Back on March 24 2011, I wrote about wanting to run up the Spray Lake road.
From town, the Spray Lakes road (red track) rises 1500 vertical feet over a distance of 6.5 km
Knowing my window of opportunity was closing fast, I set off yesterday as it was coolish and moist (to keep the dust off the gravel road.) I loaded my iPod, and started off from the mineside of the bridge.
I made a point to not look at the time to encourage me to pace myself good and slow. Mostly it was easier than I had imagined, definately not the daunting task I had imagined it to be last year! You can see this road from everywhere so on every run I did this year, you can see this thing looming over you. This probably conspired to make it seem even more difficult. Ran the whole distance in about 40 minutes judging by the playlist on the iPod. I was pretty pleased to complete the year’s running goal.
The hardest part turned out to be the 6.5km walk back down! After just making it to the top (and dipping my toe in the water,) the long downhill was pretty hard on the legs even though I was only walking. The timing was perfect as the next day, a massive snowstorm dumped a foot of snow effectively ending the running season!
Next year’s running goal: yet to be determined.
daviditron 
Huzzah! Glad to hear it went so well. Never really have that problem of getting back down in SK. I try to maintain discipline in a similar way, though. Almost every run I do starts and ends at my house, so I have to try and gauge my fitness level and general well being for the day in order to avoid a long walk home. Of course, since everything is flat, that’s one less variable to consider.
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