Vancouver is full of inclines. It’s mountainous, surprise surprise. And running the roads in my neighborhood, I’ve found, is easier going out as I’m going downhill, and a challenge coming back because it is up hill. To get to flat space requires running downhill, then along winding paths that undulate every so slightly, like gently rolling hills. When I was on a regular schedule, I’d run up the hills home. To get back on that schedule, I run up a hill, turn down a street for a block that is more flat, then turn up to run another hill and so on.
Sometimes, though, I just need to run on a flat, non-inclined, non-hilly surface. And finding such spots in Vancouver is near impossible. I pretty much have to run down a hill, which means I’ll have to run up it to get home. That defeats the purpose of flat running.
This morning, I discovered some flat running space.
A block from me is a school, and across from the school is a series of baseball diamonds. By the very nature of the game, baseball fields are flat. And Vine is fairly flat the further south you go. Arbutus is too, but it is a busier street with lots of shops, store fronts and traffic. Vine is residential.
It felt really good to do a flat run today. Gentle jog to start that picked up the pace as I circled the baseball diamonds and headed south on Vine for fifteen blocks. Nice and steady. Longer than usual work day morning runs.
The sun was out. Wasn’t too warm yet (yes, it does actually get warm in Vancouver. Cracked 83 today, according to Weather.com). Sprinklers were on, watering the outfields of the baseball diamonds. The rhythmic clicking, gentle sounds of water spewing across the grass.
Perhaps, for the first time, being in Vancouver felt normal.