100 miles: Day 5

This morning I went on a little jaunt down to Lebanon Hills to get in another longish run. It started out as a pretty nice morning--not too warm and a little cloudy--and though it warmed up, running five miles through the shaded trails of the park kept it comfortable.

The one downside was the large amount of horse manure on the Voyageur Southern Trek. Every time I run through Lebanon Hills I think back to the lady on horseback who gave me a tongue lashing for accidentally ending up on a horse trail. She ranted on about how I could've spooked her horse, or she couldn't been running the horse and trampled me, or how people on horseback shouldn't have to be exposed to sweaty, common trail runners. Her husband and daughter sat there on their horses, both looking a little uncomfortable. No matter how many times I said sorry she couldn't let it go and lectured me for almost 5 minutes.

Of course all I did was say, "I'm sorry, I'm trying to get back to a hiking trail right now," and stuff like that. There's several places where the hiking trail shares the horse trail before splitting, and I obviously got off track. Now, over two years later, I should let it go, but I can't help thinking of all the clever things I could've said instead of apologizing. "I'm so sorry, there was a horse underneath me just a second ago." Or, "I'm so envious of people who can afford horses, horse trailers, and a place to keep a horse (in the city) that I just like to run on the horse trails, pretending I'm riding a horse." Or, "The jerk store called and they're out of you."

But no, I didn't say any of those things. And this morning, to add insult to injury, there was horse poop on the hiking trails. Horses are not allowed on the hiking trails.

Maybe getting this out there on the blog will help purge this anger I've been holding onto too long. I feel like I've written about this before, but since I can't find it in the archives it doesn't count. It's time to get past this so I can forgive, forget, and run in Lebanon Hills in peace.

Anyway, I made it 15.5 miles this morning--most of them at easy pace then the last 30 minutes at 6:50ish pace to practice for the Minnesota Half Marathon on Saturday. Tonight it's off to the Running Room for my marathon clinic and a few more miles!