Karen

One of the greatest challenges during this COVID-19 pandemic has been to maintain a certain level of activity for both mental and physical health.

Being a Registered Nurse and my husband being a frontline worker as well, we have always found activities to be the pinnacle of stress relief in our lives and especially now. Whether it’s trail running (which frequently involves our two pups), cycling or cross country skiing, we spend a lot of time in our beautiful River Valley.

For several years we have tapped into this training many hours a week pushing ourselves to eventually compete in various races over the year. Due to cancellations and postponement of races, we have found that we have had to flip our perspective. We have had to continue to find our motivation by making ourselves better and embracing this journey.

We venture out on long trail runs that involve great chats, debrief about our day, laugh and reflect with periods of quiet and silence. We find peace in unexpected places amongst the twists and turns, tree roots, mud and rocks, sunshine, clouds...rain and snow.

Every day we are thankful for our Edmonton River Valley and it’s open beautiful spaces to run, walk, cycle or just be present in.