St Patrick's Day Run

was on today in Edmonton at the Shaw Centre. It's the first run & walk, 5km and 10 km, of the season and a large number of participants showed up. I volunteered as a course marshall and was actually impressed by how many runners & walkers were there. Considering the trail conditions in the river valley, packed snow, puddles, rough ice (frozen footprints from the last thaw) it's not very competitive. Don't fall, be safe. Nobody bothered to put sand on the trail! As I was watching the 5 km participants start and finish I thought how great it is that they came out today for the purpose of raising funds for the Youth Emergency Shelter Society (YESS). I think a number of participants had not walked or ran 5 km for a long time, looking utterly exhausted by the time the returned, but they all made it. And it gives me some hope that not everybody in Edmonton is hiding from the winter.