High Inertia Morning

Ever have one of those mornings where you wake up feeling pinned to the mattress by the weight of your personal history? Even the head start of waking at a ridiculous hour doesn't ease the effort of enjoying a simple coffee and newspaper. (And is that a rut of its own?) Overcoming these moments is one of the biggest reasons I run.

And what brought that all on, anyway? Perhaps the post-adrenalin crash after yesterday's adventure on the Zipline at the COP, which left me ridiculously exhausted by mid-afternoon.

But a run fixes all that. Especially on a gorgeous day like today.

Down to the bluff and already there's people all over. Looking down on the bridge to Prince's Island is to see a river of people. And there's music booming from the island, too.

On the island are signs directing people to the stage for the Enerflex MS Walk. There's a big crowd already at 9:00 in the morning.

On the promenade were lots of runners and walkers. A couple of the running room groups were just getting started. Lots of early started on the MS walk. At Crowchild, the crowd abruptly thinned, and there was just a big running group ahead. Their pace was enough that it took awhile to catch up to them. Passing was a little problematic with the narrow path and the oncoming traffic.

A very friendly talkative bunch, which is another reason I like running on Sunday mornings. Just behind me as I broke past them, a grumpy cyclist frantically ringing his bell swished by. At least he used the bell.

The rest of the run below the escarpment was fast, going by quickly. The run along Parkdale was eaqually quick. I don't think I was any faster physically, and I was certainly present. But it just moved by quickly.

At Crowchild, the MS Walkers were thick. There were many places where I had to slow to a walk to wait for a chance to pass, and that was all right. By then I was well into the rhythm, and the walkers contributed a great energy of their own to the day.

One of their checkpoints was just before the 10th Street bridge underpass, and it was wall to wall people. Nothing to do be meander a little until the crowd began to thin out a little past it.

After that, hard running to the foot bridge. I was pretty much spent when I got to The Path Under The Stairs, but I tackled is as aggressively as I was able. I don't think it was any kind of spectacular performance, but sometimes it feels good to push hard.

At the top, chaffing issues had me dithering about cutting it short and going up 2nd Street, or pushing on to my usual end up 4th Street. I opted for the latter, and that was that.

Now it feels like I should maybe nap or something.

Distance: 16.64 km. Time: 1:28:31 Average speed: 11.3 kph. (5:19 min/km)
Rest distance: 1.03 km. Rest time: 9:00.
Total distance: 17.67 km. Total time: 1:37:31.

Shoes: New Balance 1061.

Weather: Partly sunny and 14C to start, ending at 16C.