It's Dark Out There!

Since the change back to Standard Time, it's pretty dark out at the time I usually run. It's not a problem for running, but my timepiece is a mechanical stopwatch, bought circa 1980, so no backlighting or anything like that. I had a heck of a time tonight trying to determine how long I was running. I think I did OK, I just counted the times the second hand went around. I couldn't see the minute hand at all most of the time.

Another complication I've run into, is that they now lock the gate to Fish Creek Park at 6:00 pm, which is minutes after I would usually get there. I could park at the gate, and a lot of other people do that. There's usually three or four cars parked there, runners and dog-walkers, I imagine.

But tonight, I started from my back gate. Screwed up the time by not zeroing the clock again, but this time I noticed it at the end of the alley, so about 30 seconds missed.

My time was 40:58 from the point I reset the clock, and this time I didn't do the usual out and back thing. I actually ran a whole circuit: south along the C-Train track to 162nd Avenue, west to Shawinigan Drive, which goes north, then west, then north again, to Shawnessy Boulevard. East on Shawnessy back to Millrise Boulevard, and I'm home. Just over 5 km, if I measured the map right.

Conditions were decent weatherwise, 7C, so I was a bit overdressed again. This also wasn't a flat course. Shawinigan Boulevard was uphill all the way, no idea how much, and it kinda meandered along. Shawnessy is just straight down the hill, so I came down faster than I went up. And I felt it, too.

Now I'm going to check on some timing gear. Something with backlighting, maybe a couple of alarms or something. My brother has a GPS gizmo that I'm going to check out.