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Republika Srpska!

September 23, 2018 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Crossed over the "the other side" today on my run, both geologically and politically. I headed up through wandering streets on the mountainside and then all of a sudden found myself on the ridge which was much lower on the Western part of the city than I expected. The view looking over was stunningly pastoral compared to the urban cityscape I'd just emerged from. You could see cows, chickens, hay bales, small shacks, a Christian cemetery (very different looking from the Muslim ones on the other side of the hill), and Mt. Trebavich in the distance. I started down the road and pretty soon was greeted by a Serbian flag, campaign posters for Serb nationalist politicians, and a large sign that said "Welcome to the Republika Srpska!" ---in Cyrillic. You see, Bosnia these days is two countries in one, maybe even three in one. The Bosniaks (Muslims) live primarily in a part called the "Federation" and the Serbs live in a part called the "Republika Srpska" (Serb Republic) thought it's not actually a Republic seeing as its neither independent nor particularly democratic. The Croats live mainly in the Federation with the Muslims, but a lot of them want a territory of their own. The two territories, the Federation and the Republika Srpska, have no real border between them except that the signs suddenly change from the Latin to Cyrillic and the people get a bit more suspicious of Westerners (okay, a lot more suspicious--I was almost immediately scolded for taking a photo of the landscape with someone's farm in the foreground). In any case, it was interesting to finally see the side of this invisible border. I ventured over a few times but never into a settled area, and I was struck by how different it looked and felt.

Spent much of the run reviewing a few hundreds of the vocab words I'd taught myself over the past several weeks and only partially forgotten. This, combined with the fact that I was tired from yesterday's workout, meant that I was very slow, but still, it felt like a solid long run. Looking forward to trying to run more regularly (perhaps shorter) in the coming week.

Distance Duration Pace Interval Type Shoes
10.5 Miles