Slippery City and Blustery Battles

I called downtown Vancouver “home” this past week as I spent 5 days in the heart of the City for a course I was taking over there for work. I was a bit unsure how I was going to fit in my training runs between the coursework, regular work that needed attention, and of course, dinner plans all week, including my BIRTHDAY!! However, I was somewhat excited about the prospect of changing things up a bit and running in a new environment so I packed my gear for my scheduled training days. 

By Tuesday evening, Mother Nature had dusted the City of Vancouver with a fresh layer of snow and sub-zero temperatures, so I had to bundle up in preparation for my run. I was scheduled to do an hour and 15 minutes, so I left the hotel and headed down towards Coal Harbour, along the seawall towards Stanley Park. I was thinking that I would do a loop of the park and a bit extra along English Bay and that would give me enough mileage to make up the time. The sky was darkening as I made my way around the seawall and while I did have some small lights to be visible, I soon realized that I was alone, running in the dark along the seawall and I hadn’t seen another soul for quite some time. I took the advice of my inner voice and turned around just before the Lions Gate Bridge and headed back towards the City, at least where the seawall was exposed to the lights from downtown. I ended up running down Denman Street and headed over to English Bay and False Creek, where the walkway was well lit and I encountered quite a few more runners along the route, making me feel much safer! I snapped some pics on my iphone at the beginning of the run so you can see how pretty the City looked from the seawall! I ended the evening with a wonderful birthday dinner with my Dad, brother Tim and friends Rebecca, Laura and Amy!

View from Coal Harbour towards the North Shore

 

By Wednesday, most of the snow had been compacted into piles of ice mixed with salt, which made for a very slippery run, especially as I was supposed to be doing speed work! This time, I made the wise decision to start out along False Creek towards English Bay, and did a bit of an ‘out and back’ and did my best to do pick-ups without sliding too much! I completed the evening with a dinner at Nuba with Fiona, my close friend and colleague who is doing her Masters at SFU in Van. The restaurant was super funky and had some great vegetarian items – I am definitely going back!  

My Thursday training run was definitely the highlight of the week as I had two friends join me – both long time friends from Vancouver who I haven’t seen in ages – Marilouise Muller (my very first friend!) and Lindsay Phelps, with whom I spent copious amounts of time in highschool. Mar met me at the hotel and we ran and met Lindsay on the south side of the Burrard Street Bridge. We had to tread carefully as the streets were still quite icy, and the time passed quickly as we spent most of the run chatting and catching up. Both ladies were great sports and I was so grateful to have friends with me on the run – I will know who to call next time I am training in Vancouver! I snapped a photo of my City training partners – thanks again ladies! I capped off the evening with an absolutely incredible meal at Hawksworth with my wonderful friend Heather, where her husband Kristian, is the Chef de Cuisine. Kristian cooked us a special taster menu, each dish better than the last, and I was thinking how fortunate it was I had been doing so much running all week! The food was absolutely incredible, and I would recommend it to anyone next time you are in Vancouver.

Marilouise (left) and Lindsay

By Sunday, I was back in Victoria on the rock, and most of the snow that the Island had received the week before had melted. I awoke early in the morning to howling winds outside and debris whipping against my bedroom window. I ventured out into the windstorm and met Heather, who was being blown down the road towards me. Our 25 km run felt like 50 km in that wind! One minute we were fighting against it, and then it would stop, and we would lunge forward. I realized pretty quickly how hard we were working as we had very little reprieve from our blustery battle, as is the case in Victoria – the wind seems to blow against you no matter what direction you are headed! We made it back and were quite pleased with ourselves that we had not been blown away. Heather once again proved to be the perfect long run partner – keeping a steady pace despite the whipping wind. Thanks friend.

Another crazy week of winter running – stay tuned for next week! xo