Where: Burnaby Mountain
When: Feb 28th; planned: 6:15/ actual: 6:30pm.
Start Location: Deli/coffee tables at Nester's at SFU.
Conditions: According to the SFU road/traffic conditions website: "... 1°C on campus with cloudy skies. Roadways, parking lots, and walkways are wet with patches of slush and ice. Driving conditions are fair and visibility is good. ...possible black ice...."
Leading up to the run/Participants: After 19cm of snow on Sunday, Monday's weather was going to be a question. Once again, snow flurries waxed and waned; the sun shone and disappeared. I wondered who would show up for the run. I already knew that one person couldn't make it. I had heard that one person planned to be there. An hour before start time I got an email that another person would not be able to join the run. Like BMDUR 1101 I found myself still at my office at 5:35pm, so off I went to bundle up and grab a bite to eat so as to get to Nester's in time for the start.
OOPS I forgot that I had decided to try a 6:15 start time this week instead of the previous week's start of 6:30pm! (Conclusion 6:15 didn't work so well; So next week's BMDUR 1103 announcement has the old start time of 6:30pm again.)
Arriving at Nester's at the stroke of 6:30pm, no other runners were there. I waited for 8 minutes at a table in the deli/coffee section, and decided it was time to start the run. I headed out the door and decided to head towards the centre of campus. Halfway down the block, I saw a runner coming towards me wearing a short sleeve shirt. As we were passing each other, we recognized each other. I asked: "Kay?" (The person we happened to meet at Nester's the week before). She said, "Yes"! I asked if she was coming for the run, again "yes"! She said that she that the run would have already started; I said not yet as nobody else had shown up (at that point I still had not remembered I had posted the 6:15 start -- let's see if anyone else showed up...major apologies if anyone did). Given that conditions were icy and Kay was wearing road running shoes, we opted for a road run.
Route for Feb 28th: Kay O. and I ended up running from Nester's, East on University High Street, turned left to head North/NorthWest on University Drive East, then along University Drive West, continued down Gagliardi until the trailhead at base of the hill before the big bend southward, uturned and returned back up the hill in the same way we came down until we reached the Diamond Alumni Centre when we took the right fork in the road up towards the North East entrance to the Academic Quadrangle. According to Garmin: Total distance 11.2km, Min Elevation=88m, Max Elevation=356m, Elevation Change="275/278"m.
On the run: Ah yes -- pleasure included running in a seemingly mild night, glistening lights/glistening snow, running up an incline that didn't force walking!
Overall: the run was extremely enjoyable!
Post-run: After the BMDUR, Kay went off to do some good stretching no doubt...and I picked up some necessary grocery items! Hmm -- is there a pattern here?
Thanks to Kay O. for joining me in BMDUR 1102, and to Eric R. for letting me know he wouldn't be able to make it ;)
Tune in next time for BMDUR 1103!
