Look at how dark the sky is! (I was almost hit by a car while taking this photo.)

There are groups of butterflies like this all over one side of the park.

The Buckeye Striders were scheduled for Franklin Park Conservatory today. Normally, I don’t enjoy doing long mileage here. It’s tough doing nine or 10 laps around the park. What I DO like is, even if only a couple of us are doing long mileage, we still get to see other members of the club for a few laps. (On many bike trails we walk straight out for several miles and turn around. On those days we only get to see the people we start with.)

Four of us started nice and early at 7:30. Six others came and went. Deb and I lasted the longest, doing nine laps for 11.25 miles. It was fun seeing some club members I haven’t been able to walk with recently.

Franklin Park Conservatory is well known for its (indoor) annual live butterfly exhibit.

It started out chilly, with temps in the low 30s. The wind was pretty brisk on two sides of the park and our faces froze. After a while, the temps started to rise and I even took my gloves off for a couple of laps. It felt great! As the other Buckeye Striders left, it got colder and colder and colder. During that last lap I swear it was colder than when we started. My fingers were frozen! (I was so cold, that on the way home I had to stop to buy coffee.)

Deb and I were scheduled to do 12 miles today in preparation for the Xenia Half Marathon in just a couple of weeks. Yesterday, I had my mind set on doing only 10 miles. Luckily, Deb talked me into doing one more lap for 11.25. (This is why we are good training partners!)

We were pretty slow today. We started at around 14:30 per mile and ended closer to a 15-minute mile. That’s OK, it was supposed to be a long “slow” distance day.
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I like the art throughout this park that makes it interesting even when the flowers are not in bloom.

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