Day 2,569 —Running in Slow Motion — with a picture of River Des Peres

Starting out today my only goal was to go slow and to run for five hours. I was doing everything I could to not think about my pace or how far I have gone. I turned my watch screen to only show my heart rate and my total average pace. I do get the vibration every mile I run, so I am still keeping track of the mile I am on, but not obsessively looking at my watch like I can sometimes do when I am not having a good time. 

My first two hours were slow, but I was starting to relax and just keep going and not think about it. I started running dead ends for fun, and I found this tree called the “Liberty Tree.” It was growing there during the revolutionary war. It had a little plaque next to it that I read. The tree wasn’t in any obvious area. I don’t know when if ever I would have found it if I wasn’t going slow. 

For the last part I went to the track and did laps for seemingly forever. It was nice to give my feet and break and really focus on my breathing. My headphones died, but it didn’t bother me that much. I just kept going trying to think about nothing but my next step.