striders run

driving to Ladysmith this morning for our run I was surprised to see mountain runner running along the road close to the start for the morning run ,while he was just about finished his run we had yet to begin,mountain runner had started his run at 5am seeing he is on a training schedule for a marathon race and his long run is usually on the weekend he covered 18 miles this morning before the sun was getting out in full force.the group that met this morning went up chemainus rd to olson rd were we turned on Olson Way running to the end of this road we turned left and left again so that we were running on Princess Diane park trail that took us to Olson rd, running to the trail was nice because the trail was soft no heat from the sun and a cool breeze, running to the end of Olson rd we turned on School rd which took us back too Chemainus rd, we turned back to Saltair and ended up on Stocking creek trail and back in the shade and the cover of the trees, in the Park there is only one hill we had to run up, thank goodness because to many steep hills would have had us all walking, by this time there were only Dolly,Phil, and myself left running the rest of the group had taken a shorter route and were on their way back to Ladysmith, it took a bit to get up the hill and the old ticker was pounding away when we got to the top of the hill, slowing down at the top I was able to get my breath back, even in the coolness of the forest it was already getting hot especially when you are running and trying to get as much oxygen as you can get into your lungs getting to the end of the trail you come out into the open and the road has a nice slope down hill to Chemainus rd and a slight up hill which has you gasping for breath again, with the heat is is recommended that you slow your pace down a notch which is hard to do when you have a group of runners running together each one trying to keep up to each others pace, there fore you never seem to slow down. Happy and Safe running.