Evil Spirits on my morning run

Welcome travellers to my sinister tale. Our hero for lack of a better word or Rob as he is known to his friends began his morning much like any other. He rolled out of bed at 5 am and made a half a bagel with some peanut butter. As Rob carries a certain amount of paranoia regarding trans fat the PB is all natural. After this our hero gets dressed and catches up on the morning news. After 30 minutes he straps his water bottle and keys to his waist and heads out the door. Things seem normal enough to our unsuspecting adventurer. He briskly walks a few blocks to the entrance to the trails of Pennypack Park. Of course there is nothing to fear here, it is a familiar place after all... or is there. Ha ha ha (infer sinister laughing here).

Rob takes off at a blazing speed, rather moderate, rather pretty slow. Down the horse trails ever vigilant for the presence of fresh horse manure. The rocks are jutting and the tree roots a constant reminder of the treachery of the course. Not too much but you do have to keep your eyes open. He runs through the first mile with little difficulty or event. The humidity is high and the first mile is the toughest to get a good time on due to a certain amount of warm up. But he logs a 13:45 not too bad. He does not know the dangers awaiting him in mile number 2.

There is no mile marker on an lcd readout on a Garmin gps to mark this entry into danger. Our hero is heating up now and running a 12 minute pace for mile 2. This is an adventurous pace for our hero. He is breathing well and the sweat is rolling down a bit. A drop of sweat seeks his eyes. Ahhhhh, the sting. He reaches up to wipe away the sweat and when he does he doesn't see the up coming rock and branch. TWIST. The right ankle of our hero has been twisted. He yells out, well he wants to. Within two steps another tree branch. The left ankle has also been twisted. Yikes, damn. Gingerly our hero continues on. But he slows down to a 14:30 pace for a time. His ankles start to behave the evil spirits abated, or so he thinks. He runs again at the 12:00 pace. Then he brings his hand up to his brow to wipe some sweat and the left lens on his glasses pops out of the frame. "What the Hell!!!" He stops to pick up the glass and sees the loose screw in the frame. The glasses are tucked into the shirt and the lens into the pocket of the water belt. He continues on. But now the spirits have him right where they want him. Lawyers read a lot and have bad eyes, well not all of them but our hero does.

The world is now fuzzy, but he runs on as best as he can and manages a 13:50 miles even with the sabotage of the evil spirits. Mile 3 Our hero manages to back track whence he came. On two occasions narrowly avoiding horse manure. Close calls but he is safe at the entrance of the park at 13:20 for mile 3. He avoided the spirits this time, will he be so lucky in the future, we will see....