Running in the Fog

At least I intended to. By the time I got back from the morning coffee and changed, the fog had fled the river valley. Returning home before that, the whole valley west of 10th Street seemed to be filled with a grey gummy cotton, and beyond I could see the Shaganappi golf course and Wildwood neighbourhood just over the top of it. It looked rather cool.

Anyway, after checking the forecasts, and considering the lovely weather we have been having the last couple of days, I decided to run instead of hike and left a note of my decision on the L n K. I'm not into churning through mounds of fresh heavy wet snow in the mountain forests, although I don't know for sure that it's like that out there. The Sulphur Mountain web cam showed a very nice looking and snow free downtown Banff, but I wouldn't have been going that deep into the mountains.

Cold weather, cold wind. I dressed a little bit for that, with long sleeve running shirt and vest. That turned out to be about right. The vest was a little much in the bush along the south side of the river, but when I crossed to the north and ran along the open park by Point MacKay, I was glad to have the vest. The wind had a bit of a bite.

At the start, I approached the bluff by Cresent Road to the sound of music. Something well amplified was coming from Prince's Island, and the foot bridge below looked crowded. I trundled down toward the Centre Street bridge as usual. Coming up along side Prince's Island from that side, I met dozens of people walking in from Eau Claire, and lots more joining the promenade from all directions. The island was covered in tents and people.

At the west end were signs of the cause, dozens of them proclaiming the fund raising efforts of several groups for the Enerflex Walk for MS. It hadn't started yet, but seemed about to.

After that, not much to talk about until I reached Edworthy, except for meeting the CBC Radio One morning guy just past Crowchild.

At Edworthy, another crowd and some tents, though not quite the size of the one downtown. This was the Stroll for Liver by the River, apparently the first annual of the event. I also managed to get ahead of that event.

At Crowchild I began to catch up to the MS walkers. There seemed to be lots on the 10K walk so a good turnout and good support. The water tables were fantastic, lots of volunteers and great selection of goodies. Plus some of the fund raising results posted on signs along the route were impressive.

At 14th Street, the 5K crowd joined in and for a few short stretches, I was reduced to walking behind the crowds. No rush. At the foot bridge to the island, the crowd had thinned a little. I went left as they all went right, and in a minute or so was gasping my way up The Path Under The Stairs. Zagged back west to 4th Street, down that a ways, and home. No rain or snow, and even sunny. Nice run.

Distance: 16.55 Time: 1:33:43
Average speed: 5:39 min/km. (11.64 kph)
Rest distance: 1.16 km. Rest time: 10:00.
Total distance: 17.71 km. Total time: 1:43:43.

Shoes: New Balance 769.
Today's earworm: On An Evening In Roma by Dean Martin.

Weather: Sunny and 5C, changing to cloudy and 7C.