Better...

Check out my route here. So here's the deal. My Runnersworld schedule told me that I should run 2 miles tonight [actually, last night, but last night I was too bust getting angry at Publix, where shopping was not a pleasure - another post for another blog]. A friend whose help I've enlisted in training [I've actually asked him to be my "Coach," and I hope that he is tweaking my schedule even as we speak] told me that he didn't think 2 miles was going to be enough. He told me that after my performance on Saturday, I really needed to start working on my base more and increasing my mileage during the week. So, I took his advice and ran 4 instead of 2 [4.31 to be exact]. I was pretty determined to make this a great run. I was pretty determined to eat some pretty big hills in the process. I took a hill at the very beginning and a 1/2 mile hill at the end. My pace was close to what I race [I ran an 8:13 tonight], which is not really what I intended. The more I thought about it while running though, the more I thought it might be a good thing to really make myself more tired while running. Needless to say, I was a little wet when I came home [I tend to sweat profusely out of my rear when I exercise, the picture is proof to the fact]. Tonight's interesting sights include a half mutilated pigeon, a woman who damned me, and lots of people taking in a warm winter's night. I'll cover them in the order that I saw them [which happens to be backwards from the order that I listed them]. The current temp in Birmingham is a balmy 56F degrees; I'm pretty sure it was warmer when I started out earlier. The plus side to this non-wintry weather [because yes, I love wintry weather] was the fact that there were a ton of people walking about on both the north and south sides of town. I've noticed that a lot of people are walking dogs on the north side of town these days - I can't decide if it's for protection or because they really enjoy letting their dogs defecate on city streets. Then, there was the woman who damned me. Most people might also be afraid of a near 200 lb, 6' tall, Asian male running towards them in the dark. Those same people also tend to walk funny [as if drunk] and wear way too much clothing for 60F degrees. When I run towards people like this [because they tend to overreact about 90% of the time] I usually try to cough, breath harder, or stomp to announce the fact that I am running behind them. My methods apparently need tweaking; they never work. As I ran past this lady, she invoked the name of the Lord to provoke condemnation upon me. All I could say was, "My bad," and I ran. I really did thank God that there was no condemnation for me. I figured that I had more favor with Him as I am typing this now and have yet to taste the sting of death [knowing too that my Christ drank the condemnation that was due me]. I also prayed for her as I ran a few more blocks - something I don't do often enough and something I'm learning to do more. Then there was the half mutilated pigeon. If you're looking for him, he's set in front of Subway on 20th Street right next to Starbucks. The irony of it all! On a different note altogether - if any of you know a good race to run in the Southeast during the winter or early spring, shoot over a link or a name - I'd like to go on a short road trip with a race destination. *Blogger is not working correctly [as it most often does not], but I will add the picture as soon as possible.