Hello, Darkness...

Didn't get out until pretty late today. In fact, I think the sun was setting as I got out the door. By the time I got to 14th Street, it was getting pretty dark.

I continued west along the south side of the river, past Crowchild, and decided to climb up toward Bow Trail at 24th Street. At the top of the hill there's a little parking lot, and a street - Sovereign Cresent - that jogs over to 28th Street. Then the Shaganappi Golf Course gets in the way, and I had to get on Bow Trail to get around it.

OK, that was tricky. There's no sidewalk on the north side of Bow Trail, and while there is space between the curb and the fence around the golf course, it's barely wide enough for one person. I didn't meet anyone along there, but the street lights were obstacles that made it tricky to stay off the road, and all that traffic.

I was glad to get to Spruce Drive and on to a real sidewalk. By now, it was getting quite dark. This street seems to go on forever, for some reason, but eventually I was at the top of the road down to lower Edworthy Park. This was really neat. I've always loved being out in the dark, and there was just enough twilight to see quite well. I headed down the middle of the road, ready to dodge to either side in case of traffic, but only met one car. At the bottom, the parking lot was deserted.

I crossed the tracks and headed toward the bridge across the river. Ten metres past the tracks, it was like walking from the fridge to the freezer. There was a definite boundary that I crossed, moving into colder air. I'd say the temperature dropped five degrees over a couple of metres. It was quite startling.

Across the river, it stayed cold. I could feel a chill settling in, and the darkness was almost complete as well. But by the time I got to where the path sidled up beside Parkdale Boulevard, I had worked the chill out.

One of the things I love about my Sunday distance run is all the people out on the paths. But I've always been out in the morning, and this was an entirely different experience. There were very few people out at all at that time of day. So while it was fun to be out in the dark for the novelty of it, I don't think I want to change from my usual morning runs.

Running up through Wildwood (the neighbourhood Spruce Drive runs through) added a couple of kilometres to the run, but at the end I had lots of drive for The Path Under The Stairs. A great run. I may have to take through Wildwood more often.

Today's run:
Distance: 18.83 km. Time: 1:42:54. Average speed: 11.0 kph.
Rest distance: 1.21 km. Rest time: 11:00.
Total distance: 20.04 km. Total time: 1:53:54.

Shoes: Saucony Grid Phoenix (Yellow).

Weather: Clear and -2 at the start, dropping to -8 at the end.