Jasper + iPod + Rotersand

1km
My leg aches a little bit, the muscles there, like pieces of chewing gum, need to be worked before they are supple enough to withstand the constant impact of the asphalt road leading out of Jasper Park Lodge. Dare to Live makes for an energetic start, a slight, pulsating element of trance to push me off the starting blocks.

3km
Reaching the bridge over the Athabasca river, I'm just about getting into my stride. Looking to my left I get one of the best views of Pyramid mountain. I cross all three bridges and head down into the trail that leads to Jasper, the hardest part is just ahead and Storm begins to stir on my iPod.

4km
A slight incline punishes my legs and leaves my heart bursting, Storm reaches its peak, it's explosive and pulsating beat pushes me up the path until I reach the top, gasping and struggling to lift my legs in the heat.

Once I reach the top of the path, Storm clears, as if on cue, and the relaxed, peaceful chords of By the Waters take over, reflecting the sheer bloody relief of seeing a lovely downhill road stretch out before me, with Signal Mountain squatting happily behind it.

6km

This is the point where I start begging myself to stop, no music really helps here, but the slow and strained chords The Last Ship (Part 2) reflect my mood pretty perfectly. The hard parts over but the end is still pretty far away. I'm trudging on down what seems an endless bloody road, my body is changing gears and my legs hurt. This is the longest kilometer.

7.5km

Things are a lot easier now, psychologically I know that I'm pretty close to the end, and I seem to have caught a second wind. I've left the long winding road and moved onto a sandy trail. I clap my hands here, I'm still quite close to the Lodge and this trail is well-used, but all the bear encounters I've been involved in or heard about have been within walking distance of where people live (including one cranky and injured bear strolling around the Baseball diamond outside my apartment). The trail takes me around Lac Beauvert and into the Lodge, over a lovely bridge with an awesome view of Mount Edith Cavell.

Once again, Rotersand seem to pre-empt my new found energy and compliment it with the cautiously buoyant and combative beats of Undone.

9km

I'm nearly done, I follow the trail around Lac Beauvert and through the Lodge's small marina. A lot of people come to the Lodge to get married in front of the lake and Mounts Whistler and Edith Cavel. As well as my own, I may be in the photographs of two other weddings, a sweaty blur in trackpants rather than a shaking blur in a kilt.

10km

I come off the trail at pretty much the same point I started, handily there is a start/finish line that pretty much exactly demarcates where my last kilometer ends. I tend to get tunnel vision at this point, staring listlessly at the small wooden barrier that marks the finish line. I have found it helps an awful lot to imagine Sarah there waiting for me, I'm hoping her actual presence in Vancouver will push me under the 52 minute mark.