcasses!” she sighs, much relieved.
I didn’t miss a beat.
“No, if we were going to look at carcasses I’d be taking my SON.”

I’m working on a post with some amazingly profound thoughts about being a slow runner, based on the tortoise and hare fable. It’s still not up here yet, because it’s coming along reeeally slowly.