Super Hilly University

That's what SFU should be renamed. No longer SFU, but SHU.

For a change of pace, and because I have been living here for almost two years and still haven't really explored the trails at SFU, I decided to go out and run around Caprica City (ok, blatant Battlestar Galactica reference, but if you don't know, go watch it). I drove to the base of Burnaby Mountain and parked in front of a home being reno'd. I almost decided to forego my run and see if I could get a job helping on the site, but I didn't think that my running attire would put me in good stead with the foreman. So, with dreams of becoming the next Mike Holmes put on hold, I ascended the mountain as my warm up.

I have always felt that SFU had a connection to McMaster, but running the trails here I was really reminded of Cootes Paradise, the trails which line the back of Mac. I spent many hours running in there many years ago and I was transported back there as I ran the North Road Trail. Windy and soft with lots of little (and I do mean little for this was at the base, after the initial ascent and subsequent descent from the peak) hills, twists and turns and some mountain bike trials to run over. To finish the run, it was another 20 minute ascent to the school before the fun run back down to the car.

The day was much warmer than I had expected and I was thankful that I had brought along my handheld water bottle as the circumnavigation of the SHU trails took about 80 minutes, much longer than I had accounted for at the beginning of the run. But being on the trails and with good podcasts and in the heat made the run seem much shorter than the time and it was fun, which is the goal of the summer.

Packing is coming along well with Sonja doing most of it, but I trust her spatial skills more than mine. We are fortunate that we don't have THAT much stuff and all our furniture is apartment sized. We will be done what we can pack at this time by the end of today and I don't think that there will be much more to do until the final week.

Oh yeah - saw the midnight screening of Harry Potter. Good, but not bedazzling. The difficulty in the translation to the screen is the amount of backstory that can be fit into 2 hours and 30 minutes. I am looking forward to the double movie for the 7th book. Good times!