Tweekend Runs!

Thank God for early morning runs with my gals!!!

Due to the flooding sitch here in Calgary (and of course beyond) running has been hard to do. Most pathways have been shut. For almost 2 weeks. A few days ago they reopened.

THANK GOD. I was having to run on my city streets (which is soley hills in my area!)

This past weekend had two great run dates. Tweetups if you will. Sunday met up with Cori. Monday met up with Michelle.

Running With Cori: NoseHill
Cori and I decided to meet at 7 at Nose Hill Park on Sunday. Wait. It was actually 730 at a different entrance than I was at! hahahahahaha.

Oh well. I drove to the other side and came to the correct location and started our run. We had a couple hours to tackle the rolling hills and some steep hills, It is one of our largest parks and is all about the natural environment.

After soaking ourselves with bug spray off we went. And then came back to lock my car. WHAT is wrong with me today??? I am a bit off. HA! Good thing Cori is so laid back.

The trails in this park are awesome. And so great we can see the city. From such a great vantage point we had to snap a few. We were all about slow today. Good thing. Becuase it was one of THOSE runs. As in having the runs. ARGH! Again, did I mention Cori being patient? And making good poop jokes!

What was great about this run was that it was just so nice to be out running. And so nice to see so many people out walking their dogs, running, biking. And everyone was so HAPPY to be out. Our City has seen a lot of sadness in the past couple weeks, so I think everyone was pretty chuffed to be out there.

We had a great (and very slow) run in some VERY hot weather. Got our sweat on, got in a lotta hills and got a lotta frustration OUT! And as you can see from the above pics, we had a LOTTA fun! I was worried I wasn't fast enough, wasn't getting in the right amount of miles...and was so grateful to Cori for pointing out that sometimes, it is just good to get out, and to stop worrying about the pace, distance. It was a perfect way to start the day. 

And an Iced Coffee was a perfect end to a great run! 

Running With Michelle: Along the River, Except where the paths were Closed

On Monday both Michelle and I needed a nice long run to celebrate Canada Day. Happy 146th Canada!

We rang it in with a 2 hour run...and got in 16km. Actually with some of the walk we did, we really logged 18km.  We started at 7 to beat the heat. But the heat really was there. But then so was a nice breeze coming off the water.

While Cori and I saw deer and heard a pack of coyotes howling, the only animals we saw on the run were a lot (A LOT) of Canada Geese.

They hogged the pathway and were not keen to move at all. We were hissed at us every chance they got. And man, they poop a lot!

We kept up a pretty solid pace and didn't have too much trouble with the pathways. We had to jag around a it due to some pathway closures...so disconcerting! But with all the water we have had in these areas, it was understandable. And we were not about to go breaking through a barricade.

At one point on our return, we stumbled upon a closure area and peeked around to see a bit of damage. Well, really, a LOT of damage. Half the pathway was crumbling into the river. And, as we ran miles down some of my favourite pathways, we could see how much the river cut into the paths on the other side of the river path we were on. Pretty sure that area is still shut...let's hope all our areas open soon. Slowly we are getting back to normal!

Finally saw WHY the path was shut...its falling into the river! 

All in it was a true LSD run. But so awesome to get those miles in. It was great to run, bitch, chat, laugh and jsut get into a great rhythm. And now I taper as my big ol trail race is next week!!! eek!!!

Thanks to my ladies for getting out there with me. And enjoying the sun and fun run!! And really good coffees after the hot hot runs.