Beef Research Station? ... cancelled 2015 Saskatoon Police Marathon and dirt roads

So I'm running along a dirt road here in good old #Saskatoon and what do I come across? A "beef research station". University of #Saskatchewan #beef #strange

A photo posted by John (@misterspalding) on Apr 29, 2015 at 2:43pm PDT

For the longest time I've wanted to explore a stretch of dirt road off Attridge Drive here in Saskatoon, but for whatever reason just haven't gotten around to it... until recently.  There is something nice and different about reducing the pounding of the long by sticking to a dirt road.
This kilometre-long path has the occasional stretch of hardened bicycle-dug rivets that seem to disappear just at the point where they become annoying.  And that's the thing about dirt roads, they're unpredictable with all the sharp rocks and stones that you come upon.
The path continues into Sutherland "Beach" (this is Saskatchewan, remember that) and down through a grove of trees onto the asphalt-paved Meewasin Trail.
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Today emails went out to those of us who have signed up for the 2015 Saskatchewan Marathon.  I started to feel that familiar nervous feeling I get when I realize I'm going to be racing.  Although the term racing is a funny one... I mean really, what are we racing against?

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The 2015 Saskatoon Police Half Marathon was cancelled due to inclement weather (i.e. heavy snowfall).  It really was the perfect storm as we had been experiencing Spring weather for quite a bit of time--to then have a half marathon wiped out all of a sudden because of something like that really sucks.  I did not register for this year's race (though I was definitely looking forward to being a spectator), and it's a good thing because not only was the race not postponed, but no refunds were issued either.  My position remains that races should be postponed, not cancelled.