'Round the Rez - The Long Way

Hello, my friends.  Y'all probably thought I died or something after the silence from my little corner of the interwebs this week.  Well - it's been a long, stressful week, and I hadn't run a step all week (unless racing my daughters from the car to the dayhome and back every morning and afternoon counts).

Finally, Michelle called me on it.

So we made a date to go running.

The plan was to meet at 7am at Glenmore for 18K...so, when my eyes opened at 6:30...yeah.  That.

Apparently Buggie was playing with my alarm clock again yesterday.  It was set for 5:30 and, while I haven't checked yet, I won't be surprised when I find the volume turned down.

With Glenmore being a good 30-40 minutes from my house I knew I was going to be late.  I texted Michelle, flew into my running clothes and managed to be on the road within 15 mins of waking up.  As I drove, snarfed 2 Larabars and called it breakfast.  I chased them with an extra strength advil to kill the screaming headache I'd woken up with.  

Amazingly, I was only 15 mins late.  Phewf.

At 7:15, it was a beautifully balmy 11C.  

We started toward Heritage Park and we were both so happy to see the reservoir water back to it's usually beautiful blue again

The miles passed easily as the conversation flowed.  Michelle and I never seem to have a lack of things to talk about when we meet up for a run.

We needed to make the long loop of the rez to get that 18k in so when we got to Glenmore Trail, we crossed over and headed across the dam.   Up past Glenmore Athletic Park, around and then back over Glenmore Trail to meet up with the short loop pathway again.  Walking over the overpass was the first walk break we took, though it hardly felt like a walk break at all.

We were at the 10k point and well past the canoe club by the time we took another one.  I suppose I should have forewarned Michelle I haven't really been taking them lately, but at 10K we were both more than ready for a break.

Down through the Weaselhead and up the other side...I admit - we walked the steep side.

And, suddenly we were in the home stretch with just 5k to go.  Unfortunately, this also meant we were out of the shade and into the direct sun pounding down on us...and it was getting to be a hot one.

Last time I ran the rez, I saw all kinds of wildlife...this time we just saw the biggest, fluffiest caterpillar ever.  Check out how big it is next to Michelle's finger.

I may or may not have used this pic to bribe my kids to eat their dinner.
"If you eat up - momma will show you a cool caterpillar picture from her run..."

We were in the homestretch now...and ready to get some coffee...just a few more kms

By the time we were back at the landing, both of our legs were toast...but there was an awesome surprise waiting for us.  One of Michelle's friends, Teri, was sitting at the bench with a giant cooler full of popsicles for runners!!!

Gawd that was perfect.  I was melting and, while I don't usually eat cold foods, this was like heaven.

The weather app told us it was only 19C when we finished but man, it felt closer to 25C.  I was a drenched mess.

2:30 for 18K...not too shabby and we ran really strong despite my dying in the heat.

And, apparently, if you carb-load with potato chips the night before, you sweat pure salt on the run...ew

But lemme tellya - no matter how hot it was - we so enjoyed a well earned Latte at Good Earth to celebrate a run well done

And the little butterfly?   A sweet prezzie from Michelle to celebrate my surviving a long and stressful week :)

The Garmin Geekery:

and my personal favourite...

uhhh - sure.  I don't think we even hit that on a downhill...