8K with the boss

No, I don't mean with D! Or Pinotte, for that matter. I mean with my director at the office. We two Employees and the boss have been settling into a weekly running routine of Tuesdays and Thursdays. I like the camaraderie and I'm comfortable being in the middle in terms of speed. Today, Employee was tired and opted to continue working at his desk, so it was just me and Boss. A little intimidating, but not really. We start off talking about work but I could tell he wanted to end that quickly, so we flipped to the trusty subject of running. While running. A giant cycle of obsession, is that.

Since we run during lunch we don't go out for all that long. The longest route is about 8K and leads first along the bike path for a series of killer hills, first a lot of up, then steeply down, then unites with the paved road for the last few kilometres. All spring we've been spoiled with a car-free road and only a few cyclists who seem to head straight for us, but I hear the roads re-open this weekend so we'll have to be more careful. No more running in the middle of the road until next winter. On the upside, guaranteed fewer bear sightings with the sound and smells of autos in the air. It's not that I like cars, but that I worry about critters with teeth and claws and big empty stomachs.

Sometimes we grab a shorter route that starts primly on the path, descends into gravel through the woods - we run along a marsh for part of it - and finishes up on the road. I don't know the distance, only that it takes about 32 minutes to complete.

Then there is the "lazy" run: three laps on the road around the building. That will bring us to roughly 6K and pancake flat but with lots of vehicles and sometimes walkers. Employee and I take this route occasionally, but never with Boss. With Boss it's all or nothing, even if he has to take a walk break in the middle. Which we did today.

It was misty and a perfect temperature. A few times I smelled vanilla but it lasted a second or two each time.