Country Roads...

...take me home.

To the place

I belong.

Nope, not West Virginia.

Effingham Road actually.

Last Friday night I sat at my laptop to map out Saturday's 18k route. I wanted a circular route and I wanted to go out into the country. The problem that quickly became apparent was that there aren't that many country roads out there and, therefore, there wasn't a obvious 18k circular route from our house.

There was a 16k route. A 17k route. A 19.5k and a 21k route.

Here's how I work. I do NOT like doing a route that gets me close but not close enough to my required distance. I hate looping around my neighbourhood trying to get another kilometre or two in. When I see the house, I'm done. I also don't like adding too many kilometres in a week so going from last week's 16k to 19.5k wasn't going to happen. And I HATE out and back routes so I wasn't having any of that either.

So I decided to drive to work...on a Saturday. I work 2.4k from home (I know this because I run by my workplace every time I head out into the country). So I drove to work and parked there. That cut just enough off the start of the run that I could head out into the country for my beloved circular route.

I mean really out there. I ran up up up the escarpment for the first time since last August. I had forgotten how much of a climb that was. But I hadn't forgotten my horses that are always hanging out at the top. I waved and I think they winked back. Six k done. I turned right and discovered a really strong headwind (did I mention it was cold and raining?). I had 6k to run straight into the wind and run it I did. A heron flew overhead partway there and I gave a wave to him too. Pretty sure he tipped his wing in salute. Turn right out of the wind for the last 6k home. I had also forgotten how hilly St. Paul Street is at that part (apparently my brain is extremely efficient at forgetting about hills). I ran down down down knowing I was immediately going to be running back up. Thankfully, just as I headed down the hill, the shuffle gods handed me the absolute best song on my playlist and I actually clocked a faster uphill pace than I did on the flat section I had just run.

I trotted home, cold, wet and feeling pretty damn proud of myself. No pain. No major struggle. Fairly well-behaved blood sugar.

Two more long runs and then the pre-race taper begins.