Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019

Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019
On the Archduke's Path in Mallorca

Saturday 8 February 2020

Saturday 8 February 2020 - Kanata parkrun number 119

Paul Barber, famous for his 'slowest ever' first finisher statistic at Wythenshawe parkrun, will be impressed with this. How about a time of 32.42 for a first finisher's time? That was my achievement today, with Sue coming in third in 34.10.

We've had some snow, which in places was tamped down to an icy veneer. Crampons, which we were wearing, handled this well. However, most of the 5 km route hadn't been tamped down and was really only fit for snow shoes, being about 30 cm deep in soft dry snow. We didn't have snow shoes. Nor did any of the other 'runners' so far as I could see.

Times weren't really helped by the Arctic wind that swept across the lake that we run around, turning the ambient temperature of minus 20°C into a wind chill adjusted, chilling experience, of somewhere between minus 30 and minus 40°C. Even then, Sue, who had decided that it wasn't really t-shirt weather, claimed to be sweaty under her five layers. My 'three layer' system worked perfectly apart from its failure to deal with the frozen snot that migrated to my mittens.

We are pictured (thanks Helen) in our kit after the 'run'.

I fear that in similar conditions our 'home' parkrun at Wythenshawe would have been cancelled, as was today's intended venue at Orleans, which is even more susceptible to windchill than Kanata.

It's actually the marshalls who suffer more than the runners, so a big thank you to all the volunteers who braved the conditions and enabled today's run to take place.

Meanwhile, Ken was out skiing. Brrr!

If we do anything else of note today, I'll report on it tomorrow. It's a brilliantly clear, sunny day in Ottawa, so we may be tempted by a walk by the river to the beach, but I for one am not going out without my down jacket!

2 comments:

Gayle said...

The 0001 token two weeks in a row! And you lay claim to the slowest first finisher time they've ever had, although to me that sounds pretty speedy in those conditions. I only achieved second slowest time ever in my freak first female incident at home in January.

Phreerunner said...

I was slowest ever by about 5 minutes, knocking our friend Ken off that particular podium!