No higher than 23°C all week

An upside to this Lower Mainland summer: being able to go for a comfortable mid-afternoon one-hour-and-twenty-minute run next to Coquitlam River.

A downside to this Lower Mainland summer: not having any urge whatsoever to go tubing on said river.

Two weeks ago Biscotti was driving about two blocks away from our house when she had to swerve to avoid a black bear that ran across the road and into the woods. A few days later I was home alone and out the window I saw what looked like a big dog walking along the sidewalk across the street. I quickly realized that it was much larger than any dog I'd seen around here, and no owner had yet come into view, so up from the couch and away to the window I flew like a flash. It was a bear. It was definitely a big black bear. Biscotti says that the bear she saw was smallish, probably a cub, but the one I saw was quite large - yes, bigger than a breadbox - so we had to have seen different bears.

Marathon Quest 250

Even after taking into account my lack of posts lately, I'm surprised I haven't posted about this yet. Especially considering it is running related. Martin Parnell of Alberta is running 250 marathons in 2010. He'll do a marathon a day for five consecutive days, and then take two days off, and repeat that 50 times. (Well, the 50th time will end with more than two days off, I'm sure.)

From the Marathon Quest 250 homepage:

Martin Parnell will attempt to run 250 marathons in 2010. His goal is to raise $250,000 for Right To Play.

Right To Play is an humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace with children and communities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world.

Right To Play also works in Canadian communities to inspire children and support their right to grow and learn through physical activity. More than 4,500 schools in Canada use the Right To Play program.

To raise $250,000, Martin will run all 250 marathons between January 1st and December 31st 2010. He'll cover a distance of 10,550km or 6550miles, which is approximately the same distance as a run from Cochrane to Boston then west through the US to Vancouver and back to Cochrane.

Visit the site to see a video introduction, and then keep checking back to follow his progress. I encourage you to consider making a donation to Right To Play through his site. Today Parnell did his 13th marathon of the year; in -7C weather his time was 5 hours, 56 minutes, 33 seconds. Ha - that's nothing compared to my run of 49 minutes, 59 seconds in 12C weather.

Today's run time

I went for a run today, but today's post title is only Today's run time, not the usual Today's run route and time. Why? Because my runs are usually going to be the same route, and I'm tired of copying and pasting the route from previous posts. So from now on I'm only going to post the route if it's significantly different from the usual. Plus, I'm going to be posting more non-running stuff and can just post a one-liner run-time at the end of the posts. Today I felt like crap - felt as though each leg weighed 300lbs. But I fought through it and felt great at the end. Yay me.

Today's run time: 50 minutes, 5 seconds

Today's run route and time

Today's run route
From our front door, run south on the Trans Canada Trail in Coquitlam River Park, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to our front door.

Today's run time
50 minutes 57 seconds

A wet run is great fun. The dogs didn't notice any of the many herons.

Today's run route and time

Today's run route
From our front door, run south on the Trans Canada Trail in Coquitlam River Park, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to our front door.

Today's run time
52 minutes 48 seconds

Today's run route and time

Today's run route
From our front door, run south on the Trans Canada Trail in Coquitlam River Park, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to our front door.

Today's run time
51 minutes 4 seconds

Today's run route and time

Today's run route
From our front door, run south on the Trans Canada Trail in Coquitlam River Park, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to our front door.

Today's run time
51 minutes 17 seconds

Today's run route and time

Today's run route
From our front door, run south on the Trans Canada Trail in Coquitlam River Park, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to our front door.

Today's run time
51 minutes

I'm making a promise to myself to do more non-running-related posts, beginning very, very soon. If you're reading this, please hold me to it.

Today's run route and time

Today's run route
In Coquitlam River Park, start near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave, south on the Trans Canada Trail, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to starting point.
Today's run time
51 minutes 39 seconds

Today's run route and time

Today's run route
In Coquitlam River Park, start near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave, south on the Trans Canada Trail, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to starting point.
Today's run time
51 minutes 25 seconds

I felt like crap today. I happened to look at my watch just as the one-minute mark passed, and thought, 'okay - I just have to run that distance fifty more times'. The next fifty minutes and twenty-five seconds were brutal; my legs felt like they weighed two tons each and were attempting to move me in the opposite direction.

Friday's run route and time

Friday's run route
In Coquitlam River Park, start near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave, south on the Trans Canada Trail, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to starting point.
Friday's run time
49 minutes 10 seconds

Today's run route and time

Today's run route
In Coquitlam River Park, start near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave, south on the Trans Canada Trail, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to starting point.
Today's run time
51 minutes 26 seconds

Today's run route and time

Today's run route
In Coquitlam River Park, start near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave, south on the Trans Canada Trail, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, go about ten minutes before turning around*, run south along the trail, turn around near Lougheed Hwy, cross the pedestrian bridge near Patrica Ave, right to go north along the Trans Canada Trail/Coquitlam River, end near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave.
Today's run time
48 minutes 03 seconds

* The turn around was due to several people in different spots along the river telling me that a bear was a little farther north on the trail. I am fairly certain the bear wouldn't have been a threat, but I didn't want my off-leash dogs to provoke it.

Monday's run route and time

Monday's run route
In Coquitlam River Park, start near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave, south on the Trans Canada Trail, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to starting point.
Monday's run time
50 minutes 11 seconds

Sunday's run route and time

Sunday's run route
In Coquitlam River Park, start near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave, south on the Trans Canada Trail, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to starting point.
Sunday's run time
52 minutes 46 seconds

The runs

Thursday's run route
In Coquitlam River Park, start near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave, south on the Trans Canada Trail, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to starting point.
Thursday's run time
47 minutes 31 seconds

Please, encourage me to run more frequently

If you'd like to see what I've been up to lately - other than watching and playing tennis (and the Little League World Series, minus the playing) - make like a bunny and hop on over to Detected Errors where you'll find plenty of goofs and gaffes to shake your head at. As a bonus, I make some very clever remarks such as, "My wife may write the writer a letter regarding the latter"; and I am not biased in the slightest. I know I pointed that blog's way in a recent post, but that's because I'm not sure how often I'll be posting on this blog from here on out. I won't stop fully completely, but once a month or so sounds about right, while Detected Errors is updated almost daily. Also, my book blog deserves more attention.

Today's run route
In Coquitlam River Park, start near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave, south on the Trans Canada Trail, left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, left to go north along the Trans Canada Trail / Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave, retrace route in reverse to starting point.
Today's run time
51 minutes 27 seconds

Blogging and running, again

Alrighty. It's coming up to two months since I last posted on The Luck Key. There are three main reasons. Firstly, our son, who is just over five months old now. Secondly, we recently moved out of Vancouver, which, with a five month old son and two cats and two large dogs, was no small feat. In fact, we are still in a state of chaos with unpacked boxes everywhere and a completely empty living room and dining room as we have stripped off the carpet and are painting the walls before laying down laminate. Actually, the rooms aren't entirely empty - the bigass china cabinet is on a dolly and that is gonan be a bit*h to get off the dolly once the flooring is done. Thirdly, all my blogging time is used up by Detected Errors (with the remaining computer time dominated by ESPN's Streak for the Cash).

It's for the above reasons also that before yesterday it had been two and a half months since my last run. I can not express how much of a pleasure it is to be able to run on wooded trails with the dogs without having to drive at least twenty minutes each way to do so. Yesterday was suitably painful (it'd been two and a half months after all) and I still loved it. And to think, it's just gonna get better and better!

Yesterday's run route
Starting near Gabriola Dr and Cortes Ave, south on the Trans Canada Trail along the Coquitlam River, turn left to cross the pedestrian bridge near Patricia Ave, turn left to go north along the Coquitlam River, turn around at David Ave/Elizabeth Dr, retrace route in reverse to starting point.
Yesterday's run time
49 minutes 14 seconds