It was a stellar day out today.
Crisp, clear, sunny.
One of those days that you have to take advantage of at this time of year.
Get out and suck it in before the rains return.
I went out for a run but it didn’t work out that way. I’d woken up with a stitch under my ribcage; a sure sign that stress is getting to me again. I walked about a kilometre and a half to warm up for what should have been a 5km run but ended up getting cut short because the stitch didn’t go away and the running only exacerbated it and made it intolerably painful. I gave up after 1km but couldn’t go home given the weather. So instead I kept going in the direction I was headed. I crossed the dam, went straight up the sandcut and along the watershed fence out of the park boundary. Usually I just walk a block and take another trail back into the park but decided to see where the road took me to.
Last week I’d been walking up the road from eh hatchery with a fellow I work with. He had ridden his bicycle to the site and I’d told him that if he crossed the dam that I thought the road on the other side would take him downhill all the way to his home on that side of the river. I didn’t know what the route would be but I thought it might be more enjoyable than riding with the heavy traffic down Capilano Road.
It turned out to be a much longer distance than I thought it would have been, but on a bicycle it also would be easy because it was pretty much all downhill once clear of the park. Eventually I found the road I was looking for to get back into the park – Rabbit Lane. Once back on the trails it became a bit of hiking and a bit of trail running; just short running spurts because the stitch kept coming back.
Ah well, at least I ended up putting about 12km on my shoes, just not the run I intended.
But the day was glorious.
