Never forget, perseverance is a four letter word!

So..The Trot was hot!!  No really, I was hot as...well...I was hot.  It was cold outside but listening to the advice of my lovely YOUNGER brother I had on too many layers.  I must say, right after stripping before the race started, I didn't think I was going to make it.  I trained hard for about 4 days total and didn't think my body was going to let me go the distance. 

I jogged straight almost to the one mile mark.  SURPRISED AS ALL H.E. DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS (um..that's "hell" if you didn't know)!!  (side note: Actually I have no idea if I jogged that far.  I think I did but it just doesn't seem possible that I made it that far without walking. Maybe I made it to the first block without walking, that seems more reasonable.  Back to the story...) I tried real hard to make it to the 1 mile marker but I couldn't hold out. As I approached the 2 mile mark I got excited because I knew that when we made it to the 3 mile mark, the race was more than half over.  It wasn't until the four mile mark that things changed.

I saw the wonderful 4 mile flag flapping in the breeze....it waved lovingly at me pushing me to jog harder.  I was so excited to pass by that beautiful number becuase I knew there would be no number five flag.  This was it.  The reason I was in this thing...to cross the finish line.  I pushed myself to jog harder, faster, knowing that the end was near.  I could mentally see the finish line and couldn't wait to actually see it view.  Well let me just tell you.  That was the longest .7 of a mile.  I swear if this weren't the internet and my future presidential bid wouldn't be tainted by this post, I would really tell you how I felt. I thought we made it to the end when I realized people weren't cutting over to the place where the finish line should have been.  There was still MORE of the race to run.

Well right about there I decided to just flip the whole thing off and go home.  Then I realized that my running mate was counting on me and most importantly I wouldn't have a ride home if I didn't get to the finish line and find my brother (a faster runner than myself).  So...I had to finish the freaking race. Apparently those memory muscles kicked in and I made it to the end.  All in all I had a respectable finish of 1:13 for my first non-training, non-running 8k. My ex-military (although such a thing doesn't exist) cousin told me I could do it in an hour.  I feel bad I let him down (sorry Andrew).  Next year it will be a different story.  As in I will either not run the trot or I will train for more than 4 days.  I will persevere, train and get ready.  I have some time to go before the Corporate Challenge next year.  I'll be jogging that one from start to finish.