my first hill and probably my first official 10K distance.

Last Saturday, I decided to run along the river valley trail again. Overall, it was an awesome run, save the last mile where I took the beating of one nasty hill. Now I know why people prefer the hill in the early part of a race., hehe! I don't know what to expect from the trail, and five minutes into my run and I encountered steep turns combined with short but challenging inclines and declines. The first eight kms are packed dirt, so though I'm not used to running trails it was a little easy on my feet. Most of the time I am traversing the side of the river, which gave me awesome and relaxing view. Not much traffic in the trail, and there is enough shade to protect me from the sun. Going back after looping around Hawrelak park, and after crossing the Groat Road bridge, the usual route is the other side of the river along River Valley road, but for some reason I was magnetized by the beautiful long hill of Victoria Trail which I know promises a great view of the golf course and the river valley itself. I don't exactly know how long the hill is, but for me it seems like a kilometer! I am certain it is less, but that's how I felt when I gave up and walk the remaining third. (edit: I just measured it thru run.com, and it's 900 meters!) It was a crazy idea to do my longest run yet, and cap it with a hill, but it was definitely a fulfilling run! I'll conquer that hill next time =) The way back to my car requires descending a long stair, and while some people are using it as part of their training running up and down, I was holding on to the rail most of the time for fear of my legs giving up and myself falling down the steps, haha!

The Nike+ registered the distance as 12.95K, while the Garmin measured it as 10.9K. My longest distance, and my official first 10K+ run (*fireworks*)