The plan was to meet at his house, drive to Fish Creek for a few kms and then come back to strong coffee, yummy snacks and hours of typing. It was also going to be my chance to break my little running hiatus I've imposed on myself since Banff Ekiden.
And then the weather descended yesterday. So. Much. Snow. (and ice). But it wasn't that cold so with a couple of wee hour tweets, we knew we were still on and I headed into the city.
Brrr. Thank goodness for winter tires!I even had time to stop at Cob's for some fresh baked scones on the way. And totally forgot to take a photo of them.
I dropped my bags in Keith's foyer and was introduced to his lovely wife, Linda and, of course Curtis and Selina, the furkids. Then we hopped in my Subaru to head to the park.
As you all know, Fish Creek is one of my favorite places on earth, but I hadn't really had much of a chance to explore the far west end of it. Today was that chance.
So pretty in the snow.
We started off at a nice and easy pace - something that would allow us to not die on the ice that covered the pathway.
And just when we were getting comfortable - Keith goes and introduces me to the famous "Hill of Death"
You can't really tell in the photo, but this thing might as well be a ladder. EGADS! He gave me the option of running it or avoiding it and that felt like a challenge so I said "Let's do it" and up we climbed.
and then climbed some more.
After we reached the top, the rest of the run was nice rolling hills. We both lost our footing a few times along the way, but I think I was the only one to actually ditch into the snow.
Near the end, Keith took me off-roading around some flood damage - the bank was completely carved out here - complete with sections of pavement still in the creek below.
When we came out of the flood ravaged section, the wind started to pick up and the snow started to fall again. By the time we got back to the car, we were ready for warm, coffee and relaxing. 7k = complete.
And then we wrote. I introduced Keith to the pomodoro timer and we did 3 fast and furious typing sessions of 25 minutes each, followed by a break for scones or the delicious quiche that Linda had whipped up while we wrote or the scrumptious cinnamon buns she tempted us with.
The cats took turns keeping Keith's legs warm.
At one point, Curtis was hiding up behind me, spying for ideas for his own NaNo novel.
When he realized he'd been caught, he came over to get a closer look.
and then wandered over to try to steal Keith's laptop so he could get started.
All in all - it was a great little writing session. I added another 2000 words to my book and plan to try to add 2000 more before the end of the day so I can end the weekend above 10,000 words. Thanks Keith and Linda for the wonderful hospitality and for hosting this in your home. It really was the perfect setting on the day with the perfect writing weather :)
