Finding McDonalds

When setting off for distance running, some planning would be helpful to sustain the will power to complete the journey.

I was in Winnipeg of Canada in a July. It has quite modest weather, temperature in the teens in the morning with breezy wind, and largely overcast. For sure, it is quite a decent time to have some good run.

But there is a problem — the city was very functional hence there wasn’t much to see.

As a runner in the streets, unimpressive street views would be as bad as being chased by dogs.

Therefore, we need some targets.

Indeed I had one more complication to handle — my 60+ mom was tagging along to run. Worse, she wasn’t a regular runner.

Therefore I did some research the night before. And interestingly, I found that there are numerous McDonalds across the city and many of them are around 5km apart by land commute.

So the morning run became a multiple McDonald’s hunting trip. We stop by each one every 5km or so to have a partial breakfast. Like a coffee, or a hash brown, or a biscuit. Just something light and shareable so that we won’t continue the run with filled stomachs.

Of course, we could also stretch a bit every time we waited for the food or drink.

As such, although it ultimately took us four hours to cover 25km and five McDonald’s, it was an enjoyable journey — and it was also the first time my mom ever covered more than 20km within a morning.