City runner taps into her country roots

As much as I love the city, I LOVE THE COUNTRY! For four years, I lived on a farm, which consisted of five acres of sky-high trees, soothing ravines, yummy blackberries, nasty stinging nettles, and the best hide-and-seek games ever to be had. Some of my most formative years were spent on that farm (we only had rabbit ears and maybe two channels, so finding our own fun was a must). I remember climbing the willow trees, and taking the My Little Ponies for a swim in the murky pond, and testing the neighbour’s electric fence to see if it actually did work (it did!), and sinking in the “quicksand” by the ravine, and bottle-feeding our cows – Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, Sirloin, T-Bone and Porter House … Hey! The brothers named them not me 😉

About five years ago, my parents moved back to the farmhouse , and it’s still one of my most favourite places in the world. And so today, I decided to tap back into my country roots, and channel a country run … and a visit with my moms and dad too!

TODAY’S RUN:

  • 11:30 a.m. BG before: 6.5 (inputed a temporary 50 per cent basal rate (ongoing stream of insulin))
  • 10 minutes yoga with mom (I was feeling massive pain in my hip, and hoped some yoga would loosen it up)
  • Distance: 6.85 km
  • Time: 42:51
  • Average Pace: 6:30 km/h
  • 10 minutes stretching
  • 12:45 p.m. BG after: 4.3

View Interactive Map on MapMyRun.com

I’ve done this loop so many times, and yet, almost right from the get-go my head swivels in every which direction checking out the old familiar sights like the bus stop shack I used to huddle under in the rain, and the new sights like the homemade mailbox made from a wooden post and an old ice cream bin – now that’s recycling!
The route is lined with fields of big, burly cows, and grazing horses.

And there’s whippet crossing signs and dressage crossing signs and tractor crossing signs. I saw rustic farm fencing, old metal gates, and randomly placed park benches.

There’s overgrown trees and bushes and blackberries.

And an old-time bike has been made into a much-loved planter.

The farm loop has always been a nice getaway. Sure, there’s still traffic on the roads, and the speed limits are about 20 to 30 km/h faster than in the city, but there’s a lot less traffic, and a lot more serene beauty clumped into one spot. I mean, in the city, how often do you run with a trio of hawks circling high above, or a large peloton of cyclists riding past you, or vehicles “kindly” moving over so that you can share the road too. And if the sights aren’t enough, the sounds are amazing. Not even halfway through my run, I paused my iPod so that I could take in the twittering birds, and the scampering squirrels, and the moos of the cows, and the nays of the horses, and the ferns fluttering in the breeze, and the garter snakes slithering through the overgrown grass. I had only meant to temporarily turn off the sound, but before I knew it, my run was nearing its end and the sound was still off – the sounds of the country were my music today.

Now, that all being said, I still love my city runs, don’t get me wrong. In the city, I’m not having to battle through gigantic horseflies, or having to  hold my breath as I run past a mushroom farm that’s just been spread with manure, or a chicken farm (they’re the worst). But every now and again, the farm loop is exactly what a city girl needs!

So the pain in my hip: I woke up with the irritation yesterday morning, which seems to have progressively gotten worse today. I’m not sure what happened, as I didn’t do any running or any other exercise for that matter the two days prior to waking up with the pain. I’m thinking that maybe I slept on it awkwardly or something … it’s right in my hip joint. It did subside for my run, but I don’t want to take any chances, so if I don’t see any improvements in the next day or so, I might be calling on my physio’s expertise once again.

In the meantime, Miracle Balls.

3 thoughts on “City runner taps into her country roots”

  1. robert Freeman

    Oh, ya gotta click the “leave comment” thingy. I forgot. Instances like this make me seriously doubt I should get into blogging. I may be hopelessly unteachable.

  2. Katie when you mentioned the bus shack, my first thought was on that day you lugged all those precious rocks to school, do you remember?

    1. Oh yes, I remember. I remember passing out at school because of my blood sugars plummeting … and I didn’t even get to show them for show-and-tell 🙁

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