"Slow and steady always gets you where you want to go.” -from The Tortoise & The HareOur 20 mile training run yesterday started well for one and all. Nothing unraveled until after approximately 18 miles.
Actually Maria, who wisely opted to run the reservoir twice, finished strong which I didn’t actually see since I (perhaps unwisely) stayed with the B group, who opted out of the 2nd reservoir loop, preferring the flat LG Creek Trail.
Overall, we did okay (though none of us were fast) until around 18 miles. At that point we had a conglomeration of calf pain (not me), abdominal issues (not me), and screaming knee pain (me). So, we looked like a group of hobblers and the running felt like slow motion. Actually it probably didn’t only “feel” like slow motion, I’m afraid it was.
But, still, we finished. Our times garner no bragging rights other than the fact that we accomplished the distance. It was just one of those days where it felt like we won the race simply because we didn’t quit.
But, just like the narrator tells Alexander in Judith Viorst’s children’s classic, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: “Some days are just like that...Even in Australia.”
“It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.” -George Sheehan
