A training run at Elk & Beaver Lakes

As some of you know, Jeremi and I took part in a 10 km run on Canada Day (more on that in a separate post). We were part of a team of runners and walkers who work or study in the same building as me, either at UVic or CCCma (where I am). In preparation for this event, I invited some people out to a park north of Victoria at Elk and Beaver Lakes, for a practice run or walk, followed by a picnic. The two lakes are circled by a fairly level gravel trail which is conveniently exactly 10 km long. (I'm sure this is partly because the national rowing team trains on Elk Lake.) It was also a good chance for Jenny to visit with some of her friends in Victoria.

I have to admit that the practice run didn't go so well for me, after drinking a couple bottles of red wine the night before at a bookclub meeting, and then sleeping less than 5 hours before having to get up and drive Jeremi to work on Sunday morning. (He was on duty that day, and the buses don't run early enough on Sunday mornings to get him there on time.) Speaking of the bookclub meeting, here's a couple of picture sfrom that, taken by one of the members, Shelley. The meeting was held at Shannon's apartment, and we were discussing Afterlands by Stephen Heighton, which I really enjoyed. Jeremi came along too, and spent the evening playing online poker and drinking beer with Shannon's boyfriend, Gord.

It was also well over 30 degrees by the time I started running, and I was hopelessly exhausted. The first 5 km were painful but all right, but then I had to stop and throw up by the side of the trail. A runner in her 60s stopped to see if I was all right and offer me some water, and then to lecture me kindly when I informed her that I was hungover rather than suffering from heat exhaustion or over-exertion. At that point I didn't have much choice about whether to finish or not, being half way through a 5 km loop, so I kept going, but walked most of the second half. Gerd, however, speed-walked the entire way, and finished the 10 km in an impressive 1:15, beating me tidily. Here you can see him recovering in the shade of a tree.



Here's Eunice and Alvaro, with their dog Smores. Their son Erico was also there, but he was off getting soaked and soaking other kids with their incredibly high-powered water guns.

And here is Jenny with Katrin (who works at UVic), her daughter Kelina, and her husband Morris.