5k in Stratford

I attended a very intense and packed Canada 3.0 Forum over the past two days in Stratford, Ontario, home of the renowned Stratford Shakespeare Festival and it was tiring to say the least. This event brought together a thousand people from all sorts of backgrounds with the purpose of starting the process by which we may define the future of Canada as a leader in digital media. Some heavies were there, such as one of the CEOs of RIM, the Premier of Ontario, and many other talking heads in positions of power. Little old me got to eat lots of treats, drink way too much crappy conference coffee served from those ubiquitous urns that have that oh-so-special flavour, and rub elbows with a lot of over-excited would be entrepreneurs who were there to sell their ideas to anyone who might throw money at them.

In amongst all that, and much more important for the purposes of this tiny space on the web, I managed to go out for a run! I had left so early on Monday morning that I totally neglected to throw my running shoes in the car, but I didn't care and decided that a short easy run in the trail running shoes I had with me would be OK. I wear these as everyday walking shoes, but I figured a test jog was not going to hurt me too much and off I went.

I ran from the hotel not really having much of a clue about the town of Stratford as a running venue, but it was great! I turned right at the first street I came across and found myself in a nice park which lead down to this great little lake that was home to a large number of swans. Better yet, it had a gravely path on one side and another made of paving stones on the other. It was a wonderful place to clear my head and relax after a long day of information and noise overload.

I managed to complete the planned 5km in 28:28 for an average pace of 5:41/km (9:09/mile) and an average heart rate of 141bpm. My knee on the right side developed a little twinge of pain under the patella, something I dealt with all winter, but I think I can manage to get this under control before it gets worse. In fact, once returning to the hotel I took a soak in the whirlpool for a bit, swam in the swimming pool for another half hour leisurely, and then later iced my knee two times (before and after dinner) for good measure. In summary, it was a successful end to a busy day that started way too early in the morning for my liking. Now, it is great to be home and in time to give the kids goodnight kisses.

Garmin don't lie.