Dark Rolling Hills

Yesterday and this morning I am awake long before my family are up. Today I am up early because it is Christmas morning and I am way too excited to sleep. It is the first Christmas in almost 10 years that we have all been together so it feels even more special. I am letting them sleep even though all I want to do is go upstairs and wake them. Guess it is a good thing I didn’t have time yesterday to write my blog.

Before bed on Monday night I had planned to hike Mt. Finlayson with my aunt, mom and Warren. I wanted to show them another area I play and where Warren proposed to me but since my Nan wouldn’t be able to go I changed plans. I decided to just do my own run and they could do their own thing as well. We could then all do something together.

It was a bit before 7:00am and still dark out so I wore my headlamp even though I knew I wouldn’t need it for all of my run. I set one hour and 45 minutes on my watch because I felt like I wanted to run a long run if my legs wanted to as well.  I also hadn’t ran on Monday so I needed to get some distance in. I am not a fan of out and back runs and since I didn’t need to get back home for work I decided I would run Millstream Road towards Finlayson Arm Road (FAR). I don’t typically run in this direction because I would have to loop back in the morning. Both roads are rolling hills with a few steeper hills on FAR. I hadn’t ran hills for a while so I figured it was a good idea. It ended up being the perfect morning to run them because it was still dark out. I couldn’t see how long or short the hill was in front of me. I also couldn’t talk myself out of running it and could only feel the hardness of it in my lungs as I ran along.

Not my actual picture but something like the sky I saw

Once I reached the top of FAR I was pretty much at the backside of Mt. Finlayson. I thought about running the trail that takes me to the top but it felt too dark still for me to go through the wooded area even with my headlamp. I decided that I would run down the other side of FAR and then go up Mt. Finlayson to the place on the trail that you can access the backside of Bear Mountain. That way I wouldn’t have to run on the Malahat which is a scary road to drive on any day let alone run it.

By the time I reached the bottom of Finlayson it was pretty much light out but I kept my headlamp on as I headed up the trail. Once I reached the back of Bear Mountain I could see an amazing sunrise. I actually said “Oh my!” as I came out through the path. It was at that moment that I wished I had my phone to take a picture. The sky was a beautiful orange and yellow mixture.

I arrived home 17km later feeling great. I was happy with my run and loved that my legs were tired. It was a great way to start my Christmas Eve.

Did you run on Christmas Eve? Will you run today? For me I will spend the today family and perhaps we will all go for a walk.

Merry Christmas to all. Have a great day with friends and family. Eat, enjoy and be merry.