On Thursday, I organised myself to do another run. I had it in mind to do the ‘Spray River Loop’, a trail that follows the path of a subsidiary river. I wanted to get this run in early as there was an organised trip to see Guy Maddin’s ( a local film maker) film ‘My Winnipeg’ at the University of Calgary later on. I woke up to a flurry of snow, which didn’t seem too bad. I’m quite used to the cold by now and quite well prepared for it. I was actually quite glad to see some fresh snow as I was concerned about running on anything too icy.
When I set off it didn’t seem too bad- I made my way down to the river site and across the bridge to follow the trail. This is a popular one with the cross-country skiers, so quite easy to follow the tracks (or so I thought). Once I was on the trail, it became very tough going. It was snowing steadily and the snow had settled very quickly, so it was much deeper than I thought. I found it very difficult to run through (like running through mud or wet sand). Also, the cold made it much more difficult to control my breathing and very soon I had to keep stopping every few hundred metres to catch my breath. However, I persisted and wanted to see it through. The route itself was fairly straight-forward, following the river upstream, so a little undulating, but nothing too extreme under normal circumstances. I didn’t have to check the map to find my bearings except at the half-way point to loop round.
The half-way point was marked by a small bridge so it wasn’t too difficult to keep on track, but I was really starting to be affected by the cold and to feel quite tired. I started to follow the trail back downstream and all was fine (apart from continued breathlessness) until I had the choice to continue the trail slightly higher up above the river, or to move down alongside. I thought if I moved down to a lower level (and altitude), it would help my breathing. All so far so good until I somehow lost the trail and found myself running in the middle of a golf-course!
I tried to keep calm and continued on, thinking that I would eventually get back on track. The problem was that the snow had covered the marked route. Finally I found an adjoining road and started along it, before realising I was heading off in the wrong direction. For a moment I thought I was lost and was a little alarmed (I was also very tired), but I figured that if I followed the path of the river back I could find my way. Luckily I did. This is definitely the hardest run I have done so far. Very slow. Got back in time for lunch and a long, hot bath.
