New Kicks and New Trails! Running in Westminster Ponds/Pond Mills

   It was my birthday this past Friday and I had been given some cash to help celebrate (Thanks, Oma!) so, having the day off, I went out hunting for trailrunning shoes. I hit most of the running stores in London and eventually ended up at Sport Chek in the southwest end of the city.

The new kicks!

 
   It's a fairly new outlet and also has an Atmosphere store attached. Atmosphere has all the "outdoorsy" stuff so I headed there first. I'd actually been looking for some Saucony Peregrines or Xodus but couldn't find them anywhere, except online, and I really wanted shoes now, if you know what I mean (and you do).

One of the many boardwalks

   I found myself staring down at a selection of Salomon shoes. My experience with reading trailrunning and ultra stories is that Salomon comes highly recommended. I did a little bit of online research there in the store and got some pretty positive reviews. I wasn't quite sure, however, so I left the store empty-handed.
   I went home and did a little more extensive research and decided that the Salomon Speedcross 4's were the ones for me. So, back to Atmosphere the next day and home I came with them!
   

I ran into the Teasdales---
Deb, Sean and Ken! I took
a picture of them....

Now, it had been my plan to add another one of the London Environmental Significant Areas (ESAs) to my list of ESAs I'd run the trails in on my birthday but this never happened. We'd had this godawful windstorm the previous day and the remnants of that were still hanging around so I decided to shoe-shop instead. Today, though, with the winds now only a breeze and with new shoes begging to be tried out, I hit the trails!

...and they took a picture of me!

   I headed to the south end of town and the Westminster Ponds/Pond Mills ESA. The singular most significant feature of this ESA are the six large ponds which fall within its boundaries. Apparently the ponds were initially parts of melting glaciers thousands of years ago and have been there since then. Pretty cool. There are trails which wend their way around them and a few viewing stations and, all in all, it's pretty scenic.

One of the viewing decks

   Very early on, the issue of the day became the footing. We've had several days of very warm temps recently and this has produced much mud. People still have been slopping through the mud, though, and leaving holes and ruts. Lately, the temps have dropped and those same holes and ruts are now frozen solid. Does not make for pleasant running!

Got a little off the trail and
ended up passing by this derelict
building. This is on what used to
be veteran's hospital land and
I think this building was part of
the complex.

   About 1.09 kilometers into my run, I stopped to take a pic, while on a short boardwalk. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a family approaching so I stepped off the boardwalk to let them pass. I took another quick look and realized it was the Teasdale family, or at least most of it! I work with Deb a couple of days a week and, in all the running I have ever done, this is the first time I have actually run into people I know, right out of the blue. We chatted, took some pics and I headed off again.

Not a good spot to look down
and check your Garmin...

   As with any brand new area, I did a little exploring. This always involves lots of running in circles and backtracking. Today, this also meant running into the same people over and over again. People and their dogs---everything from little wiener dogs to huge Great Danes and Irish wolfhounds. It always seemed like it was the tiny dogs and puppies that were on leashes and the bigger, unleashed ones were the ones that came bounding at you. The Great Danes, thank Buddha, were leashed.

Down to another viewing area

   I had been aiming to try and run 8K but the number "10" kept running through my head and by the time I was done, I was almost at the 10K mark. Woo hoo! 
   The Salomons worked just fine. They have a pretty gnarly tread and I'm not not sure this made the frozen ruts any easier but, all in all, I'm a happy camper. Or runner, I guess...

This is a "Heritage Tree" and
is actually noted on the map. A little
research afterwords tells me
that it is about 250 years old
and was used as a "meeting
place" for escaped slaves
using the underground railroad
back in the early 1800's.
London has a pretty rich history
in this regard but I had no idea
about this tree until today!

   Being able to now check off the Westminster Ponds, this leaves only one ESA in London I have not run in. It's called Kilally Meadows and it's in the northeast part of town. I have tomorrow off and normally I use my Mondays off to run but I'm a little out of sync with my schedule now so we'll need to see on that one. Next weekend , though, for sure! So far, I've done almost all the ESAs in the winter and I'm really looking forward to seeing the difference the Spring makes. I need to up the mileage quite a bit and a couple of them are close enough to each other I might even string them together for a really long run. We'll see!