Good Runs on Thursday and Saturday

Thursday at noon I did an easy 4 mile run. That evening Patty, Larry and I did 2x3 miles of tempo runs. It was pretty humid that day, so that made it a little tough. My first 3 miles I was aiming at 23 minutes, and I finished in 22:57. Then after a short rest and some water, I did the return 3 miles. I was thinking I would be happy with anything less than 24 minutes, but I sort of thought 23:30 would be a good goal. I finished in 23:32. So, my average pace for the six miles was about 7:45. I was pretty pleased. With the warm up and cool down, it was a total of 8 miles for the run - 12 miles for the day.

Friday I took the day off from running. Saturday we had a planned 16 mile fast finish run, and I wanted to be at least a little rested up.

Saturday we were going to run the first 15 miles and the last mile of the Route 66 Marathon course. I got up early and marked the turns for miles 7 to 13 with chalk. It was my first time through the downtown part of the course, and I was a little disappointed. It seems like a lot of the course goes past warehouses and sections of Tulsa that are just not very attractive. At about 5 in the morning, I was going west on 3rd Street, and most of downtown was pretty dark, but there was a pretty bright sign on the right - "Adult Bookstore." That sort of capped off my first impression of the downtown portion of the Route 66 marathon course, and I was pretty disgusted. Anyway, I got back to Veterans' Park in plenty of time to meet the group. I ran the whole way with Eric. We did the first 11 miles in around 8:40 to 8:45 pace. Then we did the next couple of miles in around 8:10-8:15 pace. Then a mile in 8:00 pace. Then a mile in about 7:45 pace. Then we jogged about half a mile and then picked it up to a pretty fast pace and finished with a sprint from Riverside to Veterans' Park. I almost passed out at the end, but it was a really good run. Eric was a great running partner!

While at the park, Patty was wearing her 26.2 necklace, and she told about one time that someone asked if it was a Bible verse. So, I looked up Psalm 26:2, which says, "Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind." Works pretty good for a marathon verse. A marathon is a pretty good test for the mind and heart. Of course, the real meaning of the verse is for God to test us to see if we have lived with integrity and faithfulness. May we be found to be faithful.

Isaiah 26:2 is also a pretty good verse, "Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in."