Baker's Dozen

Got in 13 over lunch by extending the Strawberry Mansion Bridge loop by going up to Falls River Bridge and going left and around and into Fairmount Park (see 2/12 blog entry). First time I have run this loop. I did the first two West River Dr. miles @ tempo pace (11:27) and then downshifted to marathon pace for the next two miles (11:50). First tempo miles of the year, they were tough (as they should be), but they made marathon pace seem like a breeze. This is good psychology, slowing down to marathon pace, as after the two tempo miles the mp miles felt like they could have gone on forever. That is the feeling that I want to get. The rest of the run was easy but steady, with my legs starting to feel beat up with about 2 miles to go. Again, right about what I wanted. Total run time was 95:21.

Weather was perfect today, sunny and mid 50's. One less day of winter to slog through.

Still doing those daily scripture readings. Theme today was forgiveness. I like to think of myself as a pretty forgiving guy. I did get a chance to exercise that however when, in the middle of my tempo miles, some guy sticks his head out of the passenger window of a passing car and yells "FAGGOT!". My reactions, in quick succession, were surprise, anger, and then focus on not losing my pace. For whatever reason, its rare that people yell things at me while I run; I've never for example had anyone yell "Run, Forrest, Run" at me. Poor schmuck, I'm curious as to what goes through his head but instead I just repeat, like a mantra, "forgive".