Counsellor on the Run

Counsellor Barb smiling after having completed the 2012 5k Goddess Run

Last week I took advantage of the summer preview, donned my runners and checked out the path around the Cedar Hill Recreation Centre. The trail is spitting distance, or perhaps I should say sweating distance, from VSAC’s new digs. Since we moved, I’ve been scoping out the neighbourhood, searching out beautiful patches of nature. The trail is probably about 4 km encircling the Cedar Hill Golf course. There are signs warning of errant golf balls but no requirement to wear hardhats so I figure the risk is low.

For those who recall Looney Tunes, there is a great section on the path where you are transported to the “24th and a half century” as you weave around the various water fowl (really – you don’t remember Duck Dodgers?). I should note that there are some rather steep hills – on the plus side, as I slowly gasped my way up the inclines I had plenty of time to enjoy the lovely scenery . You might have figured out by now that running is not my forte. However, in a moment of either inspiration or I’m-sure-it’s-good-for-me, I signed up for the Goddess Run – not the 5k like a sensible person who happens to prefer swimming, but the 10k.

Of course, the other part of this story is that the Goddess Run is fundraiser for VSAC and I’ll be raising pledges. I know that funds raised go to provide much needed services. As I embark upon this training, a person who relates more to the tortoise than the hare, I am provided with plenty of opportunity to practice that thing I always pester my clients about: self-compassion.

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