Running Up North, Running Down South

Long and hot and straight and flat.

   We spent this past weekend at my brother-in-law, Rob's, cottage on Lake Chemong, in the Peterborough area. This has become a bit of an annual affair, sort of a family reunion involving my wife Doralyn's siblings and their families. As it always seems to fall near the end of August, it also gives us the opportunity to celebrate Oma's (my mom-in-law) and Keenan's (my stepson) birthdays!
   We were up there from this past Thursday to Sunday and I took my running stuff with me, just in case. On Friday, I was hemming and hawing (in my mind) about whether I should go for a run or not when my BIL James came along and convinced me to do so, along with him. James has taken up running in the past year and is very dedicated to it. 

James, and the ever-faithful Phoebe!

   We, along with James' dog Phoebe hit the road leading away from the cottage and up to the main highway. This had us going uphill for about a kilometer but at the top of this we then hit the highway and turned right, where things then leveled off a bit. I knew that I was holding James back a little and by mutual accord he would occasionally run on ahead at his own pace and then circle back. We did this a couple of times and then headed back to the cottage. The nice thing about the first uphill portion was that it meant a leisurely downhill run to get back home. At the end of it we had totaled 5K (with James running a touch farther than me) and we both felt we had fulfilled our exercise commitments for the weekend!

Back to Komoka Provincial Park
and the ever-faithful Thames

   We got home on the Sunday and on Monday I decided to hit Komoka Provincial Park (I know...again) for a trail run. The last time out, I had run into a situation where I'd run out of water part way through the run so this time I took extra. I hate carrying anything when I run and my armband water bottle simply doesn't carry enough so what I did was take along a frozen water bottle and leave it in my car. I then headed out and ran to one end of the park and headed back to the parking lot where I refilled my armband bottle and then headed out again, in the opposite direction. 
   I wanted to run more than 5K and was aiming for 6 or 7 and so I just went along my merry way, keeping my eye on my Garmin. At one point, though, I looked down and the screen was blank! The friggin thing had died on me and at that point I had no true idea how far I'd run or still had left to go.

"The Steps" in Komoka. From the top,
they look like a joyful carnival ride. From
the bottom, they look like a horrifying
torture device...

   At that point I figured I would just run to some kind of a landmark and then try and figure out my mileage using MapQuest or something later on. I did this and then decided to simply walk back to the parking lot. 
   I have become pretty enamoured of trail-running lately. No traffic, no pavement, no stoplights, no blazing sun! In spite of doing my running in Komoka pretty exclusively lately it always seems like a different adventure with different things to see. The people you run into are all really nice, as well! Mainly hikers for the most part with the occasional other runner thrown in. And you do feel just a touch more badass while you're doing it! I do need to work on the hydration, though, an armband bottle used to do it for me but out on the trails it really doesn't cut it anymore. Hip bottle? Hydration vest? Hmmm...