A Bit of Hills, A Bit of Distance, A Great Friend and a Rewarding Coffee!

This morning was a very nice LSD (long, slow distance) run with my running partner.  Yesterday we discussed what we wanted to do today - during our training for the half marathon last year, the Running Room route for the 18 km runs included a section of trail on the west end of Ottawa that is very nice - but we weren't certain that we were ready for 18 KM again just yet.  So we spent some time looking at alternate routes in that area and we created a 16 KM route that included the main part of the trail we like.

This route has a couple of hilly sections - some nice short but sharp hills in the trails and one particularly daunting hill on the section of road known as Corkstown - here are a couple of pictures

 These shots certainly do not do the hill justice - it has two sections:  as you reach what you think is the top, it really is just a short plateau before you begin the remainder of the climb - the second hill really is not that big, but seeing another hill, no matter how big, when you think you've reached the top, can be disheartening.  But we knew it was coming because we had run this route a couple of times before, so it wasn't so bad.

Overall the run was awesome - very enjoyable mainly because our main motivation today was the passion of running - we were not out to set any records nor were we on a schedule - we were out to enjoy a little bit of nature and the fact that we can run - we stopped for a few photos - and we knew we were heading to Starbucks for a refreshing drink as a reward (wooohooo!!).

Here's our route and stats for the run - all in all an awesome outing.

Thanks partner for the great run and company - it was a fantastic morning :-)

All for now - for those in Canada, enjoy the rest of the long holiday weekend - and for everyone else - have a great Sunday!

Keep on running and smiling ...