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February 15, 2010 (Monday)
Post-session
The pain. The pain. I can barely stand/walk. It's a beautiful day, so of course I had to do my usual thing notwithstanding my condition.
Did BM's and M's and could barely get to my feet and do any turns. I'm severely beat up.
You see, for the entire time before the race beginning from the moment I committed to participating to the millisecond prior to the start, I had absolutely no doubt that I was going to walk the entire course. How else could I do it? After all, arthritis and poor conditioning prevented me from doing otherwise, correct?
And what subsequently happened simply reminded me of two things I take to be some of the facts of existence: (1) the future is truly unknowable and unpredictable, and (2) every person's life, in every aspect, is based on choice. I ran. Almost all the way.
Well, not ran in the sense that everyone else runs. More like slow jog. Very slow. So slow that some people who were walking were going faster. But I didn't walk except for some episodes of about 1-5 minutes. It. Was. Brutal.
The first mile marker that you see is three. They don't have one or two. Three. It's a cruel joke. My spirit and will to endure just about crumbled right there. But I would not be defeated in my quest to finish. The span between mile markers four and five were the most challenging and were when my desire was at its lowest.
What's funny is that some friends from work who i thought were behind me were already lounging at the tailgate party enjoying refreshments when I arrived. How'd they do that? I was one of the last to finish from my group. But I was happy to make it.
Posted at 10:38 PM